Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Journal of Human Evolution
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol
Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle
Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Marian Vanhaeren a, *, Francesco d’Errico a, b, Karen L. van Niekerk b, Christopher S. Henshilwood b, c,
Rudolph M. Erasmus d
a
Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Equipe Préhistoire, Paléoenvironnement, Patrimoine, Avenue des Facultés, F-33405 Talence, France
Institute for Archaeology, History, Culture and Religious Studies, University of Bergen, Øysteinsgate 3, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
Institute for Human Evolution, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
d
School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
b
c
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 25 November 2011
Accepted 1 February 2013
Available online xxx
Here we report on newly identified beads recovered from four Middle Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave
and, in particular, on a cluster of 24 perforated Nassarius kraussianus shells that probably originate from a
single beadwork. Contextual information, morphometric, technological and use-wear analysis of the 68
published beads and those recently found, coupled with experimental reproduction of wear patterns,
allow us to reconstruct the most probable way in which the N. kraussianus shells were strung. The results
reveal unexpected regularities but also variability through the various levels that we interpret as
resulting from changes in beadwork manufacture and design over time. The Blombos Cave beads may
document one of the first examples of changes in social norms affecting the production and design of
symbolic material culture.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Nassarius kraussianus
Beadwork
Symbolism
Morphometry
Use-wear
Still Bay
Research background
In the past decade, personal ornaments have played a central
role in the debate on the origin of behavioural modernity and
language (Ambrose, 1998; McBrearty and Brooks, 2000; Kuhn et al.,
2001; Henshilwood and Marean, 2003; d’Errico, 2003; d’Errico
et al., 2003; Wadley, 2001, 2003; Vanhaeren, 2005; Chase, 2006;
Kuhn and Stiner, 2006, 2007; White, 2007; Zilhão, 2007; Botha,
2008; Klein, 2008; Henshilwood and Dubreuil, 2009; d’Errico and
Vanhaeren, 2007, 2009). Beads represent a behaviour specific to
humans whereby standardized items are displayed on the physical
body to project symbolic meaning that can be interpreted by
members of the same or other groups that share a common culture.
For this reason, early instances of bead use are generally regarded
as evidence for the existence of complex communication systems
(Henshilwood and Dubreuil, 2009, 2011; but see; Botha, 2008;
Wynn and Coolidge, 2007).
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: [email protected] (M. Vanhaeren),
[email protected] (F. d’Errico), [email protected] (K.L. van
Niekerk),
[email protected]
(C.S.
Henshilwood),
[email protected] (R.M. Erasmus).
Until recently, the first use of personal ornaments was thought
to occur with the arrival of Homo sapiens sapiens in Europe during
the Aurignacian period, some 40 ka (thousands of years ago)
(Taborin, 1993; White, 1993, 2001; Klein, 2000). Most scientists
now accept that marine shells were used as beads in the Near East,
North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa 30 ka earlier than their first
use in Europe (but see White, 2007; Alvarez Fernández and Jöris,
2008). Blombos Cave in South Africa (Henshilwood et al., 2004;
d’Errico et al., 2005), Qafzeh (Bar-Yosef Mayer et al., 2009) and
Skhul (Vanhaeren et al., 2006) in Israel, Oued Djebbana in Algeria
(Vanhaeren et al., 2006), Grotte des Pigeons, Rhafas, Ifri n’Ammar
and Contrebandiers in Morocco (Bouzouggar et al., 2007; d’Errico
et al., 2009), have all yielded evidence for the early use of personal ornaments. The perforated beads from Blombos Cave are
made from the shells of Nassarius kraussianus (Nk), a small
gastropod common in southern African estuaries, those from Qafzeh from Glycymeris insubrica bivalves, and those from the latter
seven sites from Nassarius gibbosulus and, possibly, Nassarius circumcinctus, a marine gastropod now restricted to the eastern
Mediterranean. A single perforated Columbella rustica is reported
from the Aterian levels of Ifri n’Ammar in Morocco (d’Errico et al.,
2009). The burial of a young individual associated with a perforated Conus sp. shell found in a Middle Stone Age (MSA) layer at
Border Cave dated to 76 ka Before Present (BP) may represent the
0047-2484/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
2
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 1. (a) Location of Blombos Cave (white dot) and modern reference collections of Nassarius kraussianus shells (orange dots); the designated sites are from left to right Olifants,
Duiwenhoks, Blombos Cave, Goukou, Kromme, Kowie, Gnunube, Cefane, Mngazana; colours correspond to present day sea-surface temperatures made available through the
Medspiration project (http://projets.ifremer.fr/cersat/Information/Projects/MEDSPIRATION2); (b) map of Blombos Cave with the excavated area indicated in white; (c) stratigraphy
of Blombos Cave in square H6 with available age ranges for the sequence and correlation with southern Africa sea-level (left) and temperature (right) changes (modified after Jacobs
et al., 2006; Beal et al., 2011).
first known instance of an ornament used as a grave good (Klein,
1989; Sillen and Morris, 1996; Miller et al., 1999; Grün and
Beaumont, 2001; Bird et al., 2003; Millard, 2006, d’Errico et al.,
2012; Villa et al., 2012). Five other sites have yielded less compelling evidence for early bead use. Six Afrolittorina africana, three of
which bear perforations, have recently been found in the Still Bay
layers at Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, dated to more
than 70 ka (d’Errico et al., 2008). Although taphonomic analysis of
the specimens, based on present day A. africana biocoenoses, indicates probable human involvement in the collection, modification, and abandonment of these shells at Sibudu, the sample size
and state of preservation does not confirm their use as beads.
Naturally perforated but still undescribed Glycymeris sp. shells in
Mousterian contexts are also present at Ras el Kelb Cave on the
Lebanese coast (Reese, 1998) and in Layer C of Sefunim rockshelter
in Israel (Lamdan, 1984).
No convincing personal ornaments are known thus far from
Africa and Eurasia for the period ca. 70 kae50 ka BP. The only
possible exceptions are the naturally perforated Acanthocardia
tuberculata and G. insubrica shells from Cueva de los Aviones in
southern Spain dated to approximately 50e45 ka BP (Zilhão et al.,
2010). Available radiometric dating for personal ornaments, in
particular ostrich eggshell beads from the early Later Stone Age
sites of Enkapune Ya Muto in Kenya (Ambrose, 1998), Mumba
(Gliganic et al., 2012), and Border Cave in South Africa (d’Errico
et al., 2012), a stone ring from the MSA of Zombepata Cave in
Zimbabwe (McBrearty and Brooks, 2000) and clusters of naturally
pierced opercula of the terrestrial gastropod Revoilia guillainopsis
from the MSA of Porc Epic Cave in Ethiopia (Assefa et al., 2008), are
younger than 49 ka BP. Some scholars argue that in Europe the
earliest personal ornaments are associated with both Neandertals
and H. sapiens (Hublin et al., 1996; d’Errico et al., 1998, 2003; Zilhão
et al., 2010; Caron et al., 2011). Others contend that beads attributed
to Neandertals are of unknown authorship (Bar-Yosef and Bordes,
2010; Higham et al., 2010), or were made by H. sapiens (Alvarez
Fernández and Jöris, 2008; White, 2007; Benazzi et al., 2011). Upper Palaeolithic beads, by contrast, differ from their 100e70 ka
antecedents in that they take the form of dozens of discrete types
identifying regional patterns (Vanhaeren and d’Errico, 2006). In
Asia, 11 Early Upper Palaeolithic (EUP) sites from Siberia and in
particular from the Altai and West Baikal have yielded personal
ornaments (Derevianko, 2005; Derevianko and Shunkov, 2005;
Derevianko and Rybin, 2005; Zwyns et al., 2011). Perforated red
deer canines, marine shells and a stone pendant are reported from
the Aurignacian layers of Yafteh, Iran, dated to ca. 35.5e33.0 ka 14C
BP (Otte et al., 2007). In Southeast Asia, the oldest ornament is a
perforated tiger shark tooth found in New Ireland, New Guinea, at a
site dated between 39.5e28.0 ka 14C BP (Leavesley, 2007). The
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
3
Table 1
Contextual and descriptive data on Nassarius kraussianus shell beads from the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave.
