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sticklebat t1_iu8z7co wrote

Reply to comment by metaldesign32 in Bronze Age gold belt with 'cosmological' designs unearthed in Czech beet field by quiver03

Making circles isn’t hard. In fact, circles are the easiest shape to make! Compasses (the drawing tool, not the navigation one) were common at least as far back as Ancient Rome, for example. Also, those circular patterns look stamped or pressed to me, and there are two distinct sizes of them. So they probably made the circular patterns on a wooden piece and then stamped it onto the gold, which is very malleable.

Using a lathe for this would be wildly overkill.

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metaldesign32 t1_iu99kaa wrote

I agree it looks stamped but look very closely at the uniformity of the rings. It wasn’t just hand chased into the metal. I also agree a tool was used to stamp it. But I’d say the tool end was spun and scored to make them concentric and evenly spaced. That’s why I suggested a lathe or some sort of spinning process. If you haven’t already, download the full images. They are quite sharp and you’ll see what I mean about the precision.

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sticklebat t1_iu9fxld wrote

I’ve seen the full image. I think you’re underestimating the precision that can be accomplished by a talented artisan, even by hand, without fancy tools.

It would be well within the means of a skilled craftsman to make a sufficiently precisely patterned stamp or press to accomplish what we see in that image, especially given how thin that gold is (the article even says such artifacts are rare to find, since they “tear like paper”). All you need to make a perfect circle is a stick and string, or even just two sticks tied together. Scoring and then smoothing/polishing precise concentric circles into a pattern made of wood or stone wouldn’t be hard for a craftsman with metal tools, and if the stamp is precise, it will stamp a precise pattern into something so easily malleable.

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BryKKan t1_iua33in wrote

Or you could just spin the stamp (relative to the workpiece)...

Or any kind of rotating work surface would allow you to do that easily without moving the stamp itself.

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