# Ancient Ornaments, Ancient Routes: What Two Shell Beads Reveal About ​California’s Deep Past *Radiocarbon dating pushes the age of giant rock scallop beads back 8,500 years and extends their known range far beyond the California coast.* By Sandee Oster · Published 7 August 2026 Source: https://archaeologyteahouse.com/stories/ancient-ornaments-ancient-routes-what-two-shell-beads-reveal-about-california-s-deep-past --- ![Scallop](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/019fdcc0-cf97-7491-bcdb-b75d51d44daf/960.webp) *A giant rock scallop. Credit: [Wikimedia Commons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crassadoma#/media/File:Crassedoma_giganteum_1.jpg)* I remember excavating at a site on the foot of the Drakensberg mountains a few years ago. It lay right in the center between sites located in the Lesotho Drakensberg and the Eastern Cape coast. We were hoping to find at least one shell during that excavation, not just any shell, mind you, but a marine shell. You see, high up in the Lesotho Drakensberg mountains, marine shells and marine shell beads have been found. Of course, these needed to have come from the coast, which in turn meant people had to carry or trade those marine shells inland. We were hoping that by finding a marine shell where we were excavating, we would find evidence of a potential route that these shells may have traveled — the middle point, so to speak. We sadly did not find any marine shells. While we were unsuccessful in our endeavors, around half a world away, another team of archaeologists was successful. At the California Flats, sites yielded evidence of marine shells, and not just any marine shells, but beads made from giant rock scallops. What made them special? Well, both beads push this ornament tradition deeper into both time and territory than previously known. ### Scallops Unlike Any Other ![Scall 2](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/019fdcc1-a310-7490-a2e0-b8b634a71882/960.webp) *Giant rock scallop specimen. Credit: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Naturalis_Biodiversity_Center_-_ZMA.MOLL.11349_-_Crassadoma_gigantea_%28J.E._Gray,_1825%29_-_Pectinidae_-_Mollusc_shell.jpeg)* The two dated scallops belonged to a species called the giant rock scallop (*Crassadoma gigantea*), also known as the purple-hinged rock scallop. They occur in waters as far south as northern Mexico and as far north as Alaska. However, collecting them is a bit of a challenge, as they live below the tidal zone, meaning they’re always submerged, regardless of the tide. Despite their wide range, beads made from these scallops have typically been found in the Santa Barbara Channel, though a few outliers, such as disk beads found in the Johnson Mound in Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, suggest they may also have occurred in Northern California in more recent times. It was once thought that the manufacturing of these beads was a relatively recent phenomenon, something that came about in the last 1,000 years or so. Though more recent research suggests the tradition may be as old as 8,000 years in the Northern Channel Islands. But the contextual and chronological data supporting this much older, long chronology had been lacking, until the study by Barry Price and his colleagues Simone Schinsing and Jasmine Kidwell came along. ### Finding Something Interesting ![Turk](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/019fdcc2-73d7-778f-b038-9d5e88e65058/960.webp) *Giant rock scallop bead from the Turkey Flats site. Credit: Price et al. 2026* Between 2012 and 2020, archaeological survey work needed to be carried out ahead of the construction of the California Flats Solar Project, a 280-megawatt solar station raised on rangeland in southeastern Monterey County. The project’s surrounding grassland locality, Turkey Flat, alone spans nearly 2,800 acres (~1,133 ha). But before construction could officially begin, survey work first needed to identify any archaeological heritage, record and excavate it, and preserve what they could for the future. Among the sites identified were the Turkey Flat Site and the Lichtenstein Site, both set in the interior of the South Coast Ranges, roughly 35 miles (~56 km) from the San Joaquin Valley and 42 miles (~68 km) from the Pacific Coast at Morro Bay. People have lived in this region for more than 10,000 years, with the descendants of today’s Salinan, Yokuts, and Chumash still connected to the land. Throughout the excavation, representatives of the Salinan, Chumash, and Yokuts were involved in the fieldwork at both sites. According to Price, this was important as the tribe played an important part in shaping their research design and field methodology. Of course, they also challenged the researchers to see the objects they excavated not solely as artifacts but as integral parts of tribal culture. Something that is sometimes forgotten when excavating ancient sites. Across the California Flats, up to 124 shell ornaments were recovered. Most of these came from the purple olive snail (*Callianax biplicata*), an intertidal species found in the waters of British Columbia, Canada to Baja California, Mexico. A rare few mollusks, however, really stood out from the crowd, namely two Dentalium tusk shells and two giant rock scallop beads. The latter two were of particular interest. Their occurrence on the