Alright, as no one else has answered yet I'll have a crack!

When you say a fragment of red ochre bead do you mean a bead made of an iron oxide mineral (such as hematite) or a bead made out of other materials (such as clay or shell) that has been coloured using an iron oxide pigment?

Ochre has been used as to colour objects associated with personal adornment for a long, long time. In 2007 there was the widely reported discovery of 82,000 year old shell beads with ochre traces from the Grotte des Pigeons in Morocco (link to the paper in PNAS below).

A good general place to start looking for information on the use of iron oxides (both as objects and pigments) is George Rapp's book Archaeomineralogy (2009). A couple of relevant pages are available to preview on Google Books (linked below).

One of the points that Rapp raises is that there is, amongst archaeologists, often a lot of confusion over exactly what we mean when we say 'ochre' (with it frequently being applied to anything a bit reddish). Following on from this I was wondering if you'd managed to have the bead analysed or if it's designation as red ochre was solely based on the colour. If the latter then it might be worth (if the budget is available or there is a friendly scientist nearby) having it analysed to check if it is indeed red ochre, another iron oxide pigment (such as umber) or a different colourant entirely. 

As to the main point of your question: I'm not a prehistorian, so am afraid I can't provide any examples or parallels for your region or period.  Hopefully someone with real knowledge will be along shortly to answer :)

Edit: removed the bit about contacting Dušan since I saw via ResearchGate that you know him already, sorry!

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ed0yC98aAKYC&lpg=PA1&dq=Archaeomineralogy&pg=PA207#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.pnas.org/content/104/24/9964.full

Have you looked at Mircea Eliade's book "The Forge and The Crucible: The Origins and Structure of Alchemy" ?  Much of the book relates to the symbolism of ochre, going back into pre-history. As to whether or not he specifically mentions ochre beads, I don't remember, it's been years since I read the book, but found the book to be a masterpiece.

We found in central Brazil, some beads on hematite, usually small rectangles, it's associated to Arcaic hunter gatherers/incipient agriculture/ small pottery. around 2000 yBP. Archaeological Site Ferraz Egreja (rock shelter), researchers  DEnis Vialou, Agueda V Vialou and Levy Figuti

Hi, this is very interesting. Is it a fragment of discoidal bead? have you tried to check in the last article of Daniella Bar Yosef on Journal of Field Archaeology 2013 (vol.38)? I remember some reddish beads in some of the figures.. 

EC

Yes, there are hematite and limonite beads from Ancestral Pueblo contexts in the US Southwest, although these materials more often seem to have been used as pigments. 

For South-East Poland Joanna Trąbska did a lot of research on provenancing ocre minerals:

E.g.: Joanna Trąbska, Provenancing of red ferruginous artefacts and raw materials inPalaeolithic societies. In: Katalin T. Biró & András Markó (eds.), Papers in honour of Viola T. Dobosi (Budapest 2011), 245-256.

http://mek.oszk.hu/09200/09253/pdf/trabska.pdf

Joanna Trąbska & Adam Gaweł, Ferruginous raw material sources for Palaeolithic in Poland  – Promising results of provenance studies. In: 9th International Conference on NDT of Art, Jerusalem Israel, 25-30 May 2008

http://www.ndt.net/article/art2008/papers/047Trabska.pdf

Best regards,

Stefan

A perforated bead of red ochre has been found in the Netehrlands in a site of the Ahrensburg culture (Late Palaeolithic) about 10.600-9700 BP. In the Ahrensburg culture thereare numerous artifacts with stains of red ochre.

greetz,

Jos

Dear all,

Thank you for your very helpful answers.

Hi!  If you are asking about ceramic beads with red ochre, there are some from China. They were excavated, if I remember correctly, with the large neolithic jars (also ceramic).

One of my students finished an MA thesis on the various uses of ochre in the Palaeolithic - with some indications on later periods, ethnography, and much other information. The book will probably appear at the beginning of next year, but generally, as has already been mentioned above, there is much incorrect use of "ochre" in archaeology - this may mean a whole range of minerals, indeed mostly of iron-compounds or mixtures. Red colour minerals (mostly haematite) have in fact been used for more than 100.000 years, i.e. from deep in the Palaeolithic, and certainly before the appearance of "modern humans".

For the Eneolithic in Romania the nearest (in space and time) should be the so called Ochre-Grave culture (also known as Yamnaya), which made use of ochre frequently in burial contexts. Some such burials were found at Brailita in Romania, but more information may be found in the recent book: Ion Motzoi-Chicideanu, Obiceiuri funerare în epoca bronzului la Dunărea Mijlocie şi Inferioară I-II. Editura Academiei Române (Bucureşti 2011), which includes also the Yamnaya burials.

Red ocher was found in a Preclassic Maya burial at Cuello, Belize, in Central America (ca. CE 100).  The individual was one of two adult males buried in a seated position, along with human bone bundles in their laps.  An additional ten secondary burials of adult males were found nearby.  The original source is Cynthia Robin's BAR volume on Preclassic Burials at Cuello.  

Thanks Jon.  I'll looking for that article.

Hi,

from Durankulak (northeastern Bulgaria) is known a necklace of beads made from ocre and resin from a grave of the Copper Age:

Henrieta Todorova & Ivan Vajsov, Der kupferzeitliche Schmuck Bulgariens. Prähistorische Bronzefunde XX, 6 (Stuttgart 2001).  [-> page 56]

http://books.google.de/books?id=KU15Pj5uvRwC&lpg=PA1&ots=pjVAjwr6mq&dq=Ocker%20Perle&lr&hl=de&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=Ocker%20&f=false

Best regards,

Stefan

Dear Stefan,

Thank you for the information.

Best wishes,

Catalin