Ancient Shell Beads tell a Story!

September 3, 2009 at 8:29 am | Uncategorized

Here is a  fantasic recent piece of archaeolgy  about beads from centuries ago.

Shell beads newly unearthed from four sites in Morocco confirm early humans were consistently wearing and making jewellery as early as 80,000 years ago.

A team of researchers recovered 25 marine shell beads dating back to around 70,000 to 85,000 years ago from sites in Morocco, as part of a European Science Foundation EUROCORES programme ‘Origin of Man. The shells have man-made holes through the centre and some show signs of pigment and prolonged wear, suggesting they were worn as jewellery.

“Either people went to sea and collected them, or more likely marine shell beads helped create and maintain exchange networks between coastal and inland peoples. This shows well-structured human culture that attributed meaning to these things,” said Francesco d’Errico, lead author and director of research.

For the full paper  on ancient beads, jewellery making and trading look at the cordis news site.

For our up to date shell beads in bright fuchsia as well as more natural finishes look on our “shell beads page”

Bright Pink Shell Discs