California Flats was the furthest afield they had ever been found. In fact, most agreed that the giant rock scallop ornaments were a hallmark of the people living in the Santa Barbara Channel, with most beads found across dozens of sites from Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz Island, and others still from Mescalitan Island and a curious handful popping up in the faraway Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Many of these Santa Barbara Channel beads were also relatively recent, having been made in the late period in the final centuries before European contact. It was thought that the challenge involved in getting these scallops alongside how difficult it was to actually shape them into beads is what made them special in art. The extra time and skill needed to make them thus led to the giant rock scallop beads becoming markers of high status among the Barbareño Chumash. But as I mentioned before, some revisions suggest that giant rock scallop ornaments may be a much older tradition reaching across the whole of the Holocene. With a pendant from San Miguel Island found in contexts dated to ~8,000 years, and another ornament from the same island, roughly dated to 6,000 years. With this in mind, the researchers wanted to find out if the California Flats giant scallop beads were equally old and where exactly they came from. ### Age and Origin ![Licht](https://archaeologyteahouse.com/media/019fdcc3-1e9b-736d-8e30-e1b3896013e8/960.webp) *Giant rock scallop bead from the Lichtenstein site. Credit: Price et al. 2026* 68 radiocarbon dates were drawn from five sites in the California Flats. The dates came from various items ranging from marine shells, to bone and charcoal. Among the items dated were the two giant rock scallops, which gave them a direct date. The result? The Lichtenstein bead was dated to roughly 3,674 years ago, placing it squarely in a settlement boom that occurred in the area between 5,200 and 2,800 years ago. The communities of this era had a rich bead tradition, including thick rectangular beads, caps, and spire-lopped beads made from the purple olive snail and Dentalium ornaments. A toolkit that lined up with other communities of the early period found on the coast and Middle Archaic communities in the Central Valley, and Berkeley Pattern sites found around the Bay. And what about the Turkey Flat scallop? At 8,508 years old, it is the oldest known example of this globular bead form, closely aligning with the San Miguel Island finds. Price wasn’t too surprised by the age, as he had found other equally old or older components at this and nearby sites, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t thrilled. This was not just the oldest example of its kind but a single thread in a much wider Early Holocene world that clearly had taken root in the landscape thousands of years ago, perhaps even as far back as 10,000 years. It is tempting to say any giant rock scallop likely came from the Channel Islands, but pinning down exactly where a shell bead came from remains genuinely difficult. Different methods have various caveats in their application, and the best available tool used for determining the origin of marine scallops so far is by using oxygen and carbon isotopes, a method that was developed from purple olive snails. This method can sometimes indicate whether a shell came from southern or central California, but it also yields inconclusive results. Things are complicated when the method is applied to different shell species, habitats, and growing seasons. Even so, in an attempt to discern where these giant rock scallops came from, the researchers applied the method. The Lichtenstein bead’s chemical signature was too ambiguous to confidently place, but the much older Turkey Flat bead originated in southern California, hinting at a genuine link between the Channel Island populations and the inland California Flats population more than 8,000 years ago. What is really interesting is that the bead came from hundreds of miles away, much farther afield than the point on the coast nearest the sites where they were found. --- The study doesn’t just reveal the oldest securely dated giant rock scallop bead and extend its known range far beyond the Channel Islands; it does more than that, too. It tells us about the people who carried, traded, and treasured these shells and beads for one reason or another. According to Price, they speak to the broader human condition; how people lived, died, and help us build an understanding of these past cultures, recognizing their role in shaping the Indigenous communities whose descendants carry that legacy forward. Are you surprised that giant rock scallop shell beads were found so far inland? And do you think this tradition could be much older still? *Let me know your thoughts, and if you’d like to support the countless hours I pour into researching, writing, and bringing these hidden corners of history to life, why not *[*Buy Me A Coffee*](https://buymeacoffee.com/sandeeoster) --- ### Reference Price, B. A., Schinsing, S. M., & Kidwell, J. B. (2025). AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Giant Rock Scallop Beads from the Interior of California’s Southern Coast Range. *California Archaeology*, 1–16. [https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2026.2659482](https://doi.org/10.1080/1947461X.2026.2659482)