Most women don’t think when putting on earrings that they have a long, LONG history. Perhaps even the need to wear jewelry in the first place is in us, somewhere deep, as a connective piece to our shared past. Here’s some additional information about jewelry that you might not know:
Ancient Egyptian Ear Rings
A fine example of some ancient Egyptian ear rings, made of pure gold and beads.
Jewelry:
Ever since ancient times people of all cultures have used jewelry for personal adornments, badges of social or official rank and as emblems of religious, social, or political affiliation.
Materials used in ancient jewelry: Jewelry has been made of many kinds of organic and inorganic materials such as hair, feathers, leather, scales, bones, shells, wood, ceramics, metals and minerals. But today when most people refer to jewelry, we refer to precious or semiprecious stones mounted in attractive metals such as gold, silver, platinum, copper and brass. Gold of course being the favorite.
Platinum jewelry is 50 times more rare than gold jewelry. Platinum is one of the world’s strongest metals. It weighs 60% more than karat gold. Just holding it in your hand, you can feel the difference.
Culture of Jewelry
Current knowledge of ancient jewelry comes largely from the preservation of personal objects in tombs or portraits in surviving paintings and sculptures.
One of the most notable being the ancient Egyptians, who’s processes of ornamenting metals are still employed today. They produced skillfully, chased, engraved, soldered, repousse and inlaid jewelry, they used commonly gold and silver and inlaid in these metals with semiprecious stones, enamel and glass. The most notable jewelry from ancient Egypt is from the 18th Dynasty
Other Cultures that are notable cultures in the making of jewelry were Middle Eastern from the 3rd and 2nd millennia that produced techniques in granulation, filigree, inlaid gems, closisonna and champleve enamel. Greek and Roman jewelry, gave way to the art of cameo cutting. Scythian Jewelry, the Byzantine use of jewels are also notable. A notable Medieval technique was the use of garnet slices into metal cells in the 7th Century. Other notable Jewelry came during the Renaissance times and the 17th and 18th century.
Source: hatilla_pr.Tripod.com
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And for some modern day earrings, not made of shells and feathers!
Style 10587S Diamond And Brazilian Garnet Drop Earrings 14kt White gold drop earrings featuring two Brazilian garnets (10x7mm each) and approximately .025ct t.w. natural diamonds.