Number in
Fig. 3
Date of
excavation
MSA
phase
Level
Square
sub-square
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
2/2/1999
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
2/9/1998
1/28/1999
2/5/1999
2/6/1998
2/5/1997
2/6/1997
11/11/1997
11/11/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/7/1997
2/10/1997
2/10/1997
2/10/1997
2/10/1997
2/10/1997
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/6/1998
2/9/1998
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
2/16/2000
4/24/2002
4/24/2002
4/24/2002
4/24/2002
4/22/2002
4/15/2004
4/17/2002
4/20/2004
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M2
M2
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
M1
CAA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CA
CBA
CBA
CB
CB
CB
CB
CB
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CA-CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CFA
CF
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CC
CA
CD
F5c
E5b
E5b
E5b
E5b
F5a
E5
E5
F5a
F5a
F6b
F6a
E5b
F3
E2
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
E4
H5a
H5a
H5a
H5a
H5c
E4a
E5b
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H5c
H6b
H6b
H6b
H6b
H6b
I5c
H6b
I5c
Group
Height
(mm)
Width
(mm)
Perf height
(mm)
Perf width
(mm)
Perf
typeb
Use-wear
locationc
a
9.56
6.83
7.18
7.26
8.39
9.03
8.49
9.78
7.85
8.34
8.71
8.69
9.63
7.57
9.17
7.49
9.43
7.35
7.57
7.86
8.00
8.01
8.10
8.19
8.83
8.93
9.10
9.35
10.40
7.67
7.99
9.52
9.68
9.86
9.42
10.00
10.05
10.42
10.24
8.18
8.75
8.96
10.40
10.80
10.06
9.36
9.85
10.00
10.76
9.44
9.97
10.45
10.40
9.50
10.08
9.66
9.32
9.07
9.80
9.68
9.47
9.49
9.22
9.91
9.67
9.32
7.73
na
8.52
5.88
5.52
5.90
6.41
7.20
6.80
7.78
6.17
6.18
6.79
7.30
7.60
6.00
7.09
6.68
na
5.80
6.03
5.91
6.09
6.05
6.23
6.40
6.84
7.08
7.31
7.30
7.73
5.95
6.10
7.21
7.89
7.77
7.25
7.81
7.82
8.01
7.68
6.65
7.53
7.48
8.39
8.65
8.38
8.01
8.12
8.20
8.50
7.33
8.34
8.71
8.61
8.00
8.15
7.81
7.53
7.84
8.07
7.92
7.82
na
7.44
8.09
7.82
7.58
6.33
na
3.12
2.91
1.69
2.72
2.79
3.08
1.70
2.39
3.02
2.78
4.46
4.54
3.61
3.06
5.80
3.20
na
2.70
3.36
3.40
3.50
2.80
2.89
2.27
3.39
2.99
2.92
3.15
3.79
1.75
2.01
2.88
2.28
3.12
5.87
4.53
3.79
4.62
5.73
3.74
3.24
4.12
4.57
4.22
3.71
4.38
4.62
4.47
3.45
4.01
4.08
4.42
2.96
4.14
3.42
3.40
4.01
3.76
3.91
3.23
3.60
3.88
4.00
3.74
3.19
3.95
3.29
na
1.95
2.96
1.59
2.17
1.13
2.09
2.01
1.68
3.33
2.50
6.13
6.16
2.61
5.42
7.20
3.61
na
2.85
3.03
3.48
5.40
2.05
2.71
2.12
2.05
2.66
1.56
2.18
3.49
1.58
1.86
1.91
2.24
3.28
7.40
7.30
7.20
7.23
7.60
6.33
2.04
6.88
7.61
7.44
7.52
7.40
7.60
7.58
7.35
7.09
7.53
7.33
7.41
na
7.26
5.72
6.50
6.96
7.21
6.56
7.17
na
7.18
7.38
6.91
7.44
2.40
na
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
8
8
6
8
8
6
7
6
6
6
9
7
7
6
6
6
7
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
8
8
8
8
8
8
6
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
8
9
8
8
8
8
9
8
8
8
6
na
P, na, n, n
P, L, n, n
n, n, n, n
P, n, n, n
P, n, n, n
P, n, n, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, n, n
na, na, n, n
P, L, n, n
n, L, n, n
P, n, n, n
na, na, na, na
n, n, n, n
n, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
n, L, n, n
n, L, n, n
n, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
n, n, n, n
n, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, n, n
P, n, n, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, na, n, n
n, na, na, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, na, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
na, na, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, n
P, L, W, C
P, L, W, n
P, L, n, n
P, L, W, na
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
a
a
a
a
a
3
3
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
5
5
5
5
5
6
6
6
6
6
a
a
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
6
7
7
7
7
a
a
a
a
P ¼ perforation edge, L ¼ lip, W ¼ parietal wall, C ¼ columella, n ¼ none, na ¼ not applicable.
a
Isolated recovery.
b
Perforation types correspond to those defined in d’Errico et al., 2005. Type 6 ¼ unique medium size perforation located near the lip, Type 7 ¼ Type 6 plus small perforations due
to post-depositional damage, Type 8 ¼ large perforation extending from the lip towards the right edge, Type 9 ¼ Type 8 plus small perforations due to post-depositional damage.
c
Location of use-wear on P, L, W and C respectively.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
4
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 2. Ways in which Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) shell beads were strung during wear experiments: (a) knotting with floating shells, (b) continuous stringing with the same
orientation of Nk, (c) knotting with floating pairs of dorsally joining shells, (d) braiding with two strings, (e) knotting with floating pairs of ventrally joining shells, (f, g) continuous
stringing with alternate orientation of Nk. Scale bar ¼ 1 cm.
earliest evidence for bead use in Australia comes from the site of
Mandu Mandu, Cape Range of Western Australia, where 22 Conus
sp. shell beads were recovered in a layer dated to ca. 32 ka 14C BP
(Morse, 1993). In addition, 10 Dentalidae shell beads are reported
from the 30 ka old layers of Riwi in the Kimberly of Western
Australia, a site located 300 km inland (Balme and Morse, 2006).
The discovery of personal ornaments at African and Near
Eastern sites older than 45 ka BP contradicts a recent European
origin of bead making and use. However, it raises the question of
whether, due to their apparent simplicity, these early instances
reflect symbolic systems qualitatively comparable to those recorded in present day and historically known human societies or
whether they indicate different cognitive abilities (White, 2007;
Wynn and Coolidge, 2007; Klein, 2008). The latter hypothesis may
be supported by the evidence that no continuity or increasing
complexity is observed at present between the first bead traditions
and those developing after ca. 40 ka BP in Europe (d’Errico and
Vanhaeren, 2009); the former may also apply as we know that
some unquestionably modern societies in the past and present
have only used a limited number of bead types (Knocker, 1909;
Ambrose, 1998; Vanhaeren, 2005).
To test these alternative scenarios, we must gain a better understanding of the way the earliest beads were used and the degree
of cognitive and social complexity that this use implied. Research
on the earliest shell beads dated to 100e70 ka has focused on their
recognition as purposely made and used ornaments rather than on
understanding how they were arranged, how the message they
conveyed was transmitted, and if these behaviours changed
through time. Trans-cultural analysis of personal ornament use
indicates that bead type is but one factor that plays a role in
beadwork codes (Schoeman, 1983; Dubin, 1987, 1999; Sciama and
Eicher, 1998; Vanhaeren, 2005; White, 2007). Bead arrangement,
association, size, number, colour, and location on the body structure
the meaning projected by beadwork as much as the bead type does.
Lost or disposed beadwork represents virtually the only chance
Palaeolithic archaeologists have for gathering direct information on
the techniques and conventions involved in the early use and
manufacture of beadwork. In traditional societies, body ornamentation complies with strict internalised norms, which assists with
the maintenance of group cohesion, reinforcement of social rules,
and the transmission of cultural traits (Klumpp and Kratz, 1993).
The changing of norms in the symbolic domain is attested during
the Upper Palaeolithic of Europe (Leroi-Gourhan, 1965) but no
tangible trace of this change has been detected among MSA groups
associated with symbolically mediated behaviour.
In this paper, we report on newly identified beads recovered
from four MSA levels at Blombos Cave and, in particular, on a cluster
of 24 perforated Nk shells that probably originate from a single
beadwork. This enlarged bead collection displays variations in shell
size, perforation type, and use-wear pattern that reveal a change in
the way beads were strung over time. We argue that this change
reflects the advent of new social norms in the use of symbolic items.
Archaeological context
Blombos Cave is situated 20 km west of Still Bay in the
southern Cape, South Africa, and is some 100 m from the present
day shoreline (Fig. 1a). The cave has been periodically excavated
by one of the authors (C.S.H.) since 1991 (Fig. 1b). Excavations
have identified a stratigraphic sequence (Fig. 1c) with, from top to
bottom, 80 cm of Later Stone Age (LSA) deposit, an undisturbed
10e50 cm sterile aeolian dune sand (hiatus), and four MSA Phases
(M1, M2 upper, M2 lower and M3), each composed of a variable
number of clearly delimited levels (Henshilwood et al., 2001,
2002a,b, 2009; 2011; Jacobs et al., 2003a, 2003b, 2006, 2013;
Jacobs, 2004; Henshilwood, 2006, 2008a, 2008b; Henshilwood
and Dubreuil, 2009, 2011; Villa et al., 2009; Mourre et al., 2010;
Thompson and Henshilwood, 2011).
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
5
Figure 3. Perforated Nassarius kraussianus from the Middle Stone Age Phases M1 and M2 at Blombos Cave. Numbers refer to Table 1.
