YORK, ENGLAND—Using a variety of non-destructive techniques, scientists have pinned down the species of shells used to make beads unearthed at the Early Bronze Age site of Great Cornard in southeastern England. Worked shells beads are notoriously difficult to identify by species, since most identifying features of the shells are destroyed while the beads are being made. There had been speculation that the Great Cornard beads were made of the Mediterranean thorny oyster, which would have been brought to Britain via extensive trade networks. But thanks to amino acid analysis and scanning electron microscopy, the team was able to identify the beads' raw material as dog whelks and tusk shells. "Dog whelks and tusk shells were likely to be available locally so these people did not have to travel far to get hold of the raw materials for their beads," said archaeologist Beatrice Demarchi in a University of York press release.