A multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, historians, and prehistoric experts from various Spanish institutions have confirmed the discovery of the largest collection of beads ever found in a single burial, in a nearly 5,000-year-old tomb in southwestern Spain.
Tholos de Montelirio is a significant megalithic archaeological site in Spain, with artifacts and remains dating back to between 2875 and 2635 BC. It was utilized for approximately two centuries as a burial ground, and excavations have been going on there for more than four decades.
In this new study, published in Science Advances, researchers analyzed a tomb located about 330 feet (100 m) from the final resting place of the well-known “Ivory Lady,” named for the ivory comb and elephant tusk found alongside her remains. The latest excavation was extremely productive, uncovering the skeletons of 20 individuals, 15 of whom have been identified as women (the gender of the remaining five could not be determined).
Over the years, numerous beads have been unearthed in the tomb, which were assumed to have been originally part of the garments worn by the deceased. But the latest excavation took these discoveries to a whole new level, revealing the existence of more than 270,000 beads in total.
Each bead was meticulously crafted and shaped, with a hole drilled through the center. The overwhelming majority—99%—were made from seashells, emphasizing the reliance of the ancient Montelirio community on marine resources.
“The multimethod approach deployed in this study shows that being dressed in complex attires of thousands of beads was a special phenomenon in the Copper Age,” the study authors wrote in their journal article.
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Bead Clothing for Ancient Elites
The sheer quantity of the beads is truly remarkable, representing the most extensive single-burial bead assemblage ever recorded. The researchers highlighted the immense labor required to produce this incredible collection, and through experiments they determined that crafting a single bead would have taken around 10 minutes. Working at this pace, it would have required 10 artisans working eight-hour days for 206 days to produce the entire collection.
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Excavation process of Individual 343 and the major collection of hand-drilled beads. (A. Acedo García/ Sci.Adv.)
“We think the beads formed ceremonial clothing that was worn by these women, who were very important socially or religiously, at special occasions or special ceremonies,” explained Leonardo García Sanjuán, a prehistory professor at the University of Seville and lead author of the study, in an interview with CNN. “These things must have been pretty heavy. Not something you wore in your everyday life.”
Research of this kind demonstrates how even small artifacts can provide profound insights into ancient civilizations, illustrating the technological and social advancements of early human societies.
“Beads are a widespread and pervasive element of material culture produced by Homo sapiens, ”the study authors noted. “As excellent indicators of technology, social organization, exchange patterns, and even beliefs, beads are a topic of research in their own right.”
This discovery adds further evidence to the notion that Spain’s Valencina region experienced a significant rise in social complexity between 2900 and 2650 BC. This period saw the emergence of highly specialized craftsmanship, producing luxury items made from gold, ivory, rock crystal, amber, flint, mylonite, and marine shells, in activities designed to supply the needs of local elites. These artifacts reflect a sophisticated economy and hierarchical social structure, where prestige items likely reinforced power and status.
Distribution of the bead-based attire at Montelirio. (M. Luciañez Triviño and Á. Fernández Flores/Sci.Adv.)
Bead Wearing as an Ancient and Universal Phenomenon
While the scale of bead production at Montelirio is unprecedented, comparable discoveries of bead assemblages have been made in other regions throughout history.
At Sunghir, Russia, dating to approximately 32,000 BC, the remains of an adult male were almost entirely covered in around 3,000 mammoth ivory beads, along with other decorative items believed to have been sewn onto clothing. Similarly, at Mal’ta, Siberia, a child burial dating between 23,000 and 19,000 years ago contained a rich necklace of 120 bone beads, fragments of a mammoth ivory tiara, an oval pendant, a bone plaque with a zigzag design, and a figurine of a bird in flight. These burials indicate that beads have long reflected the need for human expression and a distinct sense of identity.
Bead-making remained prevalent after the end of the last Ice Age. In the Neolithic village of Ba′ja (7400–6800 BC) in Jordan, an eight-year-old child was found buried with over 2,500 beads arranged in a complex ornamentation around the neck and chest. In Iberia, in the same general region where the latest discovery took place, perforated beads made from marine shells, have been documented since the Early Neolithic (circa 5400 BC) and were common in Copper Age (3200–2300 BC) and Early Bronze Age (2300–1550 BC) burials.
In the Americas, 2,000 years ago the Chumash people of Santa Cruz Island, California, produced millions of shell beads that were used as currency, which circulated across North America reaching Oregon, the Great Basin, and parts of the Southwest.
The persistence of bead production across diverse cultures and time periods underscores the significance of the practice in human history. The meticulous craftsmanship, symbolic meanings, and extensive labor involved in their production suggest that they have a value beyond mere decoration.
“The choice of specific materials (the attires were largely made of shell and not stone, or bone, or ivory) conveys the physical forms of representation, which gave authority (and very probably, power) to some (versus use by many),” the study authors concluded in their Science Advances article. “The specifics of raw material procurement, manufacture, timing, use, and context suggest how prominent social practices and meaningful world views were created in third millennium BC Iberia.”
High-resolution image of beads from the upper level of Structure 10.049 (UE 535, from above the Ivory Lady), attached to the rock crystal dagger. (David W. Wheatley/Sci.Adv)
As researchers continue to explore sites like Tholos de Montelirio, new insights into the cultural and economic dynamics of ancient societies will likely emerge. The discovery of such an enormous bead collection not only highlights the significance of personal adornment for humans in all eras, but also deepens our understanding of the symbolic and social practices that shaped early civilizations.
Top image: Close-up of the threaded beads on attire UE 344, found next to the bones of Individual 343. Source: David W. Wheatley/ Sci. Adv.
By Nathan Falde
Source: www.ancient-origins.net