. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . ons on the edge of the internal diameters on both the flattened end surfaces ofmost of these beads (Fig. 6), although in some specimens these indentations had all butdisappeared through wear. After somewhat flattening spherical prills or shot on an anvil, beads were punchedfrom both sides with a square punch that left a four-sided squarish hole, sometimes withcracks extending from the sharp corners. Stringing wear subsequently rounded theaperture. Only one exception to the punched square hole was noted, where a circ
. Annals of the South African Museum = Annale van die Suid-Afrikaanse Museum . ons on the edge of the internal diameters on both the flattened end surfaces ofmost of these beads (Fig. 6), although in some specimens these indentations had all butdisappeared through wear. After somewhat flattening spherical prills or shot on an anvil, beads were punchedfrom both sides with a square punch that left a four-sided squarish hole, sometimes withcracks extending from the sharp corners. Stringing wear subsequently rounded theaperture. Only one exception to the punched square hole was noted, where a circularround bead had a round indentation punched from one side only. A possible explanationfor the preference for a square punch is that it remained sharper for longer and was easierto sharpen with four hammer blows at the tapered edge. The punch used for making holesin the punched beads was probably made with an iron tip, as it was the hardest metalmined in the southern African Iron Age and could easily pierce through a small gold prill. 88 ANNALS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN MUSEUM.
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booki, booksubjectnaturalhistory