The man in me is saying that some poor sap probably hunted and field dressed oodles of opossums in the dreary, dank soon-to-be-UK climate and sold them at the local trading market just to be able to afford this prized necklace. And then she no doubt left him for a... hairy (red, mind you) yet sensitive Neanderthal!!!!
But I'm just guessing.
You mean, that after being dragged by her hair to his cave, she spent years with him - bearing him a passle of thrals, picking up his bearskins and dirty loin cloth off the dirt floor of the cave every day, cooking possum for dinner at least a hundred times in tha past year, he gave a fancy necklace to some red haired Neanderthal because she was new and exciting and he wanted to impress her, - lol
Possums are native to North America, not Britain. The paleolithic man in question no doubt killed stoats, badgers and foxes instead.