Principal markers of the M1 and M2 upper Phases are bifacial
foliate points typical of the Still Bay techno-tradition, manufactured
in some instances through heating and then pressure flaking
(Mourre et al., 2010), and used as spear points and knives (Lombard,
2005; Villa et al., 2009). Additional artefacts include fully shaped
bone tools used as awls and spear points (Henshilwood et al., 2001,
2002b; d’Errico and Henshilwood, 2007). Possible engravings on
bone (d’Errico and Henshilwood, 2007), consisting of parallel striations and sets of joining lines, come from the M1 and upper M2
Phases. Nassarius kraussianus shell beads were found only in the M1
and Upper M2 Phases (Henshilwood et al., 2004; d’Errico et al.,
2005). Two slabs of ochre engraved with geometric patterns
come from the M1 Phase (Henshilwood et al., 2002a). Additional
engraved ochre pieces come from the M1, M2 and M3 Phases
(Henshilwood et al., 2009). They feature parallel or joining lines
and criss-cross patterns of various types produced by single and
Table 2
Descriptive statistics of shell height recorded on archaeological Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, a living population of Nk
collected by sieving at the Duiwenhoks estuary, a hand-gathered modern thanatocoenosis from Goukou estuary, and a hand-gathered modern thanatocoenosis from
Sandvlei estuary (Muizenberg).
N
Blombos Cave
MSA levels
Duiwenhoks
estuarya
Goukou
estuaryb
Sandvlei (Muizenberg)
estuaryb
a
b
x
Shell height (mm)
S
Variance
Range
67
9.094
0.988
0.976
3.97
820
7.12
0.572
0.327
3.43
1506
7.029
0.634
0.402
3.83
301
8.032
0.755
0.570
3.85
Living population collected by sieving.
Hand-gathered modern thanatocoenosis.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
6
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 4. Height distribution of Nassarius kraussianus shells from the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave according to their stratigraphic provenance (left) and spatial
grouping (right). Drawing shows how shell height was measured.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
7
Figure 5. Correlation between mean shell height of Nassarius kraussianus shells from eight sub-tropical, warm- and cool-temperate South African estuaries (Mngazana, Cefane,
Gnunube, Kowie, Kromme, Goukou, Duiwenhoks, Olifants) and sea-surface temperature (a), salinity (b), dissolved oxygen (c), turbidity (d), tidal amplitude (e) and mean annual
runoff (f). Data on shell height after Teske et al. 2007 and this article; data for estuarine environment variables in (b) and (c) after Harrison, 2004, (a), (d) and (e) after Whitefield and
Bate, 2007.
multiple stroke motions, often on surfaces previously flattened by
grinding. The M2 lower Phase is a low intensity occupation without
Still Bay points and bone-tools. In the M3 Phase, there are fewer
retouched tools than in M1. Ochre pieces, often with traces of utilisation are present in all MSA layers and are particularly abundant
in the M3 Phase (Henshilwood et al., 2009). Two tool kits used for
the preparation and storage of a pigmented compound were
recovered from this Phase (Henshilwood et al., 2011).
The earliest LSA layers have been radiocarbon dated to 2 ka BP.
Multiple and single grain Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL),
and Thermoluminescence (TL) methods have provided dates for the
sterile sand layer lying on top of the MSA levels and for each of the
MSA Phases (Fig. 1c): ca. 70 ka BP for the sand layer, ca. 75e72 ka BP
for the M1 and upper M2 Phase, ca. 84 ka BP for the lower M2
Phase, and ca. 100 ka BP for the M3 Phase (Jones, 2001;
Henshilwood et al., 2002a,b; Jacobs et al., 2003a, 2003b, 2006,
2013; Tribolo, 2003; Jacobs, 2004; Tribolo et al., 2006; Thompson
and Henshilwood, 2011).
Research on the Blombos Cave site formation processes (Lenoble
and Tærud, 2011; Tærud, 2011), the taphonomy of faunal remains
(Thompson and Henshilwood, 2011; van Niekerk, 2011), and the
spatial distribution of diagnostic items and combustion features
(Haaland, 2012) indicate that post-depositional phenomena, although
present, have not significantly affected the distribution of artifacts
(Henshilwood, 2006; Jacobs et al., 2006). In particular, diagnostic artifacts recorded within each level systematically cluster around the
hearths and combustion features in spite of the fact that these features
change their location from level to level (Haaland, 2012). This implies
that artifact bearing levels record occupational events reflected in the
associated spatial patterns. Although the time span represented by
each level and associated cluster is difficult to evaluate, such patterns
demonstrate the broad stratigraphic integrity of the sequence and the
reduced impact of post-depositional phenomena.
Shell beads
Forty-one perforated adult Nk shells are reported from the Still
Bay levels of Blombos Cave (Henshilwood et al., 2004, d’Errico et al.,
2005). Thirty-nine Nk come from the M1 Phase (levels CA, CB, CC
and CD from top to bottom), and two derive from the upper M2
Phase (level CF) in an area where slumping of overlaying layers
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
8
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Table 3
Frequency of perforation types and descriptive statistics of perforation size recorded
on Blombos Middle Stone Age Nassarius kraussianus shells according to level and
spatial grouping.
Perforation type Perforation width (mm) Perforation height (mm)
6
7
8
9
x
S
x
S
Layer
CA
6
CAA
1
CB
3
CBA
2
CC
e
CF
1
CFA
e
CA-CC
14
Total
27
Group
1
7
2
2
3
1
4
8
5
5
6
e
7
e
Isolated 4
Total
27
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
4
4
e
e
2
e
28
e
1
2
33
e
e
e
e
2
e
e
1
3
2.057
1.950
4.146
1.845
7.191
2.040
6.330
2.671
4.743
0.636
e
1.852
0.233
0.409
e
e
0.954
2.430
2.747
3.120
3.682
2.045
4.068
3.240
3.740
2.887
3.467
0.557
e
0.806
0.488
0.670
e
e
0.524
0.859
e
e
1
3
e
e
e
e
4
e
e
e
e
e
23
2
8
33
e
e
e
e
1
1
1
e
3
1.947
2.915
3.610
2.562
2.174
7.185
7.175
4.979
4.743
0.573
0.587
e
0.188
0.296
0.095
0.005
0.677
2.430
2.469
2.900
3.200
3.060
2.408
4.143
3.600
3.631
3.467
0.568
0.170
e
0.416
0.578
0.688
e
0.519
0.859
occurred (d’Errico et al., 2005). An additional 27 beads from the M1
Phase have not yet been described.
Morphometric, taphonomic and microscopic analyses of
modern assemblages of living and dead Nk shells demonstrated
that the presence of perforated Nk shells in the Blombos Cave
MSA levels cannot be due to natural processes or accidental
transport by humans. The state of preservation of the shell surfaces and absence of evidence for predator attack indicates that
the shells were collected alive. The types of perforation seen on
the MSA shells are absent on modern accumulations of dead
shells and not attributable to post-depositional damage. Their
location, size, and microscopic features are similar to those obtained experimentally by piercing the shell wall, through the
aperture, with a sharp bone point. Use-wear, recorded on the
perforation edge, the outer lip, and the parietal wall of the
aperture indicates the shells were strung and worn. Microscopic
traces of ochre were recorded inside and on the outer layer of four
shells. Middle Stone Age shell beads differ significantly in size,
perforation type, wear pattern and shade compared with LSA
beads and this eliminates the possibility of mixing across
respective levels (d’Errico et al., 2005).
Thirty-one of the 41 already published beads were found in
six groups (1e6) of two to 12 beads, each group being recovered
in a single square (1 1 m) or in two adjacent sub-squares
(50 50 cm each) during a single excavation day (d’Errico et al.,
2005: Table 1). This led us to propose that each group was originally part of a single beadwork item, lost or disposed of during a
single event.
The significant difference in size recorded between Nk beads
from Blombos Cave MSA and LSA levels, and the leptokurtic distribution of the former has been interpreted as reflecting a preference for larger shell beads during the MSA (d’Errico et al., 2005).
This conclusion has been challenged by Teske et al. (2007), who
interpret size variation of Nk as mainly resulting from changes in
sea surface temperatures (SST). An increase in the Blombos Cave
shell bead sample size allows us to address this issue by
comparing shell sizes in the different MSA levels, which may cover
a period of several millennia and encompass different climatic
episodes of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5a and 4 (MartinezMendez et al., 2010).
Figure 6. Top: scattergram of perforation height and width of Nassarius kraussianus
shells from the Middle Stone Age levels of Blombos Cave according to their stratigraphic provenance (a) and spatial grouping (b). Bottom: correlation between perforation size and shell width (c) and shell height (d).
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
9
Figure 7. Location of use-wear (grey) on Nassarius kraussianus from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave. Dotted lines indicate altered surfaces. Numbers refer to Table 1.
Materials and methods
Perforations represent the only deliberate modifications present on
the shells and can for this reason provide valuable information on the
piercing technology. Morphology of perforation and wear pattern
provide information on the way shell beads were strung and for how
long. Perforation type, location of use-wear, shell height and width
were systematically recorded on all Nk shells from the MSA levels at
Blombos Cave, including the new specimens described here. Data
relative to shell size are compared with those from modern adult Nk
published in d’Errico et al. (2005) and Teske et al. (2007), as well as to
an additional reference collection from the Sandvlei estuary composed
of 301 adult shells collected after death in 2006. Perforation types are
according to those described by d’Errico et al. (2005: Fig. 3b). Both sides
of the Nk shells were digitized at a resolution of 1200 dpi with an Epson
Perfection 1660 Photo scanner. The resulting images served as a base to
produce drawings of the two aspects of each shell with Adobe Illustrator. All shells were examined under a Wild M3C microscope
equipped with a Coolpix 995 digital camera. Areas affected by usewear were photographed and mapped on the drawings. Shells were
measured as in d’Errico et al. (2005: Fig. 11), by using a digital calliper.
