The oldest shell jewellery workshop in Western Europe
Archaeologists have announced a discovery that could change our understanding of the origins of art and symbolic expression in prehistory. In Saint-Césaire, in southwestern France, what is believed to be the oldest shell jewelry workshop in Western Europe, dating back at least 42,000 years, has been identified.
The site, known as La Roche-à-Pierrot, revealed dozens of perforated shells of the species Littorina obtusata, some dyed with red and yellow pigments. According to experts, these are not just isolated adornments, but a real space for the production of ornaments.
Analysis showed that the shells came from the Atlantic coast, about 100 km away, while the pigments were obtained from deposits located more than 40 km away. For researchers, this mobility indicates that human groups at the time already maintained exchange networks or made long journeys.
The find is associated with the Châtelperronian culture, present in France and northern Spain between 55,000 and 42,000 years ago—a period marked by the arrival of Homo sapiens in the region and the gradual decline of the last Neanderthals. Until now, the most common objects from this context were bone tools and adornments made from animal teeth. Shell jewelry, therefore, represents a novelty in the symbolic repertoire of the time.
The discovery also touches on one of the great debates in archaeology: who produced these ornaments? Were they Neanderthals who absorbed new cultural customs, or modern humans who brought this practice from Africa? For scientists, the Saint-Césaire workshop suggests direct contact and exchange of knowledge between the two groups, revealing a more complex coexistence than previously imagined.
In addition to the jewelry, the archaeological site is already famous for having revealed, in 1979, one of the best-preserved Neanderthal skeletons found in Europe. Today, the site is considered a true “natural laboratory” for understanding how different human groups lived, interacted, and transformed over nearly 30,000 years of occupation.
The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), involve the collaboration of eleven French laboratories and are supported by institutions such as the CNRS and the University of Bordeaux.
For experts, the shell jewelry workshop is not just a curious find, but proof that creative impulse and the need to symbolize identity were already deeply rooted in the human mind tens of thousands of years ago.
More information: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2508014122
