Could they Facet ??

here are some interesting links:

www.khulsey.com/jewelry/history_facetted-gem-cutting.html

www.theimage.com/faceting/facet2.htm

www.gemsociety.org/info/history.htm

some interesting stuff.

KD

Faceting itself has been going on for a long time. Jamb peg faceting is still being done today.
The issue has been control of the angles.
I have seen reference to bronze age faceting machines. Foot powered, using corundum grit.
Today, we have acess to incredibly accurate and repeatable faceting machines. That was the issue.
As an irony, we are relearning some of the ancient techniques in metalsmithing for jewelery. Cabochons were cut, shaped, and polished, way before Loretone made theirs. Again, foot powered flat laps. The laps themselves were copper. The grit was imbedded in the lap. Just like today. They also used tin for laps.
Ironically, when the spanish conquered central and south america, that King down there who had the gold poured down his throat, had instead of producing pure gold, had produced exotic gold ingots of a laminated gold. Today, the diffusion welded ingots are worth many times the price of gold by the ounce. The Japanese technique of Mokume' Gane, is a similiar technique.
I do Mokume' Gane. I learned it when I learned sword smithing. The metal is used on the tsuki. The tsuki has been around for a few millinia, so have the faceted stones inlaid into it. When I do Tsukimaki, I make the Tsuki. I also make the Tsuba.
We been cuttin, and polishin stones for a while.

The hardest for me was making the Tsuka. Doing Tsuka Ito was a lot easier.
You have to understand, I broke my neck for the third time at C3. I cannot feel my hands, or feet. I routinely pick up pieces of bacon, and sausage from the grill with my fingers. My fingers might be sore, but, I do not know. I get blisters a lot, when I use my fingers to cool down diamonds when I am soldering a prong and the stone gets too hot. I use my fingers as an heat sink.
For me, the hardest part was wrapping for a right handed person. I am a lefty. I had issues with keeping the Tsuka Ito flowing to match the other side. Sounds stupid, but I fought with it on each one.
I prefer shark skin for the Same'. I preferred smooth skin to both hold the Tsuka Ito in place, and for cosmetics.
I have not made Menuki for years. I am still playing with Mokume' Gane. I actually became a stone setter so I could add stones to the Menuki.