The use of Nk shells as beads is not documented ethnographically
and Nk beads found at LSA sites bear use-wear patterns that are clearly
different from those observed on MSA Nk beads (d’Errico et al., 2005).
We therefore attempted to reconstruct MSA stringing methods using
an experimental approach. Live adult Nk were collected from the
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
10
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 8. Close up view of smoothing on the perforation edge (aed, gei) and use-wear facets on the columella (eef) of Nassarius kraussianus from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos
Cave. Scale bars ¼ 1 mm.
Duivenhoks and Goukou estuaries, located 20 km west and east of
Blombos Cave, respectively. After cleaning, the shells were perforated
by punching the body whorl, through the aperture, with a thin bone
point. This technique produced perforations similar in size, shape and
in the location of micro-chipping to those present on MSA shells with
large perforations (d’Errico et al., 2005). To determine how MSA shells
may have been strung, we experimented with six possible ways of
stringing perforated Nk (Fig. 2). Stringing methods were selected by
following a two-step process: first, we surveyed the various ways in
which beads of the same size and shape were strung in beadworks
used in different cultural contexts (Seiler-Baldinger, 1991; Monture,
1993; Witers and Burnham, 2005) and second, we then narrowed
down the choice by examining which methods involved contact of
strings or shell surfaces with the areas in which use-wear was present
on the archaeological specimens. Three strands of 0.5 mm cotton
thread with six shells on each were assembled for each of the six
designs. Given that personal ornaments worn on the human body
must have come in contact with other materials such as grit and
sweat, the strands were used plain, with abrasive particles and with an
acid component. To replicate use-wear formation, the first batch,
consisting of one strand of each stringing method, was suspended
between the clamps of a sieve shaker (Retsch AS 200, Haan, Germany)
and shaken for 20 h at an amplitude of 80%. For the second batch, the
thread was first soaked in a solution of Rhodopas M 60 A (Prolabo,
France) and acetone, and subsequently immerged in carborundum
powder with a 53 mm mean grain size. These strands were shaken for
10 h following the same procedure described above. The third batch
were soaked every 15 min with a mixture of water, vinegar and ochre
powder and shaken for 3 h. Shaking was interrupted every 60 min and
the strands inspected under a microscope. Wear patterns on the
experimental shell beads were photographed and mapped on drawings, as was the case for the archaeological specimens.
Results
Sorting of the archaeological material recovered from Blombos
Cave in 2000, 2002 and 2004 resulted in the discovery of 27
additional Nk shell beads, all from the M1 Phase (Table 1, Fig. 3 n
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
11
Figure 9. Close up view of use-wear facets on the lip (aeb, def) and the parietal wall (bec, gei) of Nassarius kraussianus from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave. Scale
bars ¼ 1 mm.
42e68), which increases the total number of Nk shell beads to 68.
Nineteen of these new beads were recovered in a single 50 50 cm
sub-square (H5c) within a single stratigraphic level (CC) (Table 1,
Fig. 3 n 42e60). One previously published specimen (d’Errico et al.,
2005) was also recovered in this same sub-square and level (Table 1,
Fig. 3 n 39), four other published beads (d’Errico et al., 2005) were
found in the same stratigraphic level in a neighbouring sub-square
H5a (Table 1, Fig. 3 n 35e38). Five of the eight remaining newly
identified shell beads were recovered in level CC in a different subsquare (H6b) (Table 1, Fig. 3 n 61e65), and three are isolated recoveries from levels CA, CC and CD (Table 1, Fig. 3 n 66e68). The 27
newly discovered Nk increase the total number of shell beads in
levels CA and CC to seven and 30, respectively, and provide one
specimen for level CD. The number of shells in level CB remains
seven. The 23 remaining Nk could not be attributed to a specific
MSA level due to slumping of MSA deposits in the recovery area.
Shell size
The height range of the Nk from the Blombos Cave MSA levels is
larger, in spite of the smaller sample size, than that recorded in our
modern reference collections (Table 2). We observe that in addition,
the height of the Nk from the MSA levels at Blombos Cave varies
according to level (Fig. 4). Shells from level CC, close to the base of
the M1 Phase, are significantly larger than those from CA (t-test:
p < 000.1, Mann Whitney U-test: p ¼ 0.0002) and CB (t-test:
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
12
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Table 4
Frequency of use-wear location on Blombos Middle Stone Age Nassarius kraussianus shells according to level and spatial grouping.
Layer
CA
CAA
CB
CBA
CC
CDh2
CF
CFA
CA-CC
Total
Group
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Isolated
Total
Use-wear location
P, L, W
P, L, W, C
P
L
P, L
L?
P?, L?
P, L?
?
3
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
2
5
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
6
6
2
e
3
1
e
e
e
e
7
13
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
1
1
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
2
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
1
e
e
1
1
22
e
e
e
2
26
3
e
e
1
1
e
e
e
5
e
e
e
5
1
e
e
e
6
2
2
1
3
3
e
e
2
13
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
1
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
3
2
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
1
1
e
e
e
e
18
2
5
26
P, L?, W
P?, L?,W
P, L, W, C?
N
Total
e
e
1
e
6
e
e
e
e
7
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
1
1
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
e
1
1
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
2
3
6
1
5
2
30
1
1
1
21
68
e
e
e
e
e
5
e
2
7
e
e
e
e
e
1
e
e
1
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
e
1
1
1
e
e
2
e
e
e
e
3
7
2
2
12
5
24
3
13
68
1
e
1
P ¼ perforation edge, L ¼ lip, W ¼ parietal wall, C ¼ columella, ? ¼ area affected by alteration, N ¼ no use-wear.
p < 000.1, Mann Whitney U-test: p ¼ 0.0026), respectively, at the
top and in the middle of the same Phase. Such differences may
reflect random gathering from natural populations with significantly different heights or human preference for larger shells in
level CC and smaller shells in levels CA and CB. The latter is unlikely
as it would imply an abnormally large size range for the natural
population that yielded the MSA shell beads throughout the site.
A normality-test does not reject a normal distribution for shell
heights within level CC, the only one that yielded a large sample size
(ShapiroeWilk test: p ¼ 0.6559). This suggests that shells from CC
were probably collected at random. As a result, their mean height
(9.83 mm, Table 2) may be close to that of their source population.
The selection hypothesis entails that the height ranges of shells from
levels CA (6.83e9.56 mm, Table 1) and CB (7.85e9.78 mm, Table 1)
are also included in the range of the source population from level CC.
That would make the height range of the source population at least
twice as large as the difference between the mean of the shell heights
from CC and the lowest height value for CA and CB. This range (6 mm)
would represent almost twice the maximum shell height range of
modern adult Nk in our reference collections (3.85 mm, Table 2), and
it would be one-third higher than the largest Nk size range observed
at present along the south African coast (Teske et al., 2007). This
makes the human selection hypothesis for particular sizes within a
single population unlikely. Instead, the large size range covered by
the overall MSA Nk sample and the differences in size between the
upper and lower levels suggest that Nk shells from CC come from a Nk
population that grew larger than those from the levels CA and CB.
The mean height of shells from level CC (¼9.83 mm) is higher than
that registered on any present day Nk population (Teske et al., 2007).
If the size of Nk depends on SST as suggested by Teske et al. (2007),
SSTs at Blombos Cave (BBC) at the time of the accumulation of level
CC were lower than that recorded at present, 14 C (Harrison, 2004),
in the estuary of the Olifants River (South African West Coast), where
the largest Nk are found today. Analysis of two deep-sea cores from
the Cape Basin and Agulhas Bank splice (Martinez-Mendez et al.,
2010) indicate that SSTs close to 14 C were reached at the onset of
MIS 4. It is known, however, that other environmental factors, such as
salinity, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, predators, competitors, food
availability, water flow, population density, and bioturbation
(Vermeij,1993; Jerardino,1997; Claassen,1998; Sealy and Galimberti,
2011) may affect shell size. This is supported by correlating Nk mean
heights and physico-chemical characteristics of South African estuaries (Fig. 5): mean annual runoff and tidal volume appear more
strongly correlated with Nk shell height than water temperature.
Perforation type and -size
A clear difference in perforation type is observed between Nk
shells from upper CA-CAA and lower CC levels (Table 3). The former
shows keyhole perforations close to the outer lip (type 6 and 7), the
latter elliptical perforations extending from the outer lip towards
the opposite shell edge (type 8 and 9). Analysis of the perforation
size identifies a similar clear cut difference: shells from CA-CAA
levels have narrower perforations than those from CC (Table 3,
Fig. 6, t-test: p < 000.1, Mann Whitney U-test: p ¼ 0.0025). This
cannot be attributed to differences in shell size because only weak
correlations are observed between shell size and perforation width
(R2 ¼ 0.392) or height (R2 ¼ 0.255) (Fig. 6).
