Beads Made from Ostrich Eggshell Track Cultural Change in Ancient Africa

To explore whether bead size can inform broader cultural shifts, Miller and Sawchuk conducted a detailed analysis of bead sizes in southern and, for the first time, eastern Africa, and compared this data with evidence of other cultural changes. This analysis included data from 30 archaeological sites spanning the past 10,000 years of human history on the continent.

As expected, the authors found an increase in bead size in southern Africa associated with the introduction of sheep and goats around 2,000 years ago. These new bead proportions were likely introduced by the same foreign culture that brought herding practices to the region. In eastern Africa, however, the authors found consistently larger bead sizes over several thousand years, with no apparent correlation to herding. This suggests that cultural transmission of bead diameter is more complex than previously thought and that large bead size alone does not necessarily indicate herding. The authors recommend that future studies examine in more detail the manufacture and inter-regional transmission of these beads.

Miller adds: “Ostrich eggshell beads are small and tend to be overlooked in archaeological analysis, but they have the power to tell big stories about ancient human relationships. Today, we encounter economic change, cultural contact and immigration–people 5,000 years ago experienced these things too, and the beads give us a chance to understand how they dealt with it.”

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