Bead ornaments in the archaeological record

They say “A Diamond is Forever''. But is it really the case? Well, diamonds have not exactly been around ‘forever’ in the jewellery market, until De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. used the slogan to channel the consumer demands by marketing diamonds as being the symbol of eternal love. So then what exactly was the ornament type preferred by our good ol’ prehistoric folks? Before metal was discovered, the prehistoric humans used to fashion necklaces, earrings and other ornaments out of raw materials such as semi-precious stones, mollusc shells, animal teeth, eggshells, presumably flowers and bird feathers as well. Few or most of these materials were usually available in their vicinity. If you have read the earlier article I wrote about shells, then you probably know that they were frequently used to craft ornaments. But what I found surprising while researching for this article is that shell beads might have links with development of language in humans! Mind boggling right? Mark Pagel, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Reading, argues that somewhere near the site of Oued Djebbana, a human must have acquired sea shells by negotiating for their value. Oued Djebbana in Algeria, is roughly 190 km inland from the sea. Acc. to Pagel, the shells being marine in origin, were carried inland intentionally and might have been traded with someone in exchange for other goods. The author believes that early trade and economic behaviors might have been responsible for the evolution of language as it would enable the early humans to obtain a fair exchange for their goods. That could be a possibility. Although I think the other possibility could be that prehistoric folks just shifted their hunting and gathering radius based on seasons i.e. maybe retreating to the sea for food during seasons when other wild game would not be easily available. They might have procured the shells from near the sea before heading inland. Nonetheless the former's theory is intriguing and could be applied in cases of long distance prehistoric trade.

Apart from molluscs, bird eggshells were also used to make ornaments. Two such examples come from the site of Patne in Maharashtra and from the famous rock shelter site of Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh. Culturally, Patne is an Upper Palaeolithic site, meaning it was occupied between the time range of 40,000 - 12,000 years Before Present (BP). The term Upper Palaeolithic is also used to denote the prehistoric phase in which stone tools underwent a transition. They became more refined and smaller in size in comparison to earlier phases. If you are interested in knowing more about this period, I have provided a link in the reading list. At Patne, three specimens thought to be beads were reported. They are circular discs with partial and complete perforations. There is also a fragment of ostrich eggshell from Patne with  engraving in the form of criss-cross and parallel lines. The beads from Bhimbetka (rock shelter III A 28) are disc shaped with a large perforation in the centre. These were found around the neck of a skeleton  believed to be of a man from the Upper Palaeolithic. Wakankar (1978) proposed that the deceased man must have probably worn a necklace made of these from which only two specimens were preserved. Subsequent studies on the use of ostrich eggshells suggested that prehistoric humans may have exploited ostrich eggs for food and hence secondary waste might have resulted in by-products such as beads.

Two ostrich eggshell disc beads from Bhimbetka burial context, Upper Palaeolithic (Credit: Kumar and Roy, 2012)

Engraved ostrich eggshell from Patne, Upper Palaeolithic, dated 25000+- 200 BP (Credit: Kumar and Roy, 2012) 

Beads are also reported from Mesolithic sites like Langhnaj, Tarsang, Kanewal, Loteshwar, etc.  in Gujarat. These are mostly in the form of dentalium/ tusk shells of marine origin. Dentaliums are basically a type of tubular shells that resemble the shape of elephant tusks, although they are very tiny. At the site of Langhnaj, steatite disc beads were also found. Steatite is a type of mineral and it was exploited to produce beads by the Chalcolithic cultures in the Indian subcontinent. The finding of steatite beads at Langhnaj thus indicates the existence of trade between Chalcolithic and Mesolithic communities of the region.

A 19th century dentalium choker and bracelet for reference of dentalium beads from Mesolithic sites in Gujarat (Credit: Wikipedia, public domain)

During the protohistoric or Chalcolithic times, semi-precious stones like carnelian, amazonite, lapis lazuli, steatite, agate, jasper, etc. were used to make beads and other ornaments. Bead making became an important craft in many protohistoric societies. For instance, in the Harappan civilization, bead manufacturing was an important craft at the sites of Lothal, Harappa, Chanhudaro and Dholavira among many others. The raw materials used for manufacture were acquired from sites within the Harappan civilisation as far north as Shortughai in Afghanistan (for lapis lazuli) and as far south as Gujarat (for carnelian and agate). Harappans also made beads out of terracotta (meaning fired clay). 

Harappan origin carnelian beads excavated from the site of Susa, Iran, housed at the Louvre (Credit:ALFGRN) 
 

Apart from this, bead manufacturing has also been identified from a Megalithic site in central India. Mahurjhari, located in Vidarbha, Maharashtra is popular for its stone circles that can be seen in clusters from far away as well. These stone circles are burial monuments constructed to commemorate the ancestors and also for burial purposes. Mahurjhari is one of the well excavated Megalithic sites in peninsular India. A habitation site was found in the vicinity of stone circles and it yielded evidence of a small scale bead production centre. Finished and unfinished beads of carnelian, agate, jasper, garnet, etc. have been reported from the site. I remember seeing bits of raw materials used for bead production scattered across the surface when I visited the site back in 2015. Although Mahurjhari only became a major producer of beads during the Early Historical period, the beginnings can be traced back to the Megalithic times. 

I will probably do a part two of beads in Historical and later times but this is all I got for now. I hope you enjoyed reading it! Would love to hear your views and additions to the above if you have any. 

Bhakti G

Note: None of the information I have provided belongs to me, respective sources have been cited in the references and any opinions expressed are my own, cheers!

References:

https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/why-humans-speak-language-origins/396635/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/upper-paleolithic

https://www.harappa.com/

https://ls.wisc.edu/news/drawing-a-bead-on-the-indus-valley-civilization

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etched_carnelian_beads

https://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue52/9/1.html

Bar-Yosef Mayer, D. E., Groman-Yaroslavski, I., Bar-Yosef, O., Hershkovitz, I., Kampen-Hasday, A., Vandermeersch, B., Zaidner, Y., Weinstein-Evron, M. (2020). On holes and strings: Earliest displays of human adornment in the Middle Palaeolithic. PloS one, 15(7), e0234924. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0234924

BEDNARIK, R. G. (1992). Natural line markings on Palaeolithic objects. Anthropologie (1962-), 233-240.

Kumar, G., Sahni, A., Pancholi, R. K., Narvare, G. (1990). Archaeological discoveries and a study of Late Pleistocene ostrich eggshells and eggshell objects in India. Man and Environment, 15(1), 29-40.

Kumar G., Roy R. 2012. — Late Pleistocene art of India. In: CLOTTES J. (dir.), L’art pléistocène dans le monde / Pleistocene art of the world / Arte pleistoceno en el mundo, Actes du Congrès IFRAO, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, septembre 2010, Symposium « Art pléistocène en Asie ». N° spécial de Préhistoire, Art et Sociétés, Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Ariège-Pyrénées, LXV-LXVI, 2010-2011, CD: p. 919-928.

Mohanty, R. K. (2008). Mahurjhari: A Bead Manufacturing Center in Central India. Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia, 459-476.

Sonawane, V. H. (2002). Mesolithic culture of Gujarat. Mesolithic India, 104-153.

Vaidya, S., Mohanty, R. K. (2015). Antiquity of Bead Manufacturing at Mahurjhari and Its Relevance in Early Iron Age Megalithic Culture of Vidarbha. Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology, 3, 400-409.

Wakankar  V.S. (1978). The dawn of Indian art. Akar, 1 (4), p. 5-24