Use-wear
Traces of use have been recorded on 62 out of 68 MSA Nk shells
(Table 1, Fig. 7). Three out of the six remaining shells are too altered
for a reliable diagnosis to be made. On eight of those with wear
traces, some areas are affected by alteration and cannot be well
described. Use-wear is found in the form of smoothing located on
the perforation, or facets located on the outer lip, the parietal wall
and the columella (Figs. 7 and 8 and 9). It occurs in isolation or at
two, three or all of these locations (Table 1, Fig. 7). Single occurrences include use-wear on either the perforation or the outer lip.
The other occurrences combine these two locations or are associated with wear on the parietal wall. Use-wear on the columella
occurs only in combination with use-wear on the other three locations. Use-wear on well-preserved worn shells from upper level
CA is only located on the perforation, on the outer lip or on both,
while in level CC all shells present use-wear on three or four locations (Table 4). Shells from intermediate levels CB and CBA have
use-wear types found in both CA and CC.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
13
Figure 10. Experimentally worn Nassarius kraussianus (Nk) and drawing with the location of the resulting use-wear (grey); (aef) indicate Nk strung according to arrangements
detailed in Fig. 2. Scale bar ¼ 1 cm.
Experimentally shaken Nk beads only developed consistent usewear when the string soaked in a solution of diluted vinegar mixed
with ochre powder was used and the shells were in direct contact
with each other (Fig. 2b, c, f, g, 10 and 11). Under these conditions,
extensive smoothing appeared on the dorsal side when shells were
strung with the same orientation (Figs. 10 and 11a, b). Smoothing
occurred around the perforation and invaded the area towards the
apex. Floating pairs of dorsally joining shells (Fig. 2c) developed
localised smoothing around the perforation (Figs. 10 and 11c)
similar to that observed on MSA Nk from level CA and CB (Figs. 7
and 10). Continuous stringing with alternate orientation (Fig. 2f,
g) produced smoothing around the perforations (Figs. 10 and 11d)
and facets on the outer lip and parietal wall (Figs. 10 and 12). Usewear produced by this arrangement is very similar to that recorded
on MSA Nk from level CC (Figs. 7 and 9). Carborundum coated
thread occasionally created striations on the parietal wall when
shells were arranged in a two-string braid. No use-wear was
observed on shells shaken on uncoated threads.
Experimental reproduction of the wear facets suggests that the
MSA shell beads must have been in regular contact with an acid
aqueous solution. Acidity may have come from the wearer (sweat,
urine), from a special treatment of the beadwork (colouring,
shining, cleaning, protecting) or from manipulation of acid liquids
in daily activities.
Spatial distribution
Out of the 68 MSA Nk beads, only 12 were isolated finds
(Table 1). The others (Table 1) were found in seven groups of two to
24 beads recovered in a single square (1 1 m) or in two adjacent
sub-squares (50 50 cm each). Analysis of perforation type, size
(Table 3), and use-wear (Table 4) for each group reveals a clear
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
14
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 11. Close up view of smoothing on the perforation edge of experimentally worn Nassarius kraussianus assembled as in Fig. 2b (a, b), 2c (c), and 2f, g (def). Scale bar ¼ 0.5 mm.
contrast between groups 6 and 7, characterized by large perforations and extensive use-wear on four locations, and the other
groups (1e5), composed of shells with small perforations and lack
of use-wear on the parietal wall and the columella. This contrast
corresponds to different spatial distributions: groups 6e7 from
level CC found in bands HeI and groups 1e5 from levels CA-CC, CB,
and CBA found in bands EeF (Fig. 13). Spatial proximity and available contextual data about site formation processes suggest that
each group may have originally belonged to a single beadwork
item, lost or disposed during a single event.
Discussion
The discovery of shell beads from MSA sites in North and South
Africa has led to considerable debate with regard to their significance and, in particular to the symbolic (Ambrose, 1998; McBrearty
and Brooks, 2000; Kuhn et al., 2001; Henshilwood and Marean,
2003; d’Errico, 2003; d’Errico et al., 2003; Wadley, 2001, 2003;
Vanhaeren, 2005; Chase, 2006; Kuhn and Stiner, 2006, 2007;
Zilhão, 2007; Klein, 2008; d’Errico and Vanhaeren, 2009), evolutionary (Henshilwood and Dubreuil, 2009; d’Errico and Stringer,
2011), demographic (Powell et al., 2009; d’Errico et al., 2009),
cognitive (Wynn and Coolidge, 2007), and linguistic (Botha, 2008)
implications of personal ornament use at such an early date.
The results of this study seem to contradict the idea that the
wear and manufacture traces seen on the MSA Nk beads represent
idiosyncratic behaviour and a short-lived tradition. Research on the
ecology and phylogeny of Nk shows that differences in shell size are
due to phenotypic plasticity and are a function of environmental
conditions (Teske et al., 2007). OSL and TL dating places the accumulation of the M1 Phase at Blombos Cave within a time span that
starts at the end of MIS5a and ends at the onset of MIS4. In this
period, a number of centennial to millenial climatic events
(Martinez-Mendez et al., 2010) are recorded that must have
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
15
Figure 12. Close up view of use-wear facets on the lip (aeb, def) and the parietal wall (d, gei) of experimentally worn Nassarius kraussianus assembled as in Fig. 2b (a, d), 2d (e, i)
and 2f, g (bec, feh). Scale bar ¼ 0.5 mm.
affected the size of this shell species. With this in mind, the most
parsimonious explanation accounting for the significant size difference between Nk found in the CA/CB upper levels and those
found in lower level CC is that they must have been collected at
different times and under different environmental/climatic conditions. Comparison of long term palaeoclimatic records from the
Arctic and Antarctic regions (Jouzel et al., 2007) shows that
although the same climatic events are recognized in both hemispheres, the southern one features smoothed counterparts of the
more abrupt climate changes observed in the Arctic region. This
suggests that environmentally driven significant changes in Nk size,
as are observed between the lower and upper levels of the Blombos
M1 Phase, cannot have resulted from rapid climatic shifts taking
place during a few decades. They are better explained as resulting
from the occupation of the site taking place over hundreds if not
thousands of years.
This conclusion is consistent with the stratigraphic and
archaeological evidence. Blombos Cave Nk shell beads are found in
four stratigraphic levels of the M1 Phase yielding, over a surface of
19 m2, up to 65 hearths and 45 ash features, 392 Still Bay points and
43 bone tools (Henshilwood, 2006; Villa et al., 2009; Haaland,
2012). Studies on the site formation processes support the stratigraphic integrity of the sequence, and the consistent association of
artifacts and hearths in each level suggests that each association
corresponds to at least one occupation episode (Henshilwood,
2006; Jacobs et al., 2006). An alternative hypothesis is that shells
from all MSA levels were collected during a short time span at
several estuaries located in different environments. This is unlikely
as it implies that shells were traded over hundreds of kilometres
when these shells were easily available at estuaries close to the cave
site. This suggests that bead production and use at Blombos Cave is
an inherent feature of the Still Bay cultural tradition and not the
consequence of non-deliberate behaviour by a single individual.
Such an observation strengthens the argument in favour of the
conscious long-lasting symbolic use of Nk shell beads by H. sapiens
in southern Africa at this time.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
16
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
Figure 13. Spatial distribution of Nassarius kraussianus shell beads according to
contextual and descriptive data.
Our results identify previously unseen variations between
stratigraphic levels in perforation size, location, and use-wear
patterns as well as in the spatial distribution of beads. These variations are consistent with the idea that lost or disposed beadwork
recovered at Blombos Cave reflects changes through time in the
way beads were arranged and worn. Alternatively, it can reflect
changes in the duration of use, which may depend on the diameter
and strength of the thread. The identification of a clear gap in the
distribution of the perforation width of Nk found in different levels
favours the interpretation of variation between levels reflecting
different ways of stringing beads. Analysis of the enlarged bead
collection and in particular of the newly discovered group 6,
recovered at a single spot during a single excavation day, suggests
that single Still Bay beadworks were composed of up to 24 beads,
perhaps more.
Experimental reproduction of use-wear on Nk shell beads allows for a better understanding of the use-wear formation process.
It shows that wear facets only appeared at spots where Nk shells
touched each other when shaken. Experimental reproduction of
the use-wear present in the Still Bay lower levels indicates that the
shells were strung in a way to keep them in alternate positions
(Fig. 2f, g), creating a visual pattern based on the juxtaposition of
symmetrical pairs. The 24 beads making up group 6 can garnish a
ca. 10 cm long string. This length is compatible with use as a
bracelet, necklace, choker, collar or head band. Differences in
perforation size and wear pattern between lower and upper Still
Bay levels of the M1 Phase suggest that this way of stringing beads
was at some stage abandoned to adopt a new style. Use-wear
around the perforations of shells from the upper levels are similar
to those we observed on experimentally worn shells that were tied
by knotting with floating pairs of dorsally joining shells (Fig. 2c).
However, contrary to MSA Nk from the upper levels, experimental
shells that were worn in this way did not yield use-wear on the
shells’ outer lips. We interpret this difference as due to variations in
string size and/or tightening of the knots. A thinner string size and/
or loosening of the knots would indeed result in an additional
contact between the shells in their outer lip area, which would
cause, according to our experiments, a wear facet to form.
