Place and context. A cave in the Essaouira region of Atlantic Morocco, approximately 12 km from the present coast. Excavations between 2014 and 2018 recovered 33 perforated marine shells: all but one from Middle Stone Age layer 4c, the other from layer 4a. Most are Tritia gibbosula, with one Columbella rustica. Layer 4c also contains stone tools, ash and charcoal. The excavators estimate that the contemporary shoreline was roughly 30–50 km from the cave. Sehasseh et al., Science Advances 7, eabi8620 (2021), especially figures 1 and 4.
What was dated. Uranium-series measurements were made on cave carbonate deposits (including a speleothem within layer 4c dated about 142 ka) and an animal tooth; the shells themselves were not directly dated. Most shells occur stratigraphically below the 142 ka carbonate, leading the authors to propose an age of at least ~142 ka for many. They report that optical luminescence results from layer 4c are markedly younger than the uranium-series results, with the cause unresolved; a change in environmental radiation dose is a proposed explanation, not a demonstrated resolution. See the paper's discussion of chronology and its table 1.
Claims. observed: perforated shells were recovered from recorded layer contexts. inferred, strong: humans brought and used many as ornaments, supported by localized polish and striations around apertures, some human modification, and pigment traces. dated, qualified: the ≥142 ka claim depends on the stratigraphic association with carbonate. open: the exact date of each shell's use and what the ornaments communicated. Similarity with beads elsewhere in North Africa is a useful comparison, but cannot by itself establish direct contact or identical meaning.
Next discriminating work. Locate and assess the supplementary stratigraphic and dating data, especially the contrast between uranium-series and luminescence estimates; compare manufacturing and wear patterns with well-dated Moroccan assemblages. Confirm object repository and catalog identifiers before using object images in a public atlas.