Aspects of manufacture were considered, with systematic recording of polishing striations on the front and back of each piece, and details of the perforations.
Table 1 summarises the nature of manufacturing striations on the two main classes of bracer studied: those made from red jasper and those that were grey, brown or black in colour. It can be seen that the jasper items were characterised by roughly equal proportions of longitudinal and diagonal striations on the front surface but a marked preponderance of diagonal striations on the rear. Among the grey and brown bracers, the dominant directions of striations were rather more diverse. This appears to indicate standardised methods of manufacture for the jasper bracers, and this may have taken place at specific places or workshops.
| Face | Rock | Longitudinal | Diagonal | Lateral |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Jasper | 8 | 6 | 2 |
| Grey-brown | 2 | 10 | 0 | |
| Rear | Jasper | 1 | 16 | 5 |
| Grey-brown | 9 | 9 | 1 |
© Internet Archaeology/Author(s) URL: http://intarch.ac.uk/journal/issue26/31/3.html
Last updated: Wed Jul 29 2009