If you look around your bedroom, or in the door pocket of your car, you may have a cool shell you've found and kept. Maybe it's a nice pinky-orange, or has a perfect little hole so that one day you could make a necklace.

Derived from the Latin words “manus,” meaning “hand,” and “portare,” meaning “to carry,” a manuport is an un-altered object that has been transported by a “person” away from its place of origin.

Not that your shell isn’t super cool, but manuports are most interesting in the context of archaeology. When attributed to hominins living millions of years ago, they provide a window into the lives of our ancient ancestors.