Ornaments of the earliest Upper Paleolithic: New insights from the Levant

TLDR

Two sites on the northern Levantine coast yielded numerous marine shell beads in association with early Upper Paleolithic stone tools. Accelerator mass spectrometry dates 39,000–41,000 radiocarbon years (≈41,000–43,000 calendar years) for Üçağızlı Cave shell beads, with stratigraphic evidence suggesting even older beads at Ksar 'Akil, indicating that Upper Paleolithic ornament technologies emerged simultaneously across western Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa, and their early spread was influenced by variable demographic or social factors.

Abstract

Two sites located on the northern Levantine coast, Üçağızlı Cave (Turkey) and Ksar 'Akil (Lebanon) have yielded numerous marine shell beads in association with early Upper Paleolithic stone tools. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates indicate ages between 39,000 and 41,000 radiocarbon years (roughly 41,000–43,000 calendar years) for the oldest ornament-bearing levels in Üçağızlı Cave. Based on stratigraphic evidence, the earliest shell beads from Ksar 'Akil may be even older. These artifacts provide some of the earliest evidence for traditions of personal ornament manufacture by Upper Paleolithic humans in western Asia, comparable in age to similar objects from Eastern Europe and Africa. The new data show that the initial appearance of Upper Paleolithic ornament technologies was essentially simultaneous on three continents. The early appearance and proliferation of ornament technologies appears to have been contingent on variable demographic or social conditions.