Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa
Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa
复制标题
DOI：
10.1073/pnas.0903532106
复制
发表时间：
2009-09-22
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Lozouet, Pierre
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
d'Errico, Francesco;Vanhaeren, Marian;Lozouet, Pierre
最近对象征主义起源的调查表明，在近东、北非和撒哈拉以南非洲，穿孔的贝壳珠子形式的个人装饰品比欧洲的任何个人装饰品至少早35 ka。与颜料使用、雕刻和正式的骨工具一起，个人装饰品被用来支持非洲早期出现的行为现代性，与我们物种的起源有关，并大大早于其从非洲传播出去的时间。人们对回收的贝壳数量少、缺乏可靠的年代测定证据以及记录在案的例子不是故意塑造的事实提出了批评。在本文中，我们报告了25个额外的壳珠从四个摩洛哥中期旧石器时代遗址。我们回顾了它们的地层和年代背景，并讨论了这些贝壳被故意修改和使用的问题。我们详细介绍了现代、化石和考古组合的比较分析结果以及摩洛哥材料的显微镜检查结果。我们的结论是，织纹螺贝壳一贯用于个人在该地区的最后一个间冰期结束。在旧石器时代中期的海洋同位素第5阶段后的遗址中没有装饰品，这提出了一个问题，即在40万年前重新发明之前，气候变化可能在这种象征性行为的标志消失中发挥作用。我们的研究结果表明，进一步调查是必要的早期智人种群内的文化传播机制。
Recent investigations into the origins of symbolism indicate that personal ornaments in the form of perforated marine shell beads were used in the Near East, North Africa, and SubSaharan Africa at least 35 ka earlier than any personal ornaments in Europe. Together with instances of pigment use, engravings, and formal bone tools, personal ornaments are used to support an early emergence of behavioral modernity in Africa, associated with the origin of our species and significantly predating the timing for its dispersal out of Africa. Criticisms have been leveled at the low numbers of recovered shells, the lack of secure dating evidence, and the fact that documented examples were not deliberately shaped. In this paper, we report on 25 additional shell beads from four Moroccan Middle Paleolithic sites. We review their stratigraphic and chronological contexts and address the issue of these shells having been deliberately modified and used. We detail the results of comparative analyses of modern, fossil, and archaeological assemblages and microscopic examinations of the Moroccan material. We conclude that Nassarius shells were consistently used for personal ornamentation in this region at the end of the last interglacial. Absence of ornaments at Middle Paleolithic sites postdating Marine Isotope Stage 5 raises the question of the possible role of climatic changes in the disappearance of this hallmark of symbolic behavior before its reinvention 40 ka ago. Our results suggest that further inquiry is necessary into the mechanisms of cultural transmission within early Homo sapiens populations.