d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk. K. 2005. Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: Evidence for symbolic behaviour in the Middle Stone Age. Journal of Human Evolution 48:3-24. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Journal of Human …, 2005
Since 1991, excavations at Blombos Cave have yielded a well-preserved sample of faunal and cultural material in Middle Stone Age (MSA) levels. The uppermost MSA phase, M1, is dated to c. 75 ka by optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence, and the middle M2 phase to a provisional c. 78 ka. Artefacts unusual in a MSA context from these phases include bifacial points, bone tools, engraved ochre and engraved bone. In this paper, we describe forty-one marine tick shell beads recovered from these MSA phases and tick shell beads from Later Stone Age (LSA) levels at Blombos Cave and the Die Kelders site. Thirty-nine shell beads come from the upper M1 phase and two from M2. Morphometric, taphonomic and microscopic analysis of modern assemblages of living and dead tick shell demonstrate that the presence of perforated Nassarius kraussianus shells in the Blombos MSA levels cannot be due to natural processes or accidental transport by humans. The types of perforation seen on the MSA shells are absent on modern accumulations of dead shells and not attributable to post-depositional damage. Their location, size, and microscopic features are similar to those obtained experimentally by piercing the shell wall, through the aperture, with a sharp bone point. Use-wear, recorded on the perforation edge, the outer lip, and the parietal wall of the aperture indicates the shells having being strung and worn. MSA shell beads differ significantly in size, perforation type, wear pattern and shade compared to LSA beads and this eliminates the possibility of mixing across respective levels.
Possible shell beads from the Middle Stone Age layers of Sibudu Cave, South Africa
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2008
Recent excavations at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, uncovered an Iron Age horizon below which is a complex 3 m thick Middle Stone Age sequence with post-Howiesons Poort, Howiesons Poort, Still Bay and pre-Still Bay layers. Available OSL ages indicate that the Howiesons Poort occupation is older than 60 ky and the Still Bay older than 70 ky. Here we present the archaeological context and the taphonomic analysis of six Afrolittorina africana, three of which bear perforations, from the Still Bay and Howiesons Poort layers of this site. The single specimen from the latter cultural horizon comes from the lowermost layer attributed to this technocomplex. This and the depositional context of this layer suggest that this shell derives, as do the other five, from the Still Bay occupation layers. Taphonomic analysis of the archaeological specimens based on present day Afrolittorina africana biocoenoses, microscopic examination, morphometry, experimental perforation of modern shells, and a review of the natural agents that may accumulate marine shells at inland sites, indicate probable human involvement in the collection, transport, modification, and abandonment of Afrolittorina africana in Sibudu. If confirmed by future discoveries these shells would corroborate the use of personal ornaments, already attested at Blombos Cave, Western Cape Province, by Still Bay populations. The apparent absence of ornaments at Howiesons Poort sites raises the question of the mechanisms that have led to cultural modernity since it seems to contradict the scenario according to which cultural innovations recorded at Middle Stone Age sites reflect a process of continuous accretion and elaboration interpreted as the behavioural corollary of the emergence of anatomically modern humans.
Shell Beads of the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic: A review of the earliest record
BEAUTY AND THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER Personal adornments across the millennia, 2020
Cover: Dan Iulian Mărgărit Photo cover: Bone piece with a ringlike morphology from the necropolis of Sultana-Valea Orbului (Romania) and Spondylus beads from the necropolis of Urziceni-Vamă (Romania) (photos: Monica Mărgărit) Descrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a României Beauty and the eye of the beholder : personal adornments across the millennia / edited by Monica Mărgărit and Adina Boroneanţ. -Târgovişte : Cetatea de scaun, 2020 Conţine bibliografie ISBN 978-606-537-461-4 I. Mărgărit, Monica (ed.) II. Boroneanţ, Adina (ed.) 903
Shell Beads Among the Neutral and Their Ancestors
KEWA Newsletter of the London Chapter Ontario Archaeological Society, 2020
Shell-bead data recovered from both domestic and mortuary sites in Southwestern Ontario will be examined concerning trends in both style and function during the millennium preceding A.D. 1650. Most information derives from rescue and salvage excavations undertaken by the government of Ontario over the last decade. Special emphasis will be on the florescent period of shell-bead use among the Neutral, from the mid-sixteenth century until the time of their dispersal (Hayes and Ceci 1988: 205).
