Button, ornamental: Buttons—made
from seashell—were used in the Indus
Valley Civilization for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.[1] Some
buttons were carved into geometric shapes and had holes pieced into them so that
they could attached to clothing by using a thread.[1] Ian
McNeil (1990) holds that: "The button, in fact, was originally used more as an
ornament than as a fastening, the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in
the Indus
Valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old