The Grottes des Pigeons is a Middle Paleolithic rockshelter located in eastern Morocco. It includes a 10 meter thick deposit of archaeological occupations that have been excavated several times since its discovery in 1908, including the Aterian stone tool industry.
In an Aterian layer dated to 82,000 years ago was found 13 shell beads, apparently perforated so that they could be worn. Evidence from the beads themselves indicates they were collected as dead shells, carried over 40 kilometer distance, likely deliberately perforated and colored wtih some kind of ochre stain. Thus, these beads are the oldest explicitly symbolic artifacts recovered to date, and are the same type as the slightly later beads recovered from the Howiesons Poort assemblages at Blombos Cave in South Africa.
Sources
Bouzouggar, A., et al. 2007 82,000-year-old shell beads from North Africa and implications for the origins of modern human behavior. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104(24):9964-9969. Free download
This glossary entry is part of the Guide to the Middle Stone Age and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
