Between 55,000 and 42,000 years ago, the Châtelperronian people lived in what is now modern-day France and northern Spain. Their tool industry is among the earliest known from this part of the world during the Upper Paleolithic, a time spanning 55,000 and 42,000 years ago. And as new research suggests, Châtelperronians also had a knack for shell-based jewelry.
Researchers excavating at the Palaeolithic site of La Roche-à-Pierrot in Saint-Césaire on France’s Atlantic coast have discovered pigments and shells, both pierced and unpierced, from the Châtelperronian period. The presence of shells without holes and the lack of wear marks on some of the punctures suggest that the site was a jewelry workshop. Specifically, Western Europe’s oldest shell jewelry workshop.
Mysterious jewelry artisans
It was around this time that our species, Homo sapiens, began spilling out from Africa, replacing Europe’s last Neanderthals. This has consequently fueled an enduring mystery about the Châtelperronian people. Were they Neanderthals or Homo sapiens? A bit of both? The new finding complicates the picture even further.
“This hitherto undocumented combination of an early Upper Paleolithic industry and shell beads provides insights into cultural variability in western Europe and raises the question as to whether the makers of the Châtelperronian were influenced by or formed part of the earliest dispersals of H. sapiens into the region,” the researchers wrote in a study published yesterday in the journal PNAS.
Top left: virtual reconstruction of Roche-à-Pierrot shells. Center left: pierced shells linked to Châtelperronian stone tools. Bottom left: pigments found in the same area. Right: pigment and piercings on the shells. © S. Rigaud & L. Dayet
The researchers found 37 Châtelperronian stone tools, 96 red and yellow pigment fragments (pigments are intensely colored compounds), and at least 42,000-year-old shells, including 30 complete, pierced specimens. The assemblage includes the first known evidence of shell beads directly linked to Châtelperronian stone tools. They also uncovered known Neanderthal tools as well as the remnants of hunted bison and horses.
The shells come from the Atlantic coast, which would’ve been around 62 miles (100 kilometers) from the site at the time, while the pigments came from over 25 miles (40 km) away. These distances suggest the presence of either vast trade networks or notable human mobility.
The shell jewelry and pigments represent the time period’s “explosion of symbolic expression,” featuring ornamentation, social differentiation, and identity affirmation typically linked with Homo sapiens, according to a statement from France’s National Centre for Scientific Research. Furthermore, the finding suggests that the Châtelperronian people belonged to or were impacted by Homo sapiens arriving in the region some 42,000 years ago.
Prehistoric symbolic expression
“Disentangling these potential scenarios remains challenging in the absence of definitive evidence concerning the maker of the Châtelperronian,” the researchers wrote in the study. “Nevertheless, the unique symbolic behavior of Châtelperronian groups brought to light at Saint-Césaire likely developed against the backdrop of a more diverse biocultural landscape.”
Interactions between diverse biological and cultural groups may have kick-started the rise of shared symbolic behavior during the European Upper Paleolithic, according to the study.
So next time you wear a seashell necklace or bracelet, remember that you’re following in the footsteps of a prehistoric jewelry fashion tens of thousands of years old.
