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82,000-Year-Old Shell Beads from North Africa and Implications for the Origins of Modern Human Behavior

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82,000-Year-Old Shell Beads from North Africa and Implications for the Origins of Modern Human Behavior 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior Abdeljalil Bouzouggara, Nick Bartonb,c, Marian Vanhaerend,e, Francesco d’Erricof,g, Simon Collcutth, Tom Highami, Edward Hodgej, Simon Parfittk,l, Edward Rhodesm, Jean-Luc Schwenningeri, Chris Stringerk, Elaine Turnern, Steven Wardo, Abdelkrim Moutmirp, and Abdelhamid Stamboulip aInstitut National des Sciences de l’Arche´ologie et du Patrimoine, 10001 Rabat, Morocco; bInstitute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2PG, United Kingdom; dEthnologie Pre´historique, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unite´Mixte de Recherche 7041 ArScAn, F-92023 Nanterre, France; eCentre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom; fInstitut de Pre´histoire et de Ge´ologie du Quaternaire, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unite´Mixte de Recherche 5199, PACEA, F-33405 Talence, France; gDepartment of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052; hOxford Archaeological Associates Ltd., Oxford OX4 1LH, United Kingdom; iResearch Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; jSchool of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1SS, United Kingdom; kNatural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom; lInstitute of Archaeology, University College London, London WC1H 0PY, United Kingdom; mResearch Schools of Earth Sciences and of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra 0200 ACT, Australia; nRo¨misch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (RGZM), Forschungsbereich Altsteinzeit, 56567 Neuwied, Germany; oCentre for the Environment, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom; and pLaboratoire des Recherches d’Analyses Techniques et Scientifiques de la Gendarmerie Royale, 10001 Rabat, Morocco Communicated by Erik Trinkaus, Washington University, St. Louis, MO, April 28, 2007 (received for review March 23, 2007) The first appearance of explicitly symbolic objects in the archaeo- rences in southwest Asia and North Africa (11). In addition, logical record marks a fundamental stage in the emergence of unresolved evidence for bead use comes from the Ϸ100-ka modern social behavior in Homo. Ornaments such as shell beads Mousterian levels at Qafzeh Cave in Israel where four water- represent some of the earliest objects of this kind. We report on worn Glycymeris spp. shells with natural perforations are inter- examples of perforated Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads from preted as beads, or alternatively, pigment containers (12). Grotte des Pigeons (Taforalt, Morocco), North Africa. These marine The finds from Blombos consist of 41 Nassarius kraussianus shells come from archaeological levels dated by luminescence and marine tick shells that had been perforated intentionally, bear uranium-series techniques to Ϸ82,000 years ago. They confirm traces of use, and come from Middle Stone Age (MSA) phase M1 evidence of similar ornaments from other less well dated sites in of the sedimentary sequence that has been dated by optically North Africa and adjacent areas of southwest Asia. The shells are stimulated luminescence (OSL) and thermoluminescence (TL) to of the same genus as shell beads from slightly younger levels at Ϸ75,000 years (13, 14). Sediments of phase M1 also contain two Blombos Cave in South Africa. Wear patterns on the shells imply pieces of engraved red ochre (13), elaborated bone tools (15), and that some of them were suspended, and, as at Blombos, they were 400 bifacially flaked points of the Still Bay industry (14). covered in red ochre. These findings imply an early distribution of The three shells from Skhul and Oued Djebbana belong to bead-making in Africa and southwest Asia at least 40 millennia Nassarius gibbosulus and display, as in the Blombos beads, a before the appearance of similar cultural manifestations in Europe. central perforation that is found only rarely in naturally occur- ring shells (11). Although apparently well related to archaeo- anatomically modern humans ͉ Nassarius shells ͉ modern behavior ͉ logical deposits, there still is uncertainty over their dating and Middle Palaeolithic ͉ optically stimulated luminescence interpretation. Concerns over Skhul findings arise from the observation that the stratigraphic positions of the two Nassarius lthough major interest in human evolutionary studies sur- shells never were explicitly recorded in the original excavations Arounds the appearance and dispersal of anatomically mod- (16). However, it has been inferred from the chemical compo- ern humans, an equally far-reaching but more contentious issue sition of sediments adhering to the Nassarius shells that they concerns the origins of culturally modern behavior (1, 2). come from the same context (layer B) as the one that yielded Despite growing evidence that humans of anatomically modern remains of anatomically modern humans (17) with age deter- form originated in Africa Ͼ150,000 years ago (3–5), there still is minations ranging from 100,000 to 135,000 years (18). The considerable controversy over precisely when and how humans stratigraphic position of the single Nassarius shell from Oued attained physical and cultural modernity (6) and how such Djebbana is even more ambiguous because it comes from a 0.80- concepts can be diagnosed (3, 7–9). Regardless of whether to 1.0-m thick archaeological layer in an open-air location that behavioral changes were abrupt or accumulated gradually (5, 6), was excavated in the 1940s (19). The finds consisted of a Middle a common proxy for this process is the occurrence of personal Paleolithic Levallois industry with Aterian pedunculate points ornaments, considered by many authors as tangible signs of but also Upper Paleolithic forms (19). Nevertheless, the site symbolic material cultures (1–2, 7–10). Establishing when and where such items first appeared in the archaeological record is therefore of great interest. Of course the presence of ornaments Author contributions: A.B., N.B., M.V., F.d., S.C., and C.S. designed research; A.B., N.B., M.V., F.d., S.C., T.H., E.H., S.P., E.R., J.-L.S., C.S., E.T., S.W., A.M., and A.S. performed research; A.B., in the archaeological record does not necessarily reflect when N.B., M.V., F.d., S.C., T.H., E.H., S.P., E.R., J.-L.S., C.S., E.T., S.W., A.M., and A.S. analyzed data; the capacity for that behavior first evolved. However, it does and A.B., N.B., M.V., F.d., S.C., E.H., S.P., E.R., J.-L.S., C.S., E.T., and S.W. wrote the paper. signify when the capacity for such behavior became embodied in The authors declare no conflict of interest. long-lasting material culture and arguably was transmitted from Abbreviations: MSA, Middle Stone Age; OSL, optically stimulated luminescence; TL, generation to generation. thermoluminescence. Until recently, the oldest worked shell beads were those cTo whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: [email protected]. reported from Blombos, South Africa (2, 10), but further This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/ examples now have been described for Oued Djebbana, Algeria, 0703877104/DC1. and Skhul, Israel, raising the possibility of even earlier occur- © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA 9964–9969 ͉ PNAS ͉ June 12, 2007 ͉ vol. 104 ͉ no. 24 www.pnas.org͞cgi͞doi͞10.1073͞pnas.0703877104 Downloaded by guest on October 1, 2021 WEST (interior) EAST 1 12.9 kyr 24 17.4 kyr 9 A 2 19.3 kyr 7 14.6 kyr [24.6] kyr 25 19.1 kyr 3 16.6 kyr 8 26.7 kyr B 10 13 25.1 kyr 21.7 kyr 4 12 20.2 kyr [19.0] kyr 5 25.8 kyr 11 16 6 29.7 kyr 50.7 kyr 29.5 kyr 14 44.3 kyr C 37.4 kyr 26 15 17 48.6 kyr 54.9 kyr E D 60.1 kyr 18 19 60.3 kyr 21 84.5 kyr 20 73.5 kyr 28 22 [108.7] kyr 27 85.5 kyr 70.3 kyr 103.8 kyr 23 29 94.8 kyr 30 93.9 kyr Fig. 1. Schematic stratigraphy with the position of N. gibbosulus marine shell beads and dates. Bold lines indicate erosive unconformities at sediment group boundaries. Dashed lines indicate selected in-group bedding planes. Gray fill indicates principal floor speleothems. (A) Gray series including anthropogenic cut features (ashy stony beds). (B and C) Upper Laminated group including Yellow series (finely and continuously laminated silty to fine sandy loams and finest scree with some finer partings, cf. Raynal Niveaux 1–11), upper and lower subgroups. (D) Pink group (stony, patchily cemented loams, traces only of lamination but some scour structures, minor speleothem at summit, cf. Raynal Niveaux 12–15). (E) Lower Laminated group (coarsely laminated often ashy silty to sandy loams, cf. Raynal Niveaux 16–23). (F) Calcareous group (interstratified floor speleothem and clayey to sandy loams, cf. Raynal Niveaux 24–32?). Full dating details and superscripted serial numbers are given in SI Table 2. Numbers in brackets indicate that the values are problematical (see text). ‚,C14; e, OSL; E, TL; ᭛, .Nassarius shells ,ء ;uranium-series ANTHROPOLOGY apparently was sealed beneath 3.9 m of sterile alluvial sediments, a large entrance opening to the northeast, has a floor area within and the faunal components in the archaeological layer included the drip line of Ͼ400 m2. Today the site lies Ϸ40 km from the large mammals indicative of more humid, and possibly savannah- Mediterranean coast and at an altitude of 720 m above sea level. like, conditions than at present (19). Landsnails from the layer It currently is within the ‘‘thermo-Mediterranean’’ biozone (22) provided an infinite radiocarbon date of Ͼ35,000 years (20). and has a local vegetation cover dominated by Tetraclinis articu- The Glycymeris shells from Qafzeh bear a perforation on the lata and Pinus halepensis, together with evergreen oak.
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