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The Fascinating History Of Jewelry

by Roberto_Sedycias

Man has always loved to be adorned with jewels. This led to
jewelry developing as an industry. Jewelry is an ornament, for
personal adornment. The word jewelry is an anglicized form of the
Latin word, jocale which means plaything history says that about
40,000 years back, the first jewelry was worn by the Cro-Magnons,
ancestors of Homo sapiens. Their jewelry included crude necklaces
and bracelets made of bone, teeth and stone stitched to animal
sinew. Recently excavated 100,000 year-old beads, made from
Nassarius shells, are considered to be the oldest known jewelry.

Jewelry, earlier, was made for practical uses such as pinning of
clothes together. Nowadays it is used not only for decoration but
is also considered as a status symbol. There are different types
of jewelry made today. New variations like art jewelry is known
for its artistic ingenuity. Art here is valued more than the
material. Inexpensive costume jewelry, made from inferior
materials and the wire sculpture, made from either base metal
wire and stones or precious metals and gemstones, are the other
contemporary jewelry of present times.

Many pieces of jewelry, such as brooches were originally made
for functional purposes are also symbolic. The Christian Cross or
the Jewish Star is indicative of the religious faith that one
follows. Married couples sport wedding rings.

In Ancient Egypt jewelry was first made around 3,000 to 5,000
years back. The Egyptians adored the shine, rarity, and
workability of gold. The Egyptians had accumulated abundant gold
from the deserts of Africa and later acquired more as tributes
from captured kingdoms. In Egypt, jewelry soon symbolized power.
The affluent class wore it not only in their lifetime but also
after death, those were buried with them.

In Mesopotamia, jewelry was manufactured from metal inlaid with
bright-coloured stones like agate, lapis, carnelian, and jasper.
Their favourite shapes were leaves, spirals, cones, and bunches
of grapes. It was created both to adorn humans and statues.

In Greece most of the jewelry was made of gold, silver, ivory,
gems, bronze and clay. Later they adopted Asian designs following
Alexander`s conquests. Initially influenced by European designs,
the advent of the Roman rule in Greece, by 27 BC, brought
significant changes.

Though influenced by Roman culture indigenous designs survived.
The most common ornament of ancient Rome was the brooch, used to
secure their flowing clothes together. They used gold, bronze,
bone, glass beads and pearl. About 2,000 years back, they
imported sapphires from Sri Lankan and diamonds from India.
Emeralds and amber were used too.

The Italians earlier created clasps, necklaces, earrings and
bracelets from crude gold. Even large pendants to store perfume
were made. Known as the eastern successor of the Romans, the
Byzantine Empire continued the Roman tradition though religious
symbols became predominant. The people of Byzantine preferred
light gold ornaments richly inlaid with gems. jewelry was mainly
worn by wealthy ladies while men restricted themselves to a
signet ring.

India has the longest continuous tradition of jewelry making.
Around 1,500 BC the Indus Valley people made their earrings and
necklaces of gold, beads other metals. Womenfolk wore clay and
shell bracelets, usually painted black and loved tiaras, chokers,
brooches and ear rings .Gradually, clay was replaced by glass and
metals.

Jewelry had various functions to serve. Its main purpose, in
ancient times, was to ward off evil. People have paid dowries
with jewelry. It was also created to be used as currency for
trading goods, evident from the use of slave beads. It also was a
distinguishing mark between the ruler and the ruled. Asset value
is still a consideration today.

This article can be accessed in portuguese from the Article
section of page <a
href="http://www.polomercantil.com.br/joias-relogios-oculos.php">www.polomercantil.com.br/joias-relogios-oculos.php</a>
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for <a
href="http://www.polomercantil.com.br">www.PoloMercantil.com.br</a>

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