Byzantine earring, 5th-6th century AD
Classical Antiquity (~800 BCE - 500 AD)
Medieval (500 AD - 1600 AD)
(media.piefed.social)
I imagine a mixture of those factors. Some are fantastically symmetrical, most are a little asymmetrical, many are seemingly crude.
I imagine some of it is a literal skill issue - many pieces were probably created by non-specialist artisans in a time before robust technical manuals and training standards.