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Anthropology/primitive beadmaking

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Expert: - 1/25/2007


Question
I have been trying to find out how past cultures made beads out of shells so that they are so identical in sizes and shapes.  I have seen strands of hundreds of shell beads in museums all almost identical is size.  Can you explain how this was accomplished?

Answer
Dear Jean
If prehistoric people did this like recent ones, they may have threaded roughed-out beads on a string then slid them back and forth through a groove carved in surface of an abrasive rock.  This would work for beds that are disks or cylinders with a single central perforation.  For perforated shell beads that retain their original morphology, it would simply have been a matter of consistently selecting shells of the same size for perforation.
Cheers,
John Shea

Anthropology

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John Shea

Expertise

Questions about Old World prehistoric archaeology (especially Stone Age) of Europe, Africa, and Western Asia, prehistoric human and hominid behavior, primitive technology, origin of modern humans, extinction of the Neandertals.

Experience

>20 years as a professional anthropologist based at a research university.

Publications
Journal of Field Archaeology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Lithic Technology, Evolutionary Anthropology, Current Anthropology, Mitekufat HaEven (Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society), Paléorient, Annual of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, American Anthropologist, Geoarchaeology.

Education/Credentials
Ph.D (Anthropology) Harvard University, 1991.
BA (Archaeology) Boston University, 1982.

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