Bead styles in MSA

Michael Balter covers a new paper on MSA shell beads by Marian Vanhaeren and colleagues: "Human ancestors were fashion-conscious". The study involves beads from Still Bay levels at Blombos Cave, South Africa.

To get an idea of how the shell beads were worn, Vanhaeren and her colleagues examined the wear (smoothing) around the perforations and on other parts of the shells. They then carried out additional experiments in which N. kraussianus shells were shaken together for many hours at a time and exposed to a diluted vinegar solution meant to mimic human sweat, among other tests, while strung together in various ways.

[...] johnhawks.net/