The earliest evidence of coloured ornaments in China: The ochred ostrich eggshell beads from Shuidonggou Locality 2

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Highlights

  • Ostrich eggshell beads (OESBs) from Shuidonggou Locality 2 (SDG2) are dated to c. 31 kyr cal BP.

  • Red residues on OESBs are studied with SEM-EDS and µ-Raman spectroscopy.

  • Differences in pigment composition correspond to differences in technology and size.

  • Individual and group variations are documented.

  • SDG2 OESBs represent the earliest evidence of symbolic pigment use from China.

Abstract

Beads are a communication technology used by humans to transmit information on the wearer identity to members of the same or neighbouring groups by means of a shared symbolic language. Here we focus on the earliest evidence from Eastern Asia of a communication technology – the production of artificially coloured beads – that has allowed humans to further complexify the messages conveyed by personal ornaments, and associate, to some extent, the performance characteristics of beads and pigment. We study six ochred ostrich eggshell beads (OESB) from Shuidonggou Locality 2 (SDG2), Cultural Layer (CL) 2, China, dated to c. 31 kyr cal BP. Analysis of the beads manufacturing technique, size, and wear, combined with SEM-EDS and µ-Raman spectroscopy (µ-RS) study of well-preserved red residues sampled on the beads and sediment from CL2 indicate that these beads come from body ornaments and that red residues are the remnant of a pigmented compound coating the beads at the time they were worn by the SDG Palaeolithic visitors. SDG2-CL2 red stained OESBs thus represent, with the red stained bone disk from Xiaogushan, the earliest consistent evidence of pigment use for symbolic activities from China. Results also identify variations in the composition of the pigmental compound used to colour the beads that closely match differences in bead technology, size, and style. We argue that such a hitherto unknown consistency in bead production and decoration may reflect technological, morphological, and pigment coating standardisation at the individual level, standardisation in technology associated with variation in morphology and pigment at the group level, and substantial differences in these three domains at inter-group level.

Introduction

It has been repeatedly argued that beads, like garments, scarification, tattooing, and body painting are communication technologies used by humans to transmit information on the wearer identity to members of the same or neighbouring groups by means of a shared symbolic language (Wobst, 1977, Vanhaeren and d’Errico, 2006, d'Errico and Vanhaeren, 2009, d'Errico and Vanhaeren, 2011, Kuhn and Stiner, 2007, Kuhn, 2014, Stiner, 2014). These communication media, however, cannot be used to share and transfer the same type and amount of information. Kuhn and Stiner (2007) have compellingly shown that beads and pigment significantly differ, when used for body decoration, in their performance characteristics. Messages conveyed by beads are more durable than those transmitted by body painting, and susceptible to be seen by more people. Ornaments associating natural (shells, teeth, bones) or carved objects may feature a high degree of standardisation and redundancy, essential to create complex and stable symbolic codes. Beads easily reflect different levels of investment and skill involved in the production of the message, particularly when rare objects or complex manufacture or stringing techniques are involved. Beadwork can be transferred with fidelity from one individual to another and one generation to another. Body painting or tattoos are not transferable. Quantity is better expressed by beads, whose number can be increased almost infinitely, than by the application of pigment on a media, the physical body, that can become quickly saturated. The effort required by the production of the message is more apparent with beads than with pigment. Such a scheme, however, only explores the more apparent differences between bead and pigment phenomenologies and recent work (Watts et al., 2016) has cautioned against inferring from these differences evolutionary trends or the social settings in which pigment or bead use arose (Schoeman, 1968, Tyrrell and Jürgens, 1983).

The present paper focuses on earliest evidence from Eastern Asia of a communication technology – the production of artificially coloured beads – that has allowed humans to further complexify the messages conveyed by personal ornaments, and associate, to some extent, the performance characteristics of beads and pigment. The ethnographic record shows that association of beads of different colours can be governed by complex syntaxes and used to convey information on group affiliation (Morris and Preston-Whyte, 1994), the social status of the wearer or openly announce courtship between young individuals (Wickler and Seibt, 1995). Beadworks composed of ornaments of different colours were even used as a valid legal document produced as evidence in traditional courts to prove the existence of a relationship between a young man and a girl.

