TThe Use of Shells as Personal Ornaments in Liguria during the Upper Paleolithic: A Review

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Personal ornaments are commonly attributed to a modern human dispersal in western Asia and Europe, representing a veritable key tool for understanding the human dispersal out of Africa. Objects loaded with symbolic meaning such as beads made from modified marine shells were largely used during the Upper Paleolithic in Liguria, a region located in northwest Italy. The finds are mainly concentrated in the western area of the region, where several Gravettian and Epigravettian burials were found during different field campaigns since the nineteenth century. Here we review what is known about the Balzi Rossi archaeological complex (Ventimiglia, Imperia) and the Arene Candide cave (Finale Ligure, Savona), where a very rich array of grave goods and body ornaments made from perforated marine shells were associated with the Paleolithic burials. A wide variety of shells belonging to species very different in shape and size were exploited over time and space, suggesting the existence of trends developed within hunter-gatherer groups. From a diachronic perspective, the analysis and the reanalysis of these objects may provide important information about the evolution of human personal ornamentation during the Late Pleistocene in Liguria, highlighting similarities and differences between the assemblages.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology of Liguria: Recent Research and Insights   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36194.0