Sea shells on the riverside: Cowrie ornaments from the PPNB site of Tell Halula (Euphrates, northern Syria)

Three species of cowries were identified, two originated from the Red Sea and one from the Mediterranean. The technological study indicated two possible methods of perforation and two qualities of finishing, whereas the use-wear analyses detected gradual degrees of marked use (notches) and distinguished thereby two categories of ornaments, the equally and unequally worn ornaments. When combined to metric and to technological data, the unequally worn ornaments appear to be the result of dynamic replacements of broken shells with undamaged ones. Such strategies of maintenances likely ensured a long-term use of cowrie ornaments, highlighting thereby their value. At Tell Halula, people displayed the impressive and exotic cowrie ornaments during their lifetime certainly to claim a strong cultural identity within an open and interconnected Neolithic world, in which the village of Tell Halula had a strategic and important role to play. This community may have also attributed prophylactic qualities to cowrie ornaments, as they were sometimes associated with individuals presenting lesions of diseases. Finally, the types of the ornament (belt or diadem) could have been chosen to distinguish social categories determined by the age of the individuals.