Personal ornamentation, as indicated by the presence of perforated marine shell beads stained with red ochre, particularly when discovered far from marine contexts, is considered unequivocal evidence of behavioral modernity. Bead use has no explicit function, except for symbolic constructions: for pretty, for memory, for individuality, for some lost significance we'll never be able to reconstruct.
The oldest shell bead evidence is from Skhul Cave, in the Levant, where two Nassarius spp. shells may hve been recovered from strata dated between 100,00-135,000 years old (the data is a bit ambiguous). The oldest perforated shells in a burial context are from Qafzeh Cave in the Levant, where four perforated Glycymeris spp. mollusc shells were found stained with red ochre and in contexts dated to 92,000 years ago.
Middle Stone Age Shell
Aterian sites including Grotte des Pigeons (Taforalt, Morocco) held several perforated and ochre-stained examples of Nassarius gibbosulus shell beads, from levels dated ~82,000 years ago. Nassarius gibbosulus beads have also been found at the Aterian sites of Oued Djebbana (Algeria) and Grotte Zouhra (Morocco).
Shell beads from Howiesons Poort sites in South Africa include Blombos Cave in South Africa had 41 perforated Nassarius kraussianus shells, in Howiesons Poort levels dated to ~75,000 years ago; these were also red ochre stained.
Sources and Further Information
Bibliography of Behavioral Modernity
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.
Vanhaeren, Marian, et al. 2006 Middle Paleolithic Shell Beads in Israel and Algeria. Science 312:1785-1788.
