At least three variations of this basic reduction principle were known in the Belgian Aurignacian (Lejeune 1987, Otte 1974), although there are serious uncertainties about cultural attribution of many of the Belgian specimens (Dewez 1969, 1981). At Spy, cylindrical ivory rods (Figure 8) were segmented and thinned as in France. In contrast to the French beads however, they were then perforated near the thinned end, then polished into a more elongate form than the basket-shaped beads. Also at Spy, ivory rods more or less flat in section (Figure 9) were roughed out and perforated before they were detached from the larger mass. A variation on this approach existed at Goyet, where the baton was semicylindrical in section. These were segmented, perforated (Figure 10) and then detached from the larger mass, prior to grinding and polishing
Fig. 8: Schematic representation of one of the bead production sequences from Spy. Cylindrical ivory rods were segmented and proximally thinned, then ground and polished into their final form.
Fig. 9: A second bead production sequence from Spy. Flat ivory rods were carved into sections, the holes were drilled, and then the rough-outs were detached and polished
Fig. 10: The production sequence from Goyet.