Ancient beads may be world's oldest jewelry

A new scientific study suggests that jewelers are part of a profession that is very old indeed. Ancient beads that were previously discovered at sites in western Asia and North Africa may represent the first attempt by human beings to decorate themselves, a new report says.

Photo: Ancient beads may be world's oldest jewelry

The study, published in Science magazine, reports that ancient gastropod shells that were collected previously from two inland sites appear to have been made into jewelry, reports National Jeweler.

An international team of archaeologists reported its analysis of small shells with distinctive perforations that appeared to have been strung together as ornamental beads. Chemical study showed that the two shells from the Skhul rock shelter in Israel were more than 100,000 years old, and the single shell from Oued Djebbana, in Algeria, was about 90,000 years old.

Three shells may not be much to go on, the archaeologists conceded. But they emphasized that the shells were from the same genus of marine snail and were worked in the same manner as those from the Blombos Cave, near Cape Town in South Africa, which were reported two years ago as the earliest jewelry, dated at 75,000 years ago.

The Blombos find was hotly contested because of a lack of corroborating evidence from other sites.

The archaeologists also pointed out that the Israeli and Algerian sites were so far from the seashore that the shells were most likely brought there intentionally for beadworking. A study of modern shells of similar snails, they noted, determined that the chances that the holes occurred naturally were extremely small, informs New York Times.

According to Half Life Source, Alison Brooks, head of the anthropology department at George Washington University, said the new find reinforces that behaviors developed gradually.

That this find is older than the beads uncovered in South Africa "does not surprise me," she said in a telephone interview. "There were no revolutions in human behavior; there was a gradual accumulation of behaviors."

The perforated shells from Blombos in South Africa and those now coming to light are of the same genus, Nassarius, she noted.

"So, the question is, is this a single cultural tradition? Probably not," she concluded. "Clearly it's learned behavior."