The incredible number of shiny shell beads found in the Montelirio tomb reveals the power of an ancient female dynasty.

The Montelirio bead assemblage holds about 270,000 beads in a Copper Age tomb near Seville, Spain, marking buried women as ...

Excavations in eastern Morocco have yielded 13 perforated, pigment-stained shells that were probably strung together as some type of body ornament about 82,000 years ago, according to a new report.

Two of the most commonly accepted theories for the origin of money are the commodity theory and the chartalist theory. Both have drawbacks, but in recent years, the chartalist theory has gained much ...

As one of the most experienced archaeologists studying California’s Native Americans, Lynn Gamble knew the Chumash Indians had been using shell beads as money for at least 800 years. But an exhaustive ...

Archaeologists show that the Chumash Indians had been using shell beads as money for at least 800 years. As one of the most experienced archaeologists studying California's Native Americans, Lynn ...

An experimental replica of shell beads with Natufian red organic colorant made from the roots of Rubiaceae plants. (Laurent Davin/Creative Commons via Courthouse News) (CN) — The Natufians, the first ...

Turns out, beaded jewelry is no fleeting trend. Archaeologists have unearthed what is likely to be the oldest piece of jewelry on record, and it happens to be 33 shell beads that date back 150,000 ...

PEOPLE living in what is now California may have been the first Americans to invent money, according to a new analysis of shell beads produced 2000 years ago by the Chumash, a Native American ...

ARLINGTON, Va.- Perforated shells found at South Africa's Blombos Cave appear to have been strung as beads about 75,000 years ago-making them 30,000 years older than any previously identified personal ...

SANTA BARBARA, CALIFORNIA—According to a statement released by the University of California, Santa Barbara, archaeologist Lynn Gamble compared and measured different types of shell beads made by ...