Morocco: discovery of ornaments presented as "the oldest in the world"

The researchers unveiled several necklaces and bracelets formed from small pierced shells colored with red ocher, found a few weeks ago in the cave of Bizmoune, near Essaouira (southwest).

"They constitute the oldest objects of adornment in the world with an age between 142,000 and 150,000 years," said Moroccan researcher Abdeljalil Bouzouggar, teacher at the National Institute of Archaeological Sciences and Heritage (INSAP).

The discovery was carried out by an international team made up of INSAP in Rabat, the University of Arizona (Tucson, United States) and the Mediterranean Laboratory of Prehistory Europe Africa (CNRS and University of Aix-Marseille, southern France). France).

This is a "major discovery for Morocco and for humanity", rejoiced the Moroccan Minister of Culture, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, stressing that it provided information on "the first civilizations that left us a heritage discovered today ".

In total, they identified around thirty shells including necklaces and bracelets.

They are "the oldest known in the world", explained the researcher, stressing that these shells would also have served as a communication tool.

"This is the first time that humans will use their body as a support, either to communicate with each other or with members of other groups, more or less distant from their place of origin," he said. .

According to Mr. Bouzouggar, these humans went to collect seashells on coastal beaches.

"There are a lot of species of shells but they went to look for the same species here in Morocco, in Algeria in a site dated 35,000 years old, in South Africa on a site dated 75,000 years ago or in Israel. in a site dated 135,000 years ago, "he noted.

Adornments found a few weeks ago in the cave of Bizmoune, near Essaouira (southwest), presented on November 18, 2021 in Rabat - AFP

In his eyes, "it means that these people shared something with each other. There was perhaps a language" that had emerged.

"They are symbolic objects, and symbols, unlike tools, can only be transmitted through a language," said the researcher.

The researcher recalled that Morocco was the site where "one of the oldest Homo Sapiens in the world" was identified: five individuals dating from around 315,000 years old, discovered in 2017 in Jebel Irhoud by the French researcher's team. Jean-Jacques Hublin.

© 2021 AFP