Making a Polished Stone Pendant — Prehistoric Personal Ornament

Stone pendants are among the earliest personal ornaments in human history, with examples found at archaeological sites dating back over 100,000 years. A pendant is a flat stone that has been shaped, smoothed, polished, and perforated with a suspension hole so it can be worn on a cord around the neck. The oldest known examples include perforated marine shells and flat stone pendants from Blombos Cave in South Africa (circa 75,000 BCE) and the Grotte du Renne in France (circa 42,000 BCE, attributed to Neanderthals). Suitable materials include soapstone (steatite), slate, serpentine, jade, schist, and any attractive stone that is soft enough to shape and drill with stone-age tools. The drilling technique is the most challenging step — a flint drill point or bow drill with wet sand as an abrasive is used to bore a clean hole through the stone. The hole must be drilled from both sides to prevent breakout, where the drill punches through and chips the exit surface. This blueprint covers selecting a stone, shaping it by grinding, polishing the surface, drilling the suspension hole, and threading it on a cord.