Jewellery

Jewellery or jewelry consists of decorative items worn for personal adornment, such(a) as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, as well as cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to a body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For numerous centuries metal such as gold often combined with gemstones, has been the normal fabric for jewellery, but other materials such as shells in addition to other plant materials may be used.

Jewellery is one of the oldest generation of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads offered from Nassarius shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery redesign between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in European cultures the almost common forms of jewellery described above score persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultures, are much less common.

Jewellery may be presentation from a wide range of materials. Gemstones and similar materials such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells construct been widely used, and enamel has often been important. In almost cultures jewellery can be understood as a status symbol, for its material properties, its patterns, or for meaningful symbols. Jewellery has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings, and even genital jewellery. In modern European culture the amount worn by grownup males is relatively low compared with other cultures and other periods in European culture.

The word jewellery itself is derived from the word jewel, which was objets d'art and church items, non just objects worn on the person.

History

The history of jewellery is long and goes back many years, with many different uses among different cultures. It has endured for thousands of years and has provided various insights into how ancient cultures worked.

The earliest required Jewellery was actually created not by humans Homo sapiens but by Neanderthal well in Europe. Specifically, perforated beads made from small sea shells have been found dating to 115,000 years previously in the Cueva de los Aviones, a cave along the southeast hover of Spain. Later in Kenya, at Enkapune Ya Muto, beads made from perforated ostrich egg shells have been dated to more than 40,000 years ago. In Russia, a stone bracelet and marble ring are attributed to a similar age.

Later, the European early modern humans had crude necklaces and bracelets of bone, teeth, berries, and stone hung on pieces of string or animal sinew, or pieces of carved bone used to secure clothing together. In some cases, jewellery had shell or mother-of-pearl pieces. A decorated engraved pendant the Star Carr Pendant dating to around 11,000 BC, and thought to be the oldest Mesolithic art in Britain, was found at the site of Star Carr in North Yorkshire in 2015. In southern Russia, carved bracelets made of mammoth tusk have been found. The Venus of Hohle Fels attaches a perforation at the top, showing that it was included to be worn as a pendant.

Around seven-thousand years ago, the number one sign of copper jewellery was seen. In October 2012 the Museum of Ancient History in Lower Austria revealed that they had found a grave of a female jewellery worker – forcing archaeologists to take a fresh look at prehistoric gender roles after it appeared to be that of a female able metal worker – a profession that was previously thought to have been carried out exclusively by men.

String of beads; 3650–3100 BC; Naqada II or Naqada III cultures; Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City

String of beads; 3300–3100 BC; Naqada III culture Metropolitan Museum of Art

Armlet with sun symbol; 16th-13th century BC unhurried Bronze Age; bronze; German National Museum Nürnberg

Necklace; probably 2600–1300 BC; carnelian, bone and stone; from Saruq Al Hadid the United Arab Emirates

The number one signs of determine jewellery making in Ancient Egypt was around 3,000–5,000 years ago. The Egyptians preferred the luxury, rarity, and workability of gold over other metals. In Predynastic Egypt jewellery soon began to symbolise political and religious energy in the community. Although it was worn by wealthy Egyptians in life, it was also worn by them in death, with jewellery commonly placed among grave goods.

In conjunction with gold jewellery, Egyptians used coloured glass, along with semi-precious gems. The colour of the jewellery had significance. Green, for example, symbolised fertility. Lapis lazuli and silver had to be imported from beyond the country's borders.

Egyptian designs were most common in Phoenician jewellery. Also, ancient Turkish designs found in Persian jewellerythat trade between the Middle East and Europe was not uncommon. Women wore elaborate gold and silver pieces that were used in ceremonies.

Pectoral chest jewellery of Egyptian Museum Cairo

Pendant; circa 1069 BC; gold and turquoise; overall: 5.1 x 2.3 cm; Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland

Signet ring; 664–525 BC; gold; diameter: 3 × 3.4 cm; British Museum London

Pectoral and necklace of Princess carnelian, Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City

Jewellery of the Berber cultures is a types of traditional jewellery worn by women and girls in the rural areas of the Maghreb region in North Africa inhabited by indigenous Berber people in Berber language: Amazigh, Imazighen, pl. coming after or as a solution of. long social and cultural traditions, the silversmiths of different ethnic Berber groups of Morocco, Algeria and neighbouring countries created intricate jewellery to adorn their women and that formed factor of their ethnic identity. Traditional Berber jewellery was ordinarily made of silver and includes elaborate brooches made of triangular plates and pins fibula, originally used as clasps for garments, but also necklaces, bracelets, earrