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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
general
82,000-Year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 104, No. 24, Year 2007
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Description
The first appearance of explicitly symbolic objects in the archaeological record marks a fundamental stage in the emergence of modern social behavior in Homo. Ornaments such as shell beads represent some of the earliest objects of this kind. We report on examples of perforated Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads from Grotte des Pigeons (Taforalt, Morocco), North Africa. These marine shells come from archaeological levels dated by luminescence and uranium-series techniques to ≈ 82,000 years ago. They confirm evidence of similar ornaments from other less well dated sites in North Africa and adjacent areas of southwest Asia. The shells are of the same genus as shell beads from slightly younger levels at Blombos Cave in South Africa. Wear patterns on the shells imply that some of them were suspended, and, as at Blombos, they were covered in red ochre. These findings imply an early distribution of bead-making in Africa and southwest Asia at least 40 millennia before the appearance of similar cultural manifestations in Europe. © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1891266/bin/pnas_0703877104_index.html
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1891266/bin/pnas_0703877104_1.pdf
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1891266/bin/pnas_0703877104_2.pdf
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1891266/bin/pnas_0703877104_3.pdf
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1891266/bin/pnas_0703877104_4.pdf
Authors & Co-Authors
Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil
Morocco, Agdal Rabat
Institut National Des Sciences de L'archéologie et du Patrimoine
Barton, Nick R.N.E.
United Kingdom, Oxford
University of Oxford
Vanhaeren, Marian
France, Paris
Cnrs Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
United Kingdom, London
University College London
d'Errico, Francesco
France, Pessac
De la Préhistoire à L'actuel : Culture, Environnement et Anthropologie
United States, Washington, D.c.
The George Washington University
Collcutt, Simon N.
United Kingdom, Oxford
Oxford Archaeological Associates Ltd.
Higham, Thomas F.G.
United Kingdom, Oxford
Oxford Social Sciences Division
Hodge, Edward
United Kingdom, Bristol
University of Bristol
Parfitt, Simon A.
United Kingdom, London
The Natural History Museum, London
United Kingdom, London
University College London
Rhodes, Edward
Australia, Canberra
The Australian National University
Schweninger, Jean Luc
United Kingdom, Oxford
Oxford Social Sciences Division
Stringer, Chris Brian Rian
United Kingdom, London
The Natural History Museum, London
Turner, Elaine
Germany, Neuwied
Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit
Ward, Steven
United Kingdom, Oxford
University of Oxford
Moutmir, Abdelkrim
Morocco, Agdal Rabat
Laboratoire de Recherches et D'analyses Techniques et Scientifiques de la Gendarmerie Royale
Stambouli, Abdelhamid
Morocco, Agdal Rabat
Laboratoire de Recherches et D'analyses Techniques et Scientifiques de la Gendarmerie Royale
Statistics
Citations: 479
Authors: 15
Affiliations: 13
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1073/pnas.0703877104
ISSN:
00278424
Study Locations
Multi-countries
Morocco
South Africa