Considering that the ‘old way’ of stringing was applied to at least
five to six beadwork pieces (groups 6, 7, four and isolated finds) that
were lost in the lower levels (CC and CD), and the ‘new way’ to at
least five other bead-work pieces (groups 1, 2, and three isolated
finds) in the upper levels (CA and CB), it seems unlikely that ways of
stringing result from idiosyncratic behaviour. It is also unlikely,
given the stratigraphic integrity and the quantity of archaeological
remains that the upper levels CBA, CB, CAA, and CA accumulated
within one generation. It has been shown that shellfish remains
from one occupation episode were not mixed across various levels
(Henshilwood, 2006). The different way of stringing shell beads in
Blombos Cave lower and upper levels, respectively, is consistent
with two social norms, each shared by members of a community.
Consistency in perforation type and wear pattern supports the view
that bead arrangements were produced repeatedly with high fidelity, indicating that bead makers complied with strict rules.
Changing cultural norms are frequent in the cultural trajectory
of our lineage (Renfrew, 2008) but most of the time they concern
subsistence related aspects of material culture, for example spear
point styles. The evidence we present may document the earliest
known instance of a change of norm related to symbolically
mediated behaviour. A shift in bead arrangement patterns may
have been the consequence of a change in body ornamentation
norm within a single community or the replacement of one
Blombos Cave community by another with different norms in bead
style or stringing methods. In the first scenario, the prime mover
could be random fluctuation or imitation of a successful individual.
The second implies that Still Bay communities possessed different
norms governing the production, and perhaps the use, of symbolic
items. Whatever the case, it is noteworthy that changes in bead
arrangements roughly coincide with changes in the spatial distribution of beads between levels. This likely represents a shift in the
location of subsistence or social activities inside the cave. The
presence of three shell beads of the ‘old type’ in the same area as
shell beads belonging to the ‘new type’ in an intermediate level (CB)
suggests that the change occurred during the accumulation of that
level and persisted until the end of the accumulation of level CA.
Conclusion
The discovery of a cluster of 24 perforated Nk shells, probably
representing a part of the earliest known beadwork piece, has
stimulated novel research on personal ornament use during the
75,000 year old Still Bay techno-tradition. The results of our
research demonstrate that Nk shells were used as beads at Blombos
Cave for a time period encompassing at least one environmental
shift. During this period, we have identified a change in the way
beads were strung together, and this represents the earliest known
change of a customised style, or norm, governing symbolically
mediated behaviour. In this respect, the observed changes made by
the Blombos Cave inhabitants parallel the many similar changes in
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
symbolic norms observed among more recent and historically
known human societies.
Acknowledgements
We thank Gérard Blanc, Aleta Guadelli, Jean-Luc Guadelli, Pierre
Guibert, Kathrin Lange, Marlize Lombard, Renata Garcia Moreno,
Catherine Perlès, Jean-Michel Portier, Alain Queffelec, Ina Reiche and
Jörg Schäfer for helpful discussions, Elisabeth Sellier for assistance
with the SEM analysis, Cécile Bossy and Alain Queffelec for giving us
access to the muffle furnace, the sieve shaker and the polishing
machine. This research was funded by the European Research
Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Seventh Framework
Programme (FP7/2007e2013)/ERC grant agreement no. 249587, the
PROTEA French-South Africa research programme, the Groupe de
Recherche Internationale STAR of the CNRS and Wenner Gren
Foundation. CSH was funded by a National Research Foundation/
Department of Science and Technology supported Chair at the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and by a joint Norwegian
Research Council/South African National Research Foundation grant.
References
Alvarez Fernández, E., Jöris, O., 2008. Personal ornaments in the Early Upper
Palaeolithic of Western Eurasia: an evaluation of the record. Eurasian Prehist. 5
(2), 31e44.
Ambrose, S., 1998. Chronology of the later Stone Age and food production in East
Africa. J. Archaeol. Sci. 25, 377e392.
Assefa, Z., Lam, Y.M., Mienis, H.K., 2008. Symbolic use of terrestrial gastropod
opercula during the Middle Stone Age at Porc-Epic Cave, Ethiopia. Curr.
Anthropol. 49, 746e756.
Balme, J., Morse, K., 2006. Shell beads and social behaviour in Pleistocene Australia.
Antiquity 80, 799e811.
Bar-Yosef, O., Bordes, J.-G., 2010. Who were the makers of the Châtelperronian
culture? J. Hum. Evol. 59, 586e593.
Bar-Yosef Mayer, D.E., Vandermeersch, B., Bar-Yosef, O., 2009. Shells and ochre in
Middle Paleolithic Qafzeh Cave, Israel: indications for modern behaviour.
J. Hum. Evol. 56, 307e314.
Beal, L.M., De Ruijter, W.P.M., Biastoch, A., Zahn, R., SCOR/WCRP/IAPSO Working
Group 136, 2011. On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and
climate. Nature 472, 429e436.
Benazzi, S., Douka, K., Fornai, C., Bauer, C.C., Kullmer, O., Svoboda, J., Pap, I.,
Mallegni, F., Bayle, P., Coquerelle, M., Condemi, S., Ronchitelli, A., Harvati, K.,
Weber, G.W., 2011. Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behaviour. Nature 479, 525e528.
Bird, M.I., Fifield, L.K., Santos, G.M., Beaumont, P.B., Zhou, Y., di Tada, M.L.,
Hausladen, P.A., 2003. Radiocarbon dating from 40 to 60 ka BP at Border Cave,
South Africa. Quatern. Sci. Rev. 22, 943e947.
Botha, R., 2008. Prehistoric shell beads as a window on language evolution. Lang.
Commun. 28 (3), 197e212.
Bouzouggar, A., Barton, N., Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Collcutt, S., Higham, T.,
Hodge, E., Parfitt, S., Rhodes, E., Schwenninger, J.-L., Stringer, C., Turner, E.,
Ward, S., Moutmir, A., Stambouli, A., 2007. 82,000-year-old shell beads from
North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behaviour. Proc.
Natl. Acad. Sci. 104, 9964e9969.
Caron, F., d’Errico, F., Del Moral, P., Santos, F., Zilhão, J., 2011. The Reality of Neandertal Symbolic Behavior at the Grotte du Renne, Arcy-sur-Cure, France. PLoS
ONE 6 (6), e21545.
Chase, P.G., 2006. The Emergence of Culture. The Evolution of a Uniquely Human
Way of Life. Springer, New York.
Claassen, C., 1998. Shells. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
d’Errico, F., 2003. The invisible frontier. A multiple species model for the origin of
behavioral modernity. Evol. Anthropol. 12, 188e202.
d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., 2007. Additional evidence for bone technology in the
southern African Middle Stone Age. J. Hum. Evol. 52, 142e163.
d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., 2007. Evolution or revolution? New evidence for the
origin of symbolic behaviour in and out of Africa. In: Mellars, P. (Ed.), Rethinking
the Human Revolution. McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge, pp. 275e
286.
d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., 2009. Earliest personal ornaments and their significance
for the origin of language debate. In: Botha, R., Knight, C. (Eds.), The Cradle of
Human Language. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 16e40.
d’Errico, F., Stringer, C.B., 2011. Evolution, revolution or saltation scenario for the
emergence of modern cultures? Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 366, 1060e1069.
d’Errico, F., Zilhão, J., Baffier, D., Julien, M., Pelegrin, J., 1998. Neandertal acculturation in western Europe? A critical review of the evidence and its interpretation.
Curr. Anthropol. 39, 1e44.
17
d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., Lawson, G., Vanhaeren, M., Soressi, M., Bresson, F.,
Tillier, A.-M., Maureille, B., Nowell, A., Backwell, L., Lakarra, J.A., Julien, M., 2003.
The search for the origin of symbolism, music and language: a multidisciplinary
endeavour. J. World Prehist. 17, 1e70.
d’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C.S., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., 2005. Nassarius
kraussianus shell beads from Blombos Cave: evidence for symbolic behaviour in
the Middle Stone Age. J. Hum. Evol. 48, 3e24.
d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Wadley, L., 2008. Possible shell beads from the Middle
Stone Age layers of Sibudu Cave, South Africa. J. Archaeol. Sci. 35, 2675e2685.
d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., Barton, N., Bouzouggar, A., Mienis, H., Richter, D.,
Hublin, J.-J., McPherron, S.P., Lozouet, P., 2009. Additional evidence on the use of
personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. Proc. Natl. Acad.
Sci. 106, 16051e16056.
d’Errico, F., Backwell, L., Villa, P., Degano, I., Lucejko, J., Bamford, M., Higham, T.,
Colombini, M.-P., Beaumont, P., 2012. Early evidence of San material culture
represented by organic artifacts from Border Cave, South Africa. Proc. Natl.
Acad. Sci. 109, 13214e13219.
Derevianko, A.P., 2005. The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in the Altai
(Mongolia and Siberia). In: Derevianko, A.P. (Ed.), The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Eurasia: Hypotheses and Facts. Institute of Archaeology and
Ethnography Press, Novosibirsk, pp. 183e216.
