The manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads varies a bit from region to region, but generally follows similar steps. First, an ostrich egg is hit with a hammerstone, or an eggshell fragment is found. Then, bead blanks are selected from those fragments. The next two steps can be performed in either order depending on the group making the beads; either a hole is drilled in the bead's center, often with a sharp stone, piece of bone, or horn, or the process of trimming the bead is performed before the perforation. After trimming and perforation of the bead, several beads are strung together on a piece of cord. There might have been intentional burning during this process to darken the beads' color. Ethnographic and historical data in Africa indicates that these beads were manufactured by women in a time-intensive process. It may have been a seasonal process and regarded as a social event in some areas, with bead manufacturing occurring more frequently in large camps.
In southern Africa, historical ethnographic data all point to the use of iron tools for perforating the ostrich eggshell beads. Collins et al. argue that there were heat alterations to the ostrich eggshell beads found at a site called Grassridge Rockshelter in South Africa. This site showed significant signs of bead manufacture. The scholars note that grooved stone found at the site could be the tool used to finish the beads, since finishing the beads is traditionally done by using a coarse surface like the stone to grind them.
The style of ostrich eggshell beads has been used in scholarship to investigate the arrival of herding in areas of southern Africa. Specifically, bead diameter is thought to play a significant part in this process, with a larger diameter associated with the spread of herding. However, in a 2019 study by Miller and Sawchuk, the diameter size of ostrich eggshell beads did not appear to change during the period of the arrival of herding in eastern Africa. However, in many contexts foragers do appear to have manufactured smaller beads compared to pastoralists.
Between the period of 50 - 33 thousand years ago, a study by Miller and Wang suggests that the style of ostrich eggshell beads was nearly identical in eastern and southern Africa, though these styles diverged in later periods. Hatton et al. suggests that larger beads might have been preferred in the northeast of southern Africa, medium-sized beads were favored in the western region of southern Africa, and the small-size in the Drakensberg.
Ostrich eggshell beads are often used as personal adornment. Though it is difficult to determine the use of these beads in the past, Collins et al. conclude that the beads with depressions could have been sewn onto clothing or bags as adornment. Another possibility is that the beads were placed on necklaces or strings as jewelry. There is also a high volume of these beads found in pillar cemetery sites around Lake Turkana, which implies that the beads were important for identity signaling. The use of beads as personal adornment does not appear to have been differentiated based on an individual's age or sex, based on the analysis of grave goods.
Tryon argues that the archaeological evidence of beads missing in some contexts where the raw material is available in eastern Africa is indicative of the use of ostrich eggshell beads as a choice to reject certain technologies because they were perceived to be contrary to the needs or norms of the society.
Data derived from studying some modern African populations suggests that these beads hold symbolic meaning as personal adornment. The ethnographic data also show that individual beads can be used as a means to display social information, such as details about group norms. In the Kalahari today, ostrich eggshell beads are used by hunter-gatherer groups to adorn jewelry, clothing, and bags. However, archaeologists practice caution when using ethnographic data to inform interpretation of the archaeological record, since cultures change over time.
Ostrich eggshell beads found in the archaeological record were often imported from different locations. For example, ostrich eggshell beads are found in Lesotho archaeological sites, even though ostriches were not likely present in this region.
In their study of ostrich eggshell beads in southern and eastern Africa, Miller and Wang posit that since the style of the beads are so similar between the regions from the period of 50 - 33 thousand years ago, there was likely exchange going on between these two regions. They further suggest that the differences that emerged in style of the beads after this period indicate that the regional exchange network seemed to have broken down after 33 thousand years ago.
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Hatton, Amy; Collins, Benjamin; Schoville, Benjamin J.; Wilkins, Jayne (2022-06-01). "Ostrich eggshell beads from Ga-Mohana Hill North Rockshelter, southern Kalahari, and the implications for understanding social networks during Marine Isotope Stage 2". PLOS ONE. 17 (6): e0268943. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1768943H. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0268943. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 9159631. PMID 35648787. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9159631
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Mitchell, Peter J. (March 1996). "Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern africa: Marine shells and ostrich eggshell". The African Archaeological Review. 13 (1): 35–76. doi:10.1007/bf01956132. ISSN 0263-0338. S2CID 162133448. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf01956132
"Ages Ago, Beads Made From Ostrich Eggshells Cemented Friendships Across Vast Distances". National Public Radio. March 14, 2020. Retrieved April 13, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815778427/ages-ago-beads-made-from-ostrich-eggshells-cemented-friendships-across-vast-dist
Mitchell, Peter J. (March 1996). "Prehistoric exchange and interaction in southeastern southern africa: Marine shells and ostrich eggshell". The African Archaeological Review. 13 (1): 35–76. doi:10.1007/bf01956132. ISSN 0263-0338. S2CID 162133448. https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf01956132