Seashell Artifacts
In the 1960s. in the city of Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, archaeologists uncovered a vast necropolis. a prehistoric burial site, comprising at least 300 graves dug over Six and a half thousand years ago. In some of the graves they found ornaments made of gold and other rare materials. The attire of the most opulently outfitted Varna man, believed to have been the community leader,included an exquisite seashell bracelet that had been broken and mended with a gold plate. The seashell was from a marine animal Spondylus (“spiny oyster”) that had not come from the Black Sea but was from hundreds of miles away. Found across Europe, most ancient Spondylus artifacts were apparently made from shells collected while the animals were still alive and attached to their native rock homes; there are few signs of wear to suggest they spent time in the surf before being collected. When scientists analyzed the oxygen in ancient Spondylus objects, they found a chemical signature that became part of the shells while they grew. This revealed their Mediterranean origins, and in particular the warm, clear waters of the Aegean Sea. It was here, around the seventh or sixth millennium BC; that 1ocal artisans began fashioning Spondylus shells into ornaments, including many ring-shapes, which were likely worn around the arms as bracelets.
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