Derevianko, A.P., Rybin, E.P., 2005. The earliest representations of symbolic behavior
by Paleolithic humans in the Altai Mountains. In: Derevianko, A.P. (Ed.), The
Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Eurasia: Hypotheses and Facts.
Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Press, Novosibirsk, pp. 232e255.
Derevianko, A.P., Shunkov, M.V., 2005. Formation of the Upper Paleolithic traditions
in the Altai. In: Derevianko, A.P. (Ed.), The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Eurasia: Hypotheses and Facts. Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography Press, Novosibirsk, pp. 283e311.
Dubin, L.S., 1987. The History of Beads. From 30,000 B.C. to the Present. Thames and
Hudson, London.
Dubin, L.S., 1999. North American Indian Jewellery and Adornment: from Prehistory
to the Present. Harry N. Abrams, New York.
Gliganic, L.A., Jacobs, Z., Roberts, R.G., Domínguez-Rodrigo, M., Mabulla, A.Z., 2012.
New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter,
Tanzania: optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz and feldspar
grains. J. Hum. Evol. 62, 533e547.
Grün, R., Beaumont, P., 2001. Border Cave revisited: a revised ESR chronology.
J. Hum. Evol. 40, 467e482.
Haaland, M., 2012. Intra-site spatial analysis of the Still Bay units in Blombos Cave,
South Africa. Master Dissertation, University of Bergen.
Harrison, T.D., 2004. Physico-chemical characteristics of South African estuaries in
relation to the zoogeography of the region. Estuarine, Coast. Shelf Sci. 61, 73e87.
Henshilwood, C.S., 2006. Stratigraphic integrity of the Middle Stone Age levels at
Blombos Cave. In: Backwell, L., d’Errico, F. (Eds.), From Tools to Symbols. From
Early Hominids to Modern Humans. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 441e458.
Henshilwood, C.S., 2008a. Winds of change: palaeoenvironments, material culture
and human behaviour in the Late Pleistocene (c. 77e48 ka) in the Western Cape
Province, South Africa. In: Lombard, M., Sievers, C., Ward, W. (Eds.), Current
Themes in Middle Stone Age Research. Goodwin Series 10, South African
Archaeological Society, Vlaeberg, pp. 35e51.
Henshilwood, C.S., 2008b. Holocene prehistory of the southern Cape, South Africa:
excavations at Blombos Cave and the Blombosfontein Nature Reserve. British
Archaeological Reports International Series 1860. Archaeopress, Oxford.
Henshilwood, C.S., Dubreuil, B., 2009. Reading the artifacts: gleaning language skills
from the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. In: Botha, R., Knight, C. (Eds.), The
Cradle of Human Language. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 41e60.
Henshilwood, C.S., Dubreuil, B., 2011. The Still Bay and Howiesons Poort, 77-59 ka:
Perspective-taking and the evolution of the modern human mind during the
African Middle Stone Age. Curr. Anthropol. 52 (3), 361e400.
Henshilwood, C.S., Marean, C.W., 2003. The origin of modern human behaviour: A
review and critique of models and test implications, models and test implications. Curr. Anthropol. 44, 627e651.
Henshilwood, C.S., Sealy, J.C., Yates, R.J., Cruz-Uribe, K., Goldberg, P., Grine, F.E.,
Klein, R.G., Poggenpoel, C., van Niekerk, K.L., Watts, I., 2001. Blombos Cave,
southern Cape, South Africa: Preliminary report on the 1992 e 1999 excavations
of the Middle Stone Age levels. J. Archaeol. Sci. 28, 421e448.
Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Yates, R., Jacobs, Z., Tribolo, C., Duller, G.A.T.,
Mercier, N., Sealy, J.C., Valladas, H., Watts, I., Wintle, A.G., 2002a. Emergence of
modern human behavior: Middle Stone Age engravings from South Africa.
Science 295, 1278e1280.
Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Marean, C., Milo, R., Yates, R., 2002b. An early bone
tool industry from the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, South Africa: implications for the origins of modern human behaviour, symbolism and language. J. Hum. Evol. 41, 631e678.
Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Vanhaeren, M., van Niekerk, K., Jacobs, Z., 2004.
Middle Stone Age shell beads from South Africa. Science 304, 403.
Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., Watts, I., 2009. Engraved ochres from the Middle
Stone Age levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa. J. Hum. Evol. 57, 27e47.
Henshilwood, C.S., d’Errico, F., van Niekerk, K.L., Coquinot, Y., Jacobs, Z.,
Lauritzen, S.-E., Menu, M., García-Moreno, R., 2011. A 100,000 Year Old Ochre
Processing Workshop at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science 334, 219e221.
Higham, T., Jacobi, R., Julien, M., David, F., Basell, L., Wood, R., Davies, W.,
Ramsey, C.B., 2010. Chronology of the Grotte du Renne (France) and
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001
18
M. Vanhaeren et al. / Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2013) 1e18
implications for the context of ornaments and human remains within the
Châtelperronian. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 20234e20239.
Hublin, J.-J., Spoor, F., Braun, M., Zonneveld, F., Condemi, S., 1996. A late Neanderthal
associated with Upper Paleolithic artefacts. Nature 381, 224e226.
Jacobs, Z., 2004. Development of luminescence techniques for dating Middle Stone
Age sites in South Africa. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wales, Aberystwyth.
Jacobs, Z., Wintle, A.G., Duller, G.A.T., 2003a. Optical dating of dune Sand from
Blombos Cave, South Africa: I-multiple grain data. J. Hum. Evol. 44, 599e612.
Jacobs, Z., Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G., 2003b. Optical dating of dune sand from
Blombos Cave, South Africa: II e single grain data. J. Hum. Evol. 44, 613e625.
Jacobs, Z., Duller, G.A.T., Wintle, A.G., Henshilwood, C.S., 2006. Extending the
chronology of deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa, back to 140 ka using
optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz. J. Hum. Evol. 51, 255e273.
Jacobs, Z., Hayes, E.H., Roberts, R.G., Galbraith, R.F., Henshilwood, C.S., 2013. An
improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, South Africa:
further tests of single-graindating procedures and a re-evaluationof the timing
of the Still Bay industry across southern Africa. J. Archaeol. Sci. 40, 579e594.
Jerardino, A., 1997. Changes in shellfish species composition and mean shell size
from a late-Holocene record of the west coast of southern Africa. J. Archaeol. Sci.
24, 1031e1044.
Jones, H.L., 2001. Electron spin resonance dating of tooth enamel at three Palaeolithic sites. Ph.D. Dissertation, McMaster University, Canada.
Jouzel, J., Masson-Delmotte, V., Cattani, O., Dreyfus, G., Falourd, S., Hoffmann, G.,
Minster, B., Nouet, J., Barnola, J.M., Chappellaz, J., Fischer, H., Gallet, J.C.,
Johnsen, S., Leuenberger, M., Loulergue, L., Luethi, D., Oerter, H., Parrenin, F.,
Raisbeck, G., Raynaud, D., Schilt, A., Schwander, J., Selmo, E., Souchez, R.,
Spahni, R., Stauffer, B., Steffensen, J.P., Stenni, B., Stocker, T.F., Tison, J.L.,
Werner, M., Wolff, E.W., 2007. Orbital and millennial Antarctic climate variability over the past 800,000 years. Science 317, 793e796.
Klein, R.G., 1989. Biological and behavioural perspectives on modern human origins
in southern Africa. In: Mellars, P., Stringer, C. (Eds.), The Human Revolution.
Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 529e546.
Klein, R.G., 2000. Archeology and the evolution of human behavior. Evol. Anthropol.
9, 17e36.
Klein, R.G., 2008. Out of Africa and the evolution of human behavior. Evol.
Anthropol. 17, 267e281.
Klumpp, D., Kratz, C., 1993. Aesthetics, expertise, and ethnicity: Okiek and Maasai
perspectives on personal ornament. In: Spear, T., Waller, R. (Eds.), Being Maasai:
Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa. James Currey Publishers, London, pp.195e221.
Knocker, F.W., 1909. Notes on the wild tribes of the Ulu Plus, Perak. J. R. Anthropol.
Inst. Great Britain Ireland 39, 142e155.
Kuhn, S.L., Stiner, M.C., 2006. Les parures au Paléolithique: enjeux cognitifs, démographiques et identitaires. Diogène 214, 47e58.
Kuhn, S., Stiner, M., 2007. Body ornamentation as information technology: towards
an understanding of the significance of early beads. In: Mellars, P. (Ed.),
Rethinking the Human Revolution. McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge, pp. 45e54.
Kuhn, S.L., Stiner, M.C., Reese, D.S., Güleç, E., 2001. Ornaments of the earliest Upper
Paleolithic: new insights from the Levant. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 98, 7641e7646.
Lamdan, M., 1984. Faunal remains in the Sefunim shelter. In: Ronen, A. (Ed.),
Sefunim Prehistoric Sites, Mount Carmel, Israel. British Archaeological Reports
International Series, 230, Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 475e486.
Leavesley, M.G., 2007. A shark-tooth ornament from Pleistocene Sahul. Antiquity 81,
308e315.
