In 1983, Ofer Bar-Yosef led an excavation of Nahal Hemar Cave, which is located in the Judean Desert in southeastern Israel. The findings were radiocarbon dated to 9,900 – 9,400 years BP, or a time period known in the Levant as the Neolithic. The assemblage produced a wide variety of finds, including bone figurines, carved masks, and decorated skulls, as well as fragments of fabric, wood and stone. In combination, these artifacts have played an important role in our understanding of the Neolithic Levant.
More recently, researchers at the University of Haifa in Israel have conducted an analysis of the plaster beads that were uncovered at Nahal Hemar Cave. The ASPR is proud to have supported this work and its subsequent publication. Below, some of the key findings of the bead study will be discussed. This research was done by Yaara Shafrir, Danielle Bar-Yosef, Gal Bermatov-Paz, David Friesem, and Iris Groman Yaroslavski, and more information can be found in their publication about the study, which also serves as the singular citation for this article:
Shafrir, Yaara, Daniella Bar-Yosef, Gal Bermatov-Paz, David Friesem, and Iris Groman-Yaroslavski. (2025). Unique adornments from the PPNB: Properties of the plaster beads from Nahal Hemar Cave. In Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. 67. 10.1016/j.jasrep.2025.105438.
The original excavation of Nahal Hemar Cave
When the cave was excavated in 1983, archaeologists found an exceptional collection of well-preserved objects thanks to the cave’s dry conditions. The material dates to roughly 7950–7450 BCE, placing it in the Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. The cave held objects linked to both daily life and ritual activity. It also contained an unusually rich assortment of beads made from shell, stone, wood, and plaster. Because many of the finds relate to bodies and ritual display, scholars think the cave functioned as a ceremonial storeroom, where symbolic items were gathered and used in mortuary practices. Today, they offer a rare glimpse into the belief systems and aesthetic choices of early farming communities in the Levant.
Beads were among the findings from Nahal Hemar Cave. The colorful plaster beads are unique in the archaeological record – they are not found in other Neolithic sites – and seem to have been made locally. In the Levant, the first beads are dated to 100-135 years BP, but don’t appear in substantial quantities until about 15,000 years BP. The study by Yaara Shafrir and colleagues focused on the plaster beads, aiming to understand what they were made of and how they were made.
What did the beads look like, and what were they made of?
The beads range from about 15 to 33mm in length, and, on average, they weighed a little more than a US penny. They came in a variety of shapes, including ellipsoid, barrel-shaped, rhomboid, and more, each with a central hole. Some still contain bits of the original cord, and many show the twisted imprint of string in their perforations. They were brightly decorated, with coatings in red, green, and sometimes black, occasionally appearing in stripes or layered colors. They were made of plaster composed mainly of calcite (a calcium-carbonate–rich material), sometimes with small amounts of minerals such as anhydrite and traces of clay. Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Petrographic thin-section analysis, and Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) were some of the techniques that the authors used to determine the beads’ composition.
How were the beads made?
The authors suggest that the beads weren’t all made the same way, but followed a few recurring hand-modeling techniques. In some cases, the plaster was flattened into a small disc and then wrapped around a cord; this left characteristic pinched, V-like marks at the bead’s ends where the edges met. More commonly, a small lump of plaster was simply pressed and shaped directly onto a cord, sometimes leaving shallow nail or finger impressions where it was tightened. A third group has perfectly smooth, straight perforations, suggesting that instead of a cord, the wet plaster was shaped around a slim stick or straw that was later removed. In short, the holes were created by forming the bead around something, not drilling afterward, and small surface traces on the beads preserve the motions of the original modeling process. To better understand these processes, the researchers ran a reproduction experiment, in which they made replica beads.
As part of their study, the authors replicated the bead production process. Here, they are coating the beads with a dye made of red ochre (top images) and then, after drying them, coating them with a black varnish and green copper oxide (bottom).
Why are the beads significant?
The beads are significant because they seem to have been made for display rather than daily wear. The plaster material is relatively fragile, and the beads show very little surface wear, suggesting they were not used regularly or for long periods. Because they were not durable enough for everyday use, the authors argue they were likely meant to be presented or placed, not worn in life. This interpretation fits with what is known about Nahal Hemar Cave as a ritual-focused space filled with symbolic and mortuary objects. Taken together, the evidence suggests the beads may have been created specifically to decorate the dead, rather than to serve as personal ornaments for the living.