Pierced Shells

Body and clothing adornment

Upper Palaeolithic
44 000 to 14 000 years

Commentary : 

During the Upper Palaeolithic, small shells with regular shapes, warm hues, and shimmering polished surfaces, were sought after to adorn the living, and the dead.

Worn as necklaces or bracelets, or sewn onto clothing, shell ornaments display the status of the wearer, but may also indicate kinship ties, or cultural affiliation.

The spread of marine shells, well beyond the locations where they were collected, is vast.

Shell beads find their origin in their symbolic appeal that all societies since the dawn of the Upper Palaeolithic have attached to these tiny masterpieces of nature, that can be transformed into an ornament by a simple touch.