Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco

El Mehdi Sehasseh; Philippe Fernandez; Steven Kuhn; Mary Stiner; Susan Mentzer; Debra Colarossi; Amy Clark; François Lanoe; Matthew Pailes; Dirk Hoffmann; Alexa Benson; Edward Rhodes; Moncef Benmansour; Abdelmoughit Laissaoui; Ismail Ziani; Paloma Vidal-Matutano; Jacob Morales; Youssef Djellal; Benoit Longet; Jean Jacques Hublin; Mohammed Mouhiddine; Fatima Zohra Rafi; Kayla Beth Worthey; Ismael Sanchez-Morales; Noufel Ghayati; Abdeljalil Bouzouggar

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco

El Mehdi Sehasseh, Philippe Fernandez, Steven Kuhn, Mary Stiner, Susan Mentzer, Debra Colarossi, Amy Clark, François Lanoe, Matthew Pailes, Dirk Hoffmann, Alexa Benson, Edward Rhodes, Moncef Benmansour, Abdelmoughit Laissaoui, Ismail Ziani, Paloma Vidal-Matutano, Jacob Morales, Youssef Djellal, Benoit Longet, Jean Jacques HublinMohammed Mouhiddine, Fatima Zohra Rafi, Kayla Beth Worthey, Ismael Sanchez-Morales, Noufel Ghayati, Abdeljalil Bouzouggar

Anthropology, School of

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	eabi8620
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	7
Issue number	39
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi8620
State	Published - Sep 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General

Access to Document

10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

Cite this

Sehasseh, E. M., Fernandez, P., Kuhn, S., Stiner, M., Mentzer, S., Colarossi, D., Clark, A., Lanoe, F., Pailes, M., Hoffmann, D., Benson, A., Rhodes, E., Benmansour, M., Laissaoui, A., Ziani, I., Vidal-Matutano, P., Morales, J., Djellal, Y., Longet, B., ... Bouzouggar, A. (2021). Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco. Science Advances, 7(39), Article eabi8620. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

Sehasseh, EM, Fernandez, P, Kuhn, S , Stiner, M, Mentzer, S, Colarossi, D, Clark, A, Lanoe, F, Pailes, M, Hoffmann, D, Benson, A, Rhodes, E, Benmansour, M, Laissaoui, A, Ziani, I, Vidal-Matutano, P, Morales, J, Djellal, Y, Longet, B, Hublin, JJ, Mouhiddine, M, Rafi, FZ, Worthey, KB, Sanchez-Morales, I, Ghayati, N & Bouzouggar, A 2021, 'Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco', Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 39, eabi8620. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

@article{8744652eb95e439e9aec99e08683c79e,

title = "Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco",

abstract = "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.",

author = "Sehasseh, {El Mehdi} and Philippe Fernandez and Steven Kuhn and Mary Stiner and Susan Mentzer and Debra Colarossi and Amy Clark and Fran{\c c}ois Lanoe and Matthew Pailes and Dirk Hoffmann and Alexa Benson and Edward Rhodes and Moncef Benmansour and Abdelmoughit Laissaoui and Ismail Ziani and Paloma Vidal-Matutano and Jacob Morales and Youssef Djellal and Benoit Longet and Hublin, {Jean Jacques} and Mohammed Mouhiddine and Rafi, {Fatima Zohra} and Worthey, {Kayla Beth} and Ismael Sanchez-Morales and Noufel Ghayati and Abdeljalil Bouzouggar",

note = "Publisher Copyright: Copyright {\textcopyright} 2021 The Authors, some rights reserved;",

year = "2021",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1126/sciadv.abi8620",

language = "English (US)",

volume = "7",

journal = "Science Advances",

issn = "2375-2548",

publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",

number = "39",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco

AU - Sehasseh, El Mehdi

AU - Fernandez, Philippe

AU - Kuhn, Steven

AU - Stiner, Mary

AU - Mentzer, Susan

AU - Colarossi, Debra

AU - Clark, Amy

AU - Lanoe, François

AU - Pailes, Matthew

AU - Hoffmann, Dirk

AU - Benson, Alexa

AU - Rhodes, Edward

AU - Benmansour, Moncef

AU - Laissaoui, Abdelmoughit

AU - Ziani, Ismail

AU - Vidal-Matutano, Paloma

AU - Morales, Jacob

AU - Djellal, Youssef

AU - Longet, Benoit

AU - Hublin, Jean Jacques

AU - Mouhiddine, Mohammed

AU - Rafi, Fatima Zohra

AU - Worthey, Kayla Beth

AU - Sanchez-Morales, Ismael

AU - Ghayati, Noufel

AU - Bouzouggar, Abdeljalil

PY - 2021/9

Y1 - 2021/9

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115798805&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85115798805&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abi8620

M3 - Article

C2 - 34550742

AN - SCOPUS:85115798805

SN - 2375-2548

VL - 7

JO - Science Advances

JF - Science Advances

IS - 39

M1 - eabi8620

ER -

Early middle stone age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco

Abstract

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this