It’s like Tiffany’s for the Stone Age. Inside a glass case, a dozen examples of Nassarius kraussianus are arranged in a circle, a necklace without a string. These tiny white shells, all pierced near the lip, are prehistoric beads, dated at around 77,000 years old.
“Before the Blombos beads were found, it was thought that the earliest beads date to about 40,000 years ago, and that they are only found in Europe,” says Dr Sarah Wurz, curator of pre-colonial archaeology in the Social History Collections Department of Iziko Museums of Cape Town.
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The shell beads tell us that prehistoric society was probably just like we are. Because we are the only group of primates that wear ornaments
Dr Sarah Wurz is curator of pre-colonial archaeology at the Social History Collections Department of Iziko Museums of Cape Town.
Her chief research interest is the evolution of the mind. To establish how modern thinking came about, she has studied the history of anatomically modern humans and their Middle Stone Age artefacts, including the stone tools, bone tools and shell beads found at important Western Cape sites, such as Klasies River and Blombos Cave. She is also investigating the evolutionary origins of music – how an ability to sing and make music may have helped social bonding and the development of a symbolic mnemonic strategy.
Wurz is a Doctor of Philosophy in Archaeology (DPhil), who studied at South Africa's University of Stellenbosch. She also holds a BA Honours in Counselling Psychology and an MA Music Science cum laude. She has worked as a school teacher, an archaeology and tourism heritage lecturer, a heritage database developer and specialist at the South African Heritage Resources Agency.
It’s like Tiffany’s for the Stone Age. Inside a glass case, a dozen examples of Nassarius kraussianus are arranged in a circle, a necklace without a string. These tiny white shells, all pierced near the lip, are prehistoric beads, dated at around 77,000 years old.
