Vanhaereny Marian, d'Errico Francesco, Stringer Chris, James Sarah L, Todd Jonathan A, Mienis Henk K
Centre for the Evolution of Cultural Diversity, University College London, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H OPY, UK. Ethnologie Préhistorique, CNRS UMR 7041, 21 Allée de l'Université, F-92023 Nanterre, France.
Science. 2006 Jun 23;312(5781):1785-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1128139.
Perforated marine gastropod shells at the western Asian site of Skhul and the North African site of Oued Djebbana indicate the early use of beads by modern humans in these regions. The remoteness of these sites from the seashore and a comparison of the shells to natural shell assemblages indicate deliberate selection and transport by humans for symbolic use. Elemental and chemical analyses of sediment matrix adhered to one Nassarius gibbosulus from Skhul indicate that the shell bead comes from a layer containing 10 human fossils and dating to 100,000 to 135,000 years ago, about 25,000 years earlier than previous evidence for personal decoration by modern humans in South Africa.
在西亚的斯虎尔遗址和北非的瓦迪杰巴纳遗址发现的穿孔海蜗牛壳表明，现代人类在这些地区很早就开始使用珠子了。这些遗址离海岸较远，而且将这些贝壳与自然贝壳组合进行比较后发现，它们是人类特意挑选并搬运来用于象征用途的。对一枚来自斯虎尔遗址的驼背拟沼螺上附着的沉积物基质进行的元素和化学分析表明，这枚贝壳珠子来自一个含有10具人类化石的地层，年代可追溯到10万至13.5万年前，比此前南非现代人类进行个人装饰的证据早了约2.5万年。
