Beads reveal long-distance connections in early Africa

Collins, Benjamin R.; Hatton, Amy

doi:10.1038/d41586-021-03681-2

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20 December 2021

Beads reveal long-distance connections in early Africa

Beads made from ostrich eggshells, produced by people over the past 50,000 years, provide evidence for a long period of social connection between eastern and southern Africa, followed by isolation and then reconnection.

Benjamin R. Collins
1. Benjamin R. Collins is in the Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg R3T 2N2, Canada, and at the Human Evolution Research Institute and Department of Archaeology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
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Amy Hatton
1. Amy Hatton is in the Extreme Events Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena 07745, Germany.
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“Let’s keep in touch!” is a phrase commonly used to indicate a social bond formed between people. Ideally, such bonds are maintained even across long distances and over the passage of time. Today, keeping in touch is easy, whether through a call, a text message, social media or the now omnipresent virtual meeting. However, what traces might remain of signs of social relationships from 50,000 years ago, and why is investigating these ancient relationships useful? Writing in Nature, Miller and Wang¹ present data suggesting that small beads made of ostrich eggshell (OES) and fashioned into jewellery were exchanged between groups across eastern and southern Africa as part of long-distance social connections over the past 50,000 years. These relationships, across immense distances, then broke down about 33,000 years ago — around the same time as major climate changes occurred — and were renewed only about 2,000 years ago, the authors suggest.

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Nature 601, 199-200 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-03681-2

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