NOVA Online (click here for NOVA home)
Ice Mummies
Site Map

Where did her exotic shell jewelry come from?
(back to Reading the Remains)

Some of the beads as well as the disks and bracelet are from mollusk species that prefer a clean habitat rich in coral. Since the Princess lived at the mouth of a muddy estuary, it seems likely that the shell was obtained from some distance, perhaps through an exchange network that included other communities. Controlling trade goods and accumulating such rare and desirable objects as the Tridacna and cowrie shells found at the site would have been one way of succeeding in a society such as Khok Phanom Di.



Peru Expedition '96 | Unquiet Mummies | Iceman's Last Meal
Reading the Remains | Resources | Teacher's Guide
Transcripts | Site Map | Ice Mummies Home

Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule
About NOVA | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Jobs | Search | To print
PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH

© | Updated November 2000
Feedback Site Map NOVA Home