The emergence in the history of our lineage of this communication technology has implied a complexification and specialisation of the technical know-how. The techniques used to apply pigment on the physical body are not necessarily effective on beads and the application and persistence, for example, of ochre on beads certainly required the invention of new application methods, rejuvenation techniques, and new binders. In addition, the colour of beads can be changed with a variety of techniques (i.e. abrasion, polishing, handling, heating, painting, soaking in liquids) many of which cannot be applied to human skin. The refining and transmission of these techniques must have required changes in the social learning strategies and the emergence of gender or socially based knowledge (Sciama and Eicher, 1998). Shift in bead colour preference have been interpreted as reflecting main economic and cultural transitions. The appearance of green stone beads in the Natufian, for instance, has been linked to the origin of agriculture in the Levant and interpreted as mimicking the green of young leaf blades, which signify germination and embody the wish for successful crops and success in fertility (Bar-Yosef Mayer and Porat, 2008).

What do we know about the origin of this original communication technology? The presence of pigment residues (Henshilwood et al., 2004, d’Errico et al., 2005, d'Errico et al., 2008, d'Errico et al., 2009, Vanhaeren et al., 2006, Vanhaeren et al., 2013, Bouzouggar et al., 2007, Bar-Yosef Mayer et al., 2009, Eiwanger et al., 2012, Zilhão et al., 2010, Peresani et al., 2013) on many well-preserved shell beads from Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Middle Palaeolithic (MP) sites suggests that colour may have already played a role in the way early beadworks, dated to 100–80 kyr, conveyed meaning. The more compelling evidence comes from the MP of Grotte des Pigeons (Morocco) where – it has been argued (d'Errico et al., 2009) – the distribution of ochre residues on some well-preserved shell beads better fits deliberate colouring rather than staining due to contact with coloured human skin or string. Ochre stained ostrich eggshell beads (OESBs) are reported from a number of Later Stone Age (LSA) sites from southern Africa (Hall and Binneman, 1987, Plug, 1982, Vogelsang et al., 2010), and pigment stains is almost ubiquitous on the beads from Upper Palaeolithic (UP) sites of Europe, the Levant, and Siberia (Taborin, 2003, Vanhaeren and d’Errico, 2006, Moro Abadía and Nowell, 2015), and prehistoric sites from Australasia (Langley and O’Connor, 2016, Langley et al., 2016, Wright et al., 2016).

Dark grey to black colouring, interpreted as due to heating, has been observed on marine shell beads from the MSA at Blombos (d’Errico et al., 2005, d'Errico et al., 2015) and Sibudu (d'Errico et al., 2008) caves in South Africa, the MP at Grotte des Pigeons, Rhafas and Ifri n’Ammar in Morocco (Bouzouggar et al., 2007, d'Errico et al., 2009, Nami and Moser, 2010), on OESBs from the Early LSA levels at Border Cave (d'Errico et al., 2012), the LSA of Geelbek in South Africa (Kandel and Conard, 2005) and the shell beads from the UP/Mesolithic site of Franchthi Cave in Greece (Lange et al., 2008, Perlès and Vanhaeren, 2010). It has been suggested (Kandel and Conard, 2005, Lange et al., 2008, d'Errico et al., 2009, d'Errico et al., 2015, Perlès and Vanhaeren, 2010) that dark beads were submitted to heat treatment for intentional modification of their colour, possibly to enhance their visual impact or convey meaning through colour codes, similarly to what is known for present-day beadworks (Schoeman, 1983, Wickler and Seibt, 1995).

For archaeologists, demonstrating that the colour of beads was purposely modified represents a methodological challenge. Pigment residues on beads may derive from a pigment rich sediment or contact with a coloured human skin, cloth or thread. Change in colour attributed to heating may be due to taphonomic processes (d'Errico et al., 2015) or, when heating is demonstrated, by the accidental presence of lost or disposed beads close to a hearth. However, studies in which the argument for a deliberate change of bead colour is supported by contextual data and the detailed analysis of residues or changes in the bead raw material appearance and structure are still rare.

