title: 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior.
abstract: 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 approximately 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.
authors.affiliation: Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine, 10001 Rabat, Morocco.
authors.forename: Abdeljalil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouzouggar
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Barton
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vanhaeren
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: d'Errico
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Collcutt
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Higham
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hodge
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parfitt
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rhodes
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Schwenninger
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Stringer
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Turner
authors.forename: Steven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ward
authors.forename: Abdelkrim
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moutmir
authors.forename: Abdelhamid
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stambouli
mesh_terms: D000352:Africa, Northern; D000818:Animals; D001106:Archaeology; D003469:Culture; D005290:Ferric Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D005580:Fossils; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D010860:Pigments, Biological; D012908:Snails; D013561:Symbolism
chemical_list: D005290:Ferric Compounds; D010860:Pigments, Biological; C000499:ferric oxide