The earliest known ceramic beads as adornment from Nanzhuangtou site in North China 10,000 years ago

The innovation of artificial materials marks a pivotal advancement in human technology. However, direct evidence of their earliest symbolic application remains scarce. In this paper, two tubular ceramic beads were studied, approximately 10,000-year-old, from the Nanzhuangtou site in North China. These beads represent among the earliest known ornaments made from a fully synthetic material, with their age constrained to approximately 10,000 cal BP through stratigraphic association with directly dated materials. A multi-analytical approach was employed, incorporating X-ray fluorescence, high-resolution micro-computed tomography, scanning electron and optical microscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. This approach was used to demonstrate that the beads were fabricated from locally sourced clay. They were formed around a plant stem to create a hollow structure, and were fired at low temperatures (around 500–600℃). Their morphological attributes strongly suggest that they were used as personal adornments. This discovery provides crucial empirical evidence that nascent pottery technology was used for symbolic expression during the critical Palaeolithic-Neolithic transition, thus extending the known chronology of the decorative use of synthetic materials by millennia.