The goal of this paper is that of investigating the first possible instance of pigment use for symbolic purposes from China, consisting of ochred OESBs from Shuidonggou Locality 2 (SDG2), found in cultural layer 2 (CL2), dated to c. 31 kyr cal BP.

The presence of red residues on OESBs from this site has already been mentioned in the literature (Gao et al., 2013) but no detailed analysis was available to establish the nature and origin of the residues, or the role beads’ deliberate colouring may have played in Chinese early beadwork traditions.

Fragments of modified and unmodified ochre, ochre stained ornaments, artefacts, human remains, and ochre processing tools, are reported from thirteen Palaeolithic sites from eastern Asia (Fig. 1, Table 1 and references therein). In most cases findings are only briefly cited in the scientific literature and excavation reports. Shuidonggou Locality 2 and 8 (Ningxia) and Xiaogushan (Haicheng County, Liaoning Province) are the sites that have yielded the earliest possible evidence of pigment use. At the former site (see Section 2.1. Archaeological context) a red stain is observed on OESBs from CL2 and microscopic red residues on a fresh water shell used as pendant from CL3. At the latter site a fragment of a perforated bone disk decorated with notches bears clear red residues. Pieces of oolitic hematite, two of which bearing traces of modification, were discovered at Zhoukoudian Upper Cave (Beijing's Fangshan District) by Pei (1939). Red residues were present on perforated canines of red deer and Asian badger, stone beads, fish vertebrae, and a human skull found at the same site (Pei, 1939). Unfortunately this material was lost during World War II. Fragments of hematite, ochre processing tools, and stone and bone artefacts stained with ochre are reported from Wangfujing (Beijing). At Shizitan site complex (Jixian County, Shanxi Province) OESBs with red residues are found at locality S24 and S29. In the latter grey and dark grey OESBs were also recovered, indicating that heating may have been used to change the colour of the beads. In addition, another possibly heated OESB, a small lump of ochre, and grindstones with residues of red powder were found at Shizitan Locality S9. An ochre processing tool was found at Bailiandong (Guangxi). Supplementary evidence for the possible use of ochre in the form of lumps are found at Hutouliang Localities 73103, 73101, 72117 and Ma’anshan (Hebei Province).

Section snippets

Archaeological context of Shuidonggou Locality 2

Shuidonggou Locality 2, one of twelve sites comprising the Shuidonggou archaeological site complex, is located on the second terrace of the Biangou River, a tributary of the Yellow River, 28 km southeast of the town of Yinchuan, in northern China. The area is placed on the southwestern margin of the Ordos Desert where the environmental conditions are at the transition between the arid desert and the semi-arid Loess Plateau. Locality 2 was first discovered in 1925 by Emile Licent and Teilhard de

Beads technology and size

Microscopic analysis of the broken beads shows that they broke accidentally during use or as result of post-depositional processes. The technological and morphometric analysis of the OESBs (Table 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 5) identifies consistent similarities and noteworthy differences. SDG2-8310 associates the smallest bead diameter with the widest perforation diameter. It is characterised by an invasive polishing that has erased almost entirely the trimming scars, the eggshell anatomical features, and

Discussion and conclusion

The striking differences in granulometry and composition between the red residues adhering to the bead surfaces and the sediment from SDG2-CL2 clearly indicate that the former cannot derive from the latter as a consequence of diagenetic processes occurring at the site during or after deposition of CL2. This means that the ochre was intentionally applied to the OESBs.

The worn appearance of the beads, indicating that they correspond to objects disposed or more probably lost at the site, and the

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Isabelle Svahn for assistance with SEM-EDS analyses at the Bordeaux Imaging Center (BIC, University of Bordeaux) and Gauthier Devilder for drawing Fig. 1. We also thank all members of the Shuidonggou project, without whom this study would have not been possible. This research was conducted with the financial support of the European Research Council Advanced Grant (TRACSYMBOLS No. 249587 awarded under the FP7 program), the LaScArBx, a research programme supported by the

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