Early Middle Stone Age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

Authors

Contributors

Institut National des Sciences de l'Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP); Laboratoire méditerranéen de préhistoire Europe-Afrique (LAMPEA); Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Ministère de la Culture (MC); University of Arizona; Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen = University of Tübingen; Department of Human Evolution Leipzig; Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig; Max-Planck-Gesellschaft-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft; Department of Anthropology Havard University; Harvard University; University of Oklahoma (OU); Georg-August-University = Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; University of Sheffield Sheffield; University of California (UC); Centre National de l'Energie des Sciences et des Techniques Nucléaires (CNESTEN); Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC); Universidad de Cádiz = University of Cádiz (UCA); Aix Marseille Université (AMU); Collège de France (CdF (institution)); Université Hassan II Casablanca (UH2MC); Programme PASSAGE (International Emerging Action-CNRS); Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine (INSAP, Rabat, Maroc); Université de Sheffield (Royaume-Uni); Université d'Arizona (Tucson, USA); ChroMed (N°ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02, N°10-LABX-0090); Université Hassan II Casablanca-Mohammedia (Maroc); Centre National de l'Energie des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires (CNESTEN, Maroc); département d’Anthropologie de l’Université d’Harvard (Etats-Unis); Institut Max Planck d'anthropologie évolutive de Leipzig (Allemagne); Université de Tübingen (Allemagne); Université de Las Palmas (Espagne); ANR-11-IDEX-0001,Amidex,INITIATIVE D'EXCELLENCE AIX MARSEILLE UNIVERSITE(2011) + 31

Publisher

HAL CCSD; American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Abstract

International audience ; Ornaments such as beads are among the earliest signs of symbolic behavior among human ancestors. Their appearance signals important developments in both cognition and social relations. This paper describes and presents contextual information for 33 shell beads from Bizmoune Cave (southwest Morocco). Many of the beads come as deposits dating to ≥142 thousand years, making them the oldest shell beads yet recovered. They extend the dates for the first appearance of this behavior into the late Middle Pleistocene. The ages and ubiquity of beads in Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in North Africa provide further evidence of the potential importance of these artifacts as signals of identity. The early and continued use of Tritia gibbosula and other material culture traits also suggest a remarkable degree of cultural continuity among early MSA Homo sapiens groups across North Africa.