A myth debunked. The Porosphaera globularis beads and their relation to the onset of symbolic thinking in prehistory

Abstract

Because of their inherent symbolic significance, personal ornaments gained a key role in the scientific debate regarding the emergence and evolution of symbolic behaviour; the presumed Acheulean beads discovered in the nineteenth century in northern Europe’s sites are considered crucial evidence of this. The fossils of the sponge Porosphaera globularis, because of their morphological characteristics, have been interpreted by some archaeologists as the starting point of this evolutionary path. In this work, the largest collection of Porosphaera globularis specimens is analysed, after remaining unpublished to this day. This was originally found in the French site of Saint-Acheul and preserved at the Civic Museums of Modena. An integrated analysis was carried out to understand whether these fossils were indeed used as beads; results revealed that they were actually not used as ornaments. This suggests the importance of finding strong arguments and evidence to support theories about the development of cognitive abilities in the genus Homo.

Archaeology in 2022: Counter‐myths for hopeful futures

“…In a hopeful archaeology, all futures are equally “imagined.” Archaeologists thus have a role to play in interpreting the past according to the kinds of futures we might want for humanity—and nonhumans—rather than defaulting to an endless capitalist and colonial dystopia based on an unimaginative, reductive, and inappropriate interpretation of the past. Archaeology in 2022 has contributed meaningfully to debunking myths about the past and reframing our narratives to imagine better futures (Berruti et al., 2022; Cobb and Crellin, 2022; Fryer, 2023; Greenberg and Hamilakis, 2022; Jaffe et al., 2022; Laluk et al., 2022; Matthews, 2020; Papachrysostomou et al., 2022; Politopoulos et al., in press).…”