Beads: Ritual and Ornamentation

Beads: Ritual and Ornamentation is a small exhibition containing big ideas, including ammunition in the debate on when and where modern human behaviour began. The South African Museum's exhibit looks at beads and their uses through the ages in Africa. The oldest beads on show are 77,000-year-old Nassarius kraussianus, tick shells once inhabited by tiny mollusks and fashioned into Stone Age bling by hunter-gatherers armed with bone points. Also on display are ancient ostrich eggshell necklaces, tortoise shells – aka San cosmetic containers – decorated with beads and a colourful 20th-century qhina (necklet) worn by a Xhosa diviner. Dr Sarah Wurz is the curator.