Lenoble, A., Tærud, H., 2011. Blombos Cave Penetrometer Study. Unpublished
Report.
Leroi-Gourhan, A., 1965. Préhistoire de l’art occidental. Mazenod, Paris.
Lombard, M., 2005. Evidence of hunting and hafting during the Middle Stone Age at
Sibidu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa: a multianalytical approach. J. Hum.
Evol. 48, 279e300.
Martinez-Mendez, G., Zahn, R., Hall, I.R., Peeters, F.J.C., Pena, L.D., Cacho, I., Negre, C.,
2010. Contrasting multi-proxy reconstructions of surface ocean hydrography in
the Agulhas Corridor and implications for the Agulhas leakage during the last
345,000 years. Paleoceanography 25, PA4227.
McBrearty, S., Brooks, A.S., 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of
the origin of modern human behaviour. J. Hum. Evol. 39, 453e563.
Millard, A.R., 2006. Bayesian analysis of ESR dates, with application to Border Cave.
Quatern. Geochronol. 1, 159e166.
Miller, G.H., Beaumont, P.B., Deacon, H.J., Brooks, A.S., Hare, P.E., Jull, A.J.T., 1999.
Earliest modern humans in southern Africa dated by isoleucine epimerization
in ostrich eggshell. Quatern. Sci. Rev. 18, 1537e1548.
Monture, J., 1993. The Complete Guide to Traditional Native American Beadwork.
Macmillan General Reference, New York.
Morse, K., 1993. Shell beads from ManduMandu Creek rock-shelter, Cape Range
peninsula, Western Australia, dated before 30,000 BP. Antiquity 67, 877e883.
Mourre, V., Villa, P., Henshilwood, C.S., 2010. Early use of pressure flaking on lithic
artifacts at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Science 330, 659e662.
Otte, M., Biglari, F., Flas, D., Shidrang, S., Zwyns, N., Mashkour, M., Naderi, R.,
Mohaseb, A., Hashemi, N., Darvish, J., Radu, V., 2007. The Aurignacian in the
Zagros region: new research at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran. Antiquity 81, 82e96.
Powell, A., Shennan, S., Thomas, M.G., 2009. Late Pleistocene demography and the
appearance of modern human behavior. Science 324, 1298e1301.
Reese, D., 1998. Middle Palaeolithic shells from Ras el-Kelb. In: Copeland, L. (Ed.),
The Mousterian site of Ras el-Kelb, Lebanon. In: Moloney, N. (Ed.), British
Archaeological Reports International Series 706. Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 67.
Renfrew, C., 2008. Prehistory: the Making of the Human Mind. Modern Library,
New York.
Schoeman, S., 1983. Eloquent beads, the semantics of a ZULU art form. Afr. Insight
13 (2), 5e25.
Sciama, L.D., Eicher, J.B. (Eds.), 1998. Beads and Beadmakers: Gender, Material
Culture and Meaning. Berg, Oxford.
Sealy, J., Galimberti, M., 2011. Shellfishing and the interpretation of shellfish sizes
in the Middle and Later Stone Ages of South Africa. In: Bicho, N.F. (Ed.),
Trekking the Shore: Changing Coastlines and the Antiquity of Coastal Settlement, Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology. Springer, Berlin,
pp. 405e419.
Seiler-Baldinger, A., 1991. Systematik der Textilen Techniken. In: Basler Beitrëge zur
Ethnologie, vol. 32. Wept & Co. AG Verlag, Basel.
Sillen, A., Morris, A., 1996. Diagenesis of bone from Border Cave: implications for the
age of the Border Cave hominids. J. Hum. Evol. 31, 499e506.
Taborin, Y., 1993. La parure en coquillage au Paléolithique. Editions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris.
Teske, P.R., Papadopoulos, I., McQuaid, C.D., Newman, B.K., Barker, N., 2007. Climate
change, genetics or human choice: why were the shells of mankind’s earliest
ornament larger in the Pleistocene than in the Holocene? Plos One 7, e614.
Thompson, J., Henshilwood, C.S., 2011. Taphonomic analysis of the Middle Stone Age
large mammal faunal assemblage from Blombos Cave, southern Cape, South
Africa. J. Hum. Evol. 60, 746e767.
Tribolo, C., 2003. Apports des méthodes de la luminescence à la chronologie de
techno-faciès du Middle Stone Age associés aux premiers Hommes modernes
d’Afrique du Sud. Ph.D. Dissertation, Université Bordeaux 1.
Tribolo, C., Mercier, N., Selo, M., Valladas, H., Joron, J.-L., Reyss, J.-L., Henshilwood, C.,
Sealy, J., Yates, R., 2006. TL dating of burnt lithics from Blombos Cave (South
Africa) and the antiquity of modern behaviour. Archaeometry 48, 341e357.
Tærud, H., 2011. Site formation processes at Blombos Cave, South Africa. Masters
Dissertation, University of Bergen.
van Niekerk, K.L., 2011. Marine fish exploitation during the Middle and Later Stone
Age of South Africa. PhD Dissertation, University of Cape Town.
Vanhaeren, M., 2005. Speaking with beads: the evolutionary significance of bead
making and use. In: Backwell, L., d’Errico, F. (Eds.), From Tools to Symbols. From
Early Hominids to Modern Humans. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, pp. 525e535.
Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., 2006. Clinal distribution of personal ornaments reveals
the ethno-linguistic geography of Early Upper Palaeolithic Europe. J. Archaeol.
Sci. 33, 1105e1128.
Vanhaeren, M., d’Errico, F., Stringer, C., James, S.L., Todd, J., Mienis, H.K., 2006.
Middle Palaeolithic shell beads in Israel and Algeria. Science 312, 1785e1788.
Vermeij, G.J., 1993. A Natural History of Shells. Princeton University Press, Princeton.
Villa, P., Soressi, M., Henshilwood, C.S., Mourre, V., 2009. The Still Bay points of
Blombos Cave (South Africa). J. Archaeol. Sci. 36, 441e460.
Villa, P., Soriano, S., Tsanova, T., Deganof, I., Higham, T.F.G., d’Errico, F., Backwell, L.,
Lucejkof, J.J., Colombini, M.P., Beaumont, P.B., 2012. Border Cave and the
beginning of the Later Stone Age in South Africa. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 109,
13208e13213.
Wadley, L., 2001. What is cultural modernity? A general view and a South African
perspective from Rose Cottage. Cambridge Archaeol. J. 11 (2), 201e221.
Wadley, L., 2003. How some archaeologists recognize culturally modern behaviour.
S. Afr. J. Sci. 99, 247e250.
White, R., 1993. Technological and social dimensions of of early “Aurignacian-age”
body ornaments across Europe. In: Knecht, H. (Ed.), Before Lascaux: The
Complex Record of the Early Upper Paleolithic. CRC Press Inc., Boca Raton,
pp. 277e299.
White, R., 2001. Personal ornaments from the Grotte du Renne at Arcy-sur-Cure.
Athena Rev. 2, 41e46.
White, R., 2007. Systems of personal ornamentation in the Early Upper Palaeolithic:
methodological challenges and new observations. In: Mellars, P. (Ed.),
Rethinking the Human Revolution. McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge, pp. 287e302.
Whitefield, A., Bate, G. (Eds.), 2007. A Review of Information on Temporarily Open/
Closed Estuaries in the Warm and Cool Temperate Biogeographic Regions of
South Africa, with Particular Emphasis on the Influence of River Flow on These
Systems. Interim report to the Water Research Commission on the Project “The
freshwater requirements of intermittently open Cape estuaries”. WRC Report
No 1581/1/07.
Witers, S., Burnham, S., 2005. The Encyclopedia of Beading Techniques. Search Press
Ltd., Kent.
Wynn, T., Coolidge, F., 2007. Did a small but significant enhancement in working
memory capacity power the evolution of modern thinking? In: Mellars, P. (Ed.),
Rethinking the Human Revolution. McDonald Institute Monographs, Cambridge, pp. 79e90.
Zilhão, J., 2007. The emergence of ornaments and art: an archaeological perspective
on the origins of “behavioral modernity”. J. Archaeol. Res. 15, 1e54.
Zilhão, J., Angelucci, D.E., Badal-García, E., d’Errico, F., Daniel, F., Dayet, L., Douka, K.,
Higham, T.F.G., Martínez-Sánchez, M.J., Montes-Bernárdez, R., MurciaMascarós, S., Pérez-Sirvent, C., Roldán-García, C., Vanhaeren, M., Villaverde, V.,
Wood, R., Zapata, J., 2010. Symbolic use of marine shells and mineral pigments
by Iberian Neandertals. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 107, 1023e1028.
Zwyns, N., Rybin, E.P., Hublin, J.-J., Derevianko, A.P., 2011. Burin-core technology and
laminar reduction sequences in the initial Upper Paleolithic from Kara-Bom
(Gorny-Altai, Siberia). Quatern. Int. 259, 33e47.
Please cite this article in press as: Vanhaeren, M., et al., Thinking strings: Additional evidence for personal ornament use in the Middle Stone Age
at Blombos Cave, South Africa, Journal of Human Evolution (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2013.02.001