The oldest workshop on shell jewelry in Western Europe dates back 42,000 years

55,000 and 42,000 years ago, the Châtelperronian people lived in what is now modern France and northern Spain. Their tool industry is among the first known to this part of the world during the Upper Paleolithic, a time covering 55,000 and 42,000 years. And as the new research suggests, Châtelperronians also had a talent for shell -based jewelry.

Researchers excavating on the Paleolithic site of La Roche-à-Pierre in Saint-Césaire on the French Atlantic coast have discovered pigments and shells, pierced and not moved, from the Châtelperronian period. The presence of shells without holes and the lack of wear marks on some of the punctures suggest that the site was a jewelry workshop. More specifically, the oldest shell jewelry workshop in Western Europe.

Mysterious jewelry craftsmen

It was at this time that our species, Homo sapiensstarted to overflow from Africa, replacing the last Neanderthals in Europe. This has therefore fueled a lasting mystery on the Châtelperronian people. Were they neanderthals or Homo sapiens? A bit of both? The new discovery further complicates the image.

“This hitherto undocumented combination of a superior paleolithic industry and shell pearls gives an overview of cultural variability in Western Europe and raises the question of whether the manufacturers of the Châtelperronian were influenced by or were one of the first dispersions of H. sapiens in the region”, wrote the researchers in a study published yesterday in the PNA review.

The researchers found 37 tools in châtelperronian stone, 96 fragments of red and yellow pigments (the pigments are intensely colored compounds) and at least 42,000 shells, including 30 complete and pierced specimens. Assembly includes the first known evidence of shell pearls directly linked to Châtelperronian stone tools. They also discovered known Neanderthal tools as well as the leftover bison and hunted horses.

The shells come from the Atlantic coast, which would have been around 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the site at the time, while the pigments came from more than 25 miles (40 km). These distances suggest the presence of large commercial networks or notable human mobility.

The jewelry and shell pigments represent “the explosion of the symbolic expression of the period of time, with an ornamentation, a social differentiation and an assessment of identity generally linked to Homo sapiensAccording to a statement from the National Center for Scientific Research in France. In addition, the observation suggests that the Châtelperronian people belonged or was affected by Homo sapiens Arriving in the region about 42,000 years ago.

Prehistoric symbolic expression

“The dismantling of these potential scenarios remains difficult in the absence of final evidence concerning the manufacturer of the Châtelperronian,” wrote the researchers in the study. “Nevertheless, the unique symbolic behavior of the Châtelperron groups highlighted in Saint-Césaire has probably developed in the context of a more diverse biocultural landscape.”

The interactions between various organic and cultural groups may have launched the rise in symbolic behavior shared during the European Paleolithic, according to the study.

So, the next time you wear a collar or a shell bracelet, don’t forget that you are following traces of a prehistoric jewelry mode of tens of thousands of years.