Carnelian Crystals from Botswana
Colourful and translucent carnelian crystals produced from material mined in Botswana.
These beautifully polished tumbled stones exhibit a rich blend of colour.
Their smooth, glass-like appearance and texture make them incredibly tactile.
Carnelian beads found in southern Israel are some of the oldest examples of bead-making.
Researchers who studied these beads, which date back over 9,000 years (around 8500–7500 BC), discovered that ancient artisans used surprisingly advanced techniques to craft them.
The process involved shaping the carnelian with abrasive surfaces, drilling holes using tools likely made from sharp splinters, and then polishing them through tumbling. These techniques are similar to methods still used in traditional bead-making today, which shows that early humans had developed highly skilled lapidary (stone-working) technologies thousands of years ago.
Tumbling could have been done by placing the beads in a container, such as a leather pouch, clay pot, or hollowed-out stone, along with an abrasive, such as sand or fine grit. The container may then have been shaken or rolled repeatedly to polish the beads.
Another possibility is that they relied on natural tumbling processes. The rough beads may have been placed in a flowing stream where water and sand acted as a natural abrasive over time.
Although labour-intensive and slow, this would have effectively smoothed and polished the carnelian, achieving results similar to modern-day rock tumblers.
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