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The Ādam Paradox Hypothesis 131
Archaeological Traces of Numbers
How can archaeologists infer the size of ancient populations when bones and
burials rarely preserve direct census data? The answer lies in the indirect
signatures of numbers — the material traces of surplus, exchange, and
cooperation.When groups are small and fragile, their technologies remain local,
sporadic, and simple. But when groups grow, they generate artifacts that serve
not just survival but social scaling: ornaments to mark belonging, tokens to
enable exchange, tools that sustain more mouths, and eventually, settlements
that anchor communities in place.
Between 100,000 and 30,000 years ago, the archaeological record begins to
flicker with precisely such signals. They are not random curiosities but material
footprints of multiplying people.
Blombos Cave: Beads as Social Contracts
One of the most famous sites in this debate is Blombos Cave, located on the
southern coast of South Africa. Excavations there uncovered more than
seventy-five small Nassarius kraussianus shells, each pierced with a tiny hole.
Microscopic analysis revealed polish and wear marks, proving they were strung
together and worn as necklaces or ornaments (d’Errico et al., 2005).
To modern eyes, beads may appear trivial. Yet to anthropologists, they are
revolutionary. Unlike stone tools, which can serve purely practical functions,
beads are useless without shared meaning. Their value lies in agreement: a bead
signifies that its wearer belongs to something larger — a clan, a lineage, a
network.
Francesco d’Errico emphasized this point:
“Beads are unambiguous indicators of symbolism because they require shared meaning. For a
bead to function, the group must agree on what it signifies.
” (d’Errico et al., 2005, p. 9)
One bead could be an accident. Seventy-five beads across stratified layers are
tradition. Tradition implies teaching, transmission, and recognition.
Recognition, in turn, allows strangers to cooperate. At Blombos, we see not
just decoration but the earliest material evidence of social contracts — objects
binding people into wider networks of trust.