Colour plays an eminent role in beadwork. Colour modifications are reported on early shell beads from Middle Stone Age sites. However, identifying the colouring agent and demonstrating the intentional nature of the colouring process is not straightforward. Here, we provide analytical data on colour and structural modifications observed on Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) collected in modern thanatocoenoses and on shells of the same species experimentally heated in oxidizing and reductive atmospheres. Comparison with Nk shell beads from the 72 ka old Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa, and contextual analysis of other malacological remains from the same levels that were not used as ornaments identify the mechanisms responsible for the change of colour in modern Nk thanatocoenoses and heated shells, and show that although some Nk shell beads were heated, intentional heat treatment of shell beads is not demonstrated.
Early archaeological evidence for symbolically-mediated behaviour, which is our ability to create and share coded information between and within groups, comes from the African Middle Stone Age. Nassarius kraussianus shell beads, discovered in the Late Pleistocene, Still Bay archaeological deposits at Blombos Cave, Western Cape, South Africa, are some of the worlds earliest personal ornaments and their discovery significantly pushed back the origins of complex human symbolling. Further analyses of these beads led to the hypothesis that stringing arrangements at Blombos Cave changed through time, with important implications for the development and maintenance of social norms and style in early human populations. This hypothesis was supported by qualitative comparisons of archaeological and experimental wear distributions. Here, we present the results of a quantitative approach, applying a modified edge damage distribution method and statistical modelling to published diagrams (Vanhaeren et al. 2013, Journal of Human Evolution 64, 500-517) of wear on N. kraussianus shell beads. Our results support the original findings that different beading arrangements result in different wear distributions, and that the wear distributions on Blombos Cave beads exhibit temporal variability. However, our results vary with respect to which stringing arrangements best match the archaeological samples. Furthermore, we conclude that a combination of multiple processes may best explain the archaeological wear distributions, a finding more congruent with a long and complicated life history of curated objects like beads. These findings add to a growing record of early human social behaviours, and contribute methodologically to use-wear analyses of personal ornaments recovered from the archaeological record.
Archaeometry, 2013
Colour plays an eminent role in beadwork. Colour modifications are reported on early shell beads from Middle Stone Age sites. However, identifying the colouring agent and demonstrating the intentional nature of the colouring process is not straightforward. Here, we provide analytical data on colour and structural modifications observed on Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) collected in modern thanatocoenoses and on shells of the same species experimentally heated in oxidizing and reductive atmospheres. Comparison with Nk shell beads from the 72 ka old Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa, and contextual analysis of other malacological remains from the same levels that were not used as ornaments identify the mechanisms responsible for the change of colour in modern Nk thanatocoenoses and heated shells, and show that although some Nk shell beads were heated, intentional heat treatment of shell beads is not demonstrated.
Archaeometry, 2013
Colour plays an eminent role in beadwork. Colour modifications are reported on early shell beads from Middle Stone Age sites. However, identifying the colouring agent and demonstrating the intentional nature of the colouring process is not straightforward. Here, we provide analytical data on colour and structural modifications observed on Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) collected in modern thanatocoenoses and on shells of the same species experimentally heated in oxidizing and reductive atmospheres. Comparison with Nk shell beads from the 72 ka old Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave, South Africa, and contextual analysis of other malacological remains from the same levels that were not used as ornaments identify the mechanisms responsible for the change of colour in modern Nk thanatocoenoses and heated shells, and show that although some Nk shell beads were heated, intentional heat treatment of shell beads is not demonstrated.