Written byAnastasia Scott
Learn how early humans in Israel’s Natufian period used clay ornaments to express identity, share skills, and build social connections before agriculture.
Faint fingerprints pressed into tiny clay beads are offering an intimate look into Ice Age life, revealing that children and adults once shaped ornaments side by side in some of the world’s earliest settled communities.
In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers analyzed 142 clay beads and pendants dating back roughly 15,000 years to the Natufian period in what is now Israel. Embedded in their surfaces were 50 preserved fingerprints, allowing scientists to identify the makers for the first time. Many of the beads were also coated in red pigment, which is one of the earliest known examples of this coloring technique anywhere in the world.
The prints belong to individuals of different ages, marking the largest known fingerprint assemblage from this period. The discovery not only pushes back the symbolic use of clay in Southwest Asia by thousands of years, but also reveals that ornament-making was a shared, everyday activity tied to learning and social connection.
“This discovery completely changes how we understand the relationship between clay, symbolism, and the emergence of settled life,” said lead author Laurent Davin in a press release.
Analyzing Ancient Natufian Clay Beads From Israel
Researchers uncovered the ornaments from four Natufian sites — el-Wad, Nahal Oren, Hayonim, and Eynan-Mallaha — representing communities that occupied the region over more than three millennia. The Natufians are widely recognized for establishing some of the earliest permanent settlements, well before the emergence of agriculture.
Clay objects from this period have rarely been documented, and earlier finds were limited to only a few examples, leaving their purpose unclear.
The newly analyzed assemblage provides a more complete picture. The beads were shaped by hand from unfired clay into discs, cylinders, and ovals, demonstrating consistent techniques across sites. Many retain traces of a red surface coating applied using a liquid clay mixture — an early use of a finishing method that would later become more widespread in ceramic traditions.
The number, variation, and repeated appearance of these objects across multiple locations indicate that working with clay was an established practice, not an isolated experiment.
Clay Beads Reflect Early Agriculture
The shapes of the beads draw directly from the environment that Natufian communities depended on. Researchers identified 19 distinct types, several of which resemble seeds and grains such as wild barley, wheat, lentils, and peas.
These plants were central to daily subsistence and later became foundational to early agriculture. Their appearance in ornament design indicates they carried cultural significance beyond their role as food.
In some cases, microscopic traces of plant fibers were preserved on the beads, revealing how they were strung or worn. Because organic materials rarely survive, these remnants provide insight into how the ornaments functioned in everyday life.
Together, the forms and materials point to a visual language rooted in familiar resources, where objects tied to survival also conveyed meaning and identity.
Bead-Making Spanned Generations
The fingerprint evidence shows that bead-making was not limited to a small group of specialists. Instead, individuals of different ages, including children, took part in shaping these objects, indicating the process unfolded in shared, social settings.
A small clay ring, for example, measuring about 10 millimeters across, appears to have been made for a child, indicating that these items were produced and used across age groups.
These patterns position ornament-making as part of daily life, where creating and wearing objects helped transmit skills, reinforce group identity, and maintain social connections.
They also reshape how archaeologists understand early symbolic behavior. Rather than emerging with agriculture, the use of clay for visual expression was already established among communities transitioning to more permanent settlement.
“These objects show that profound social and cognitive changes were already underway,” said co-author Leore Grosman. “The roots of the Neolithic lie deeper than we once thought.”
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