Early Upper Palaeolithic personal ornaments and behavioural adaptations

Project Information

EU-BEADS

Grant agreement ID: 656325

DOI

10.3030/656325

Project closed

EC signature date 12 March 2015

Start date 1 October 2015

End date 14 December 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EU-BEADS (Early Upper Palaeolithic personal ornaments and behavioural adaptations)

Reporting period: 2015-10-01 to 2017-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

EU-Beads investigated symbolically mediated behaviour of Early Upper Palaeolithic modern humans through the study of personal ornaments. Specifically, EU-Beads focussed on the Levantine region between 60,000 and 40,000 years ago. The goal was a better understanding of variation and standardisation in shell bead production and use, as well as establishing new criteria for identification of anthropic modifications of marine shell beads. To achieve this, EU-Beads employed a range of state-of-the-art zooarchaeological and taphonomic methodologies in conjunction with newly learned analytical techniques namely finite element analysis, use-wear analysis and GIS. In addition, EU-Beads developed a new analytical method to improve quantification of human actions in the production of shell beadwork using geometrics morphometrics. The large shell bead collection of Ksar’ Akil (Lebanon) served as a case study. The high quality, multidisciplinary research results contributed substantially to our knowledge of Early Upper Palaeolithic behavioural adaptations and of modern human symbolically mediated behaviours in general.

In particular, the EU-Beads research objectives (ROs) were:

RO1: Identification and characterisation of EMH shell bead manufacture and use as well as pigment use; this includes an assessment of variability and standardisation of behaviours.

RO2: Establishing new criteria for the identification of anthropic perforations on shell.

RO3: Contextualization of Levantine EMH beadwork in the wider framework of modern human symbolically mediated behaviour of the earlier African MSA and later European Aurignacian.

The results of this project contributed to our understanding of symbolic underpinnings of dispersal activity. Specifically, the use of personal ornamentation as a means of communication in highly-mobile migrating populations. This project offers a deep-history view to debates relevant to present-day society and the European Community.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

In the framework of the EU-Beads project, two workshops were organised. The first one on Humans' Earliest Personal Ornaments: Symbolism, Production and Distribution, took place in March 2017 at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History in Tel Aviv, Israel, and was co-organized with Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer. The second one entitled EU-Beads Workshop: Early Upper Palaeolithic personal ornaments and behavioural adaptations took place in October 2017 in Cambridge.

The study employed a series of state-of-the art and novel approaches to the study of personal ornamentation. Geochemical investigations into ochre and other pigments on shell ornaments, consumption waste of faunal resources, and within the sites sediments suggest that contrary to common believe the ornamental shells at Ksar Akil may not (or only in part) have been coloured intentionally. It is equally possible that pigments were deposited on the shells after deposition. Investigations into the dynamics of shell perforation clearly show human involvement in specimen selection and / or manufacture process revealing that indeed the Ksar Akil shells were used as ornamental objects. This has implications for the role of shell beads in socially mediated behaviours and communication of early modern human groups on one of the key-dispersal routes into Europe.
Results are detailed in four papers in peer-reviewed journals (published or in press), four non-peer reviewed papers. Two papers are in preparation: One paper on symbolically mediated behaviours in modern humans and one on the perforated shell of Kostenki 14. In addition, results were presented at several international platforms including three invited talks. Results were disseminated towards the wider public through the organisation and participation in several events, such as the Festival of Ideas, the Science Festival and eight publications for the general public.

No commercial exploitation of the research results is expected.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The study of the mollusc assemblage of Ksar Akil Lebanon led to several observations about early Modern Human behaviour. Investigations into the seasonality of shellfish exploitation revealed that coastal habitats were exploited, and the site was occupied, in all seasons throughout the year. Situated on the eastern Mediterranean on the frontier of Europe, the importance of the Ksar Akil has been long recognised in the modern human expansion into Europe and Asia. The EU-Beads project focused on socially mediated behaviours as an important part of signalling and communication within highly-mobile hunter-gatherer groups. Personal ornaments serve as symbols that transmit information between geographically distant individuals and groups and help to establish and maintain stable social networks in highly-mobile groups and facilitate successful dispersals.

Investigations into bead production is crucial in ascertaining their identity as personal ornaments. While modifications of some raw materials like ivory and antler leave no question as to the ornamental nature of the objects, beach-collected shells are notoriously difficult to demonstrate, as natural perforations may have been used for suspension without the need for modification. The EU-Beads project progressed beyond the state-of-the-art in shell bead studies by developing a new methodology using micro-CT scans of pristine shells to create a three-dimensional model of shell thickness. These models were used to map robust and fragile zones on shells of this taxon to aid identification of structurally weak zones that would be prone to random natural perforations. Deviation of this null-hypothesis would suggest human involvement in the perforation distribution patterns. To test this hypothesis thanatocoenosis or modern death assemblages of relevant taxa were used. Our results show that while the thanatocoenosis data confirm the null-hypothesis, the Ksar Akil specimens deviate from the assumed randomised distribution in weak zones and thereby confirm their archaeological use as ornamental objects.

Publications are available in ‘gold’ or ‘green’ open access and all data used for these publications are also available online with the publications or at www.zenodo.org. The researcher has created and maintained a webpage (https://eubeads.wordpress.com) on the project.

The EU-Beads project improved our knowledge of early modern human socially mediated behaviours relevant to the successful dispersal of our species into Europe and beyond. The publication of an edited volume on Humans’ Earliest Personal Ornaments provided a current overview of the state-of-the-art and innovation research conducted in the field of personal ornamentation in past hunter-gatherers. The subsequent Cambridge-based EU-Beads workshop with participants from the USA, Israel and several EU countries increased the competitiveness of the ERA in this field.

The results of this project contributed to our understanding of the human past, and the symbolic underpinnings of dispersal activity. Specifically, the use of personal ornamentation as a means of communication in highly-mobile migrating populations. This project offers a deep-history view to debates relevant to present-day society and the European Community.

Virtual model of Tritia gibbosula