Beads, beadwork, and personal ornaments are made of diverse materials such as shell, bone, stones, minerals, and composite materials. Their exploration from geographical and chronological settings around the world offers a glimpse at some of the cutting edge research within the fast growing field of personal ornaments in humanities’ past. Recent studies are based on a variety of analytical procedures that highlight humankind’s technological advances, exchange networks, mortuary practices, and symbol-laden beliefs. Papers discuss the social narratives behind bead and beadwork manufacture, use and disposal; the way beads work visually, audibly and even tactilely to cue wearers and audience to their social message(s). Understanding the entangled social and technical aspects of beads require a broad spectrum of technical and methodological approaches including the identification of the sources for the raw material of beads. These scientific approaches are also combined in some instances with experimentation to clarify the manner in which beads were produced and used in past societies.

• Front Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table Of Contents
• List of Contributors
• 1. Introduction: The Archaeology of Beads, Beadwork and Personal Ornaments
• Part 1: Socio-cultural Reflections
  • 2. Traditions and Change in Scaphopod Shell Beads in Northern Australia from the Pleistocene to the Recent Past
  • 3. Magdalenian “Beadwork Time” in the Paris Basin (France): Correlation between Personal Ornaments and the Function of Archaeological Sites
  • 4. Personal Adornment and Personhood among the Last Mesolithic Foragers of the Danube Gorges in the Central Balkans and Beyond
  • 5. Ornamental Shell Beads as Markers of Exchange in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B of the Southern Levant
  • 6. Games, Exchange, and Stone: Hunter-Gatherer Beads at Home
• Part 2: Audio and Visual Social Cues
  • 7. The Natufian Audio-Visual Bone Pendants from Hayonim Cave
  • 8. Bead Biographies from Neolithic Burial Contexts: Contributions from the Microscope
  • 9. The Tutankhamun Beadwork: An Introduction to Archaeological Beadwork Analysis
• Part 3: Methodological Approaches
  • 10. A Mother-of-Pearl Shell Pendant from Nexpa, Morelos
  • 11. Detailing the Bead-Maker: Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) of Steatite Disk Beads from Prehistoric Napa Valley, California
• Part 4: Experimentation and Technology
  • 12. Experimental Replication of Stone, Bone and Shell Beads from Early Neolithic Sites in Southeast Europe
  • 13. The Reproduction of Small Prehistoric Tusk Shell Beads