A lot of work to make it. That vid I linked to recently about the Harappan civilization, the speaker’s CV includes work analyzing methods of bead-drilling in the Indus Valley in what were prehistoric times. Bead trade was enormous (still is, but we think little of it) even then. Bead manufacturing and trade was pretty huge. By the late BC, bead was used as ballast in ships with different primary cargo, and came in handy as some additional merch.
Yes; the article said they analyzed how one bead rubbed against another. I hope it was computer-aided!
Computing can help this century will validate so much of what we think we know about history, and cast other stuff on the trash heap. If we are allowed to remain free...