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Science 23 June 2006:
Vol. 312. no. 5781, pp. 1785 - 1788
DOI: 10.1126/science.1128139
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Reports

Middle Paleolithic Shell Beads in Israel and Algeria

Marian Vanhaeren,1* Francesco d'Errico,2* Chris Stringer,3 Sarah L. James,4 Jonathan A. Todd,3 Henk K. Mienis5

Perforated marine gastropod shells at the western Asian site of Skhul and the North African site of Oued Djebbana indicate the early use of beads by modern humans in these regions. The remoteness of these sites from the seashore and a comparison of the shells to natural shell assemblages indicate deliberate selection and transport by humans for symbolic use. Elemental and chemical analyses of sediment matrix adhered to one Nassarius gibbosulus from Skhul indicate that the shell bead comes from a layer containing 10 human fossils and dating to 100,000 to 135,000 years ago, about 25,000 years earlier than previous evidence for personal decoration by modern humans in South Africa.

1 Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, University College London, 31–34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, UK. Ethnologie Préhistorique, CNRS UMR 7041, 21 Allée de l'Université, F-92023 Nanterre, France.
2 Institut de Préhistoire et de Géologie du Quaternaire, CNRS UMR 5199, Avenue des Facultés, 33405 Talence, France; and Department of Anthropology, George Washington University, Washington, DC.
3 Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
4 Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, London SW7 5BD, UK.
5 Department of Zoology, Tel Aviv University, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: m.vanhaeren{at}ucl.ac.uk (M.V.); f.derrico{at}ipgq.u-bordeaux1.fr (F.D.)

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Out of Africa: Modern Human Origins Special Feature: Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa.
F. d'Errico, M. Vanhaeren, N. Barton, A. Bouzouggar, H. Mienis, D. Richter, J.-J. Hublin, S. P. McPherron, and P. Lozouet (2009)
PNAS 106, 16051-16056
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Out of Africa: Modern Human Origins Special Feature: Human origins: Out of Africa.
I. Tattersall (2009)
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From the Cover: Green stone beads at the dawn of agriculture.
D. E. Bar-Yosef Mayer and N. Porat (2008)
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Neuroscience, evolution and the sapient paradox: the factuality of value and of the sacred.
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Phil Trans R Soc B 363, 2041-2047
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From the Cover: 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior.
A. Bouzouggar, N. Barton, M. Vanhaeren, F. d'Errico, S. Collcutt, T. Higham, E. Hodge, S. Parfitt, E. Rhodes, J.-L. Schwenninger, et al. (2007)
PNAS 104, 9964-9969
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