Ornaments such as beads are among the earliest signs of symbolic behavior among human ancestors. Their appearance signals important developments in both cognition and social relations. This paper describes and presents contextual information for 33 shell beads from Bizmoune Cave (southwest Morocco). Many of the beads come as deposits dating to ≥142 thousand years, making them the oldest shell beads yet recovered. They extend the dates for the first appearance of this behavior into the late Middle Pleistocene. The ages and ubiquity of beads in Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites in North Africa provide further evidence of the potential importance of these artifacts as signals of identity. The early and continued use of Tritia gibbosula and other material culture traits also suggest a remarkable degree of cultural continuity among early MSA Homo sapiens groups across North Africa.

中文翻译：

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来自摩洛哥索维拉 Bizmoune 洞穴的早期中石器时代个人饰品

珠子等装饰品是人类祖先象征性行为的最早标志之一。它们的出现标志着认知和社会关系的重要发展。本文描述并介绍了来自 Bizmoune 洞穴（摩洛哥西南部）的 33 颗贝壳珠的背景信息。许多珠子是作为可追溯到 142000 年前的沉积物而来的，这使它们成为迄今为止发现的最古老的贝壳珠子。他们将这种行为首次出现的日期延长到中更新世晚期。北非中石器时代 (MSA) 遗址中珠子的年龄和普遍存在进一步证明了这些文物作为身份信号的潜在重要性。Tritia gbbosula的早期和持续使用和其他物质文化特征也表明北非早期 MSA智人群体之间存在显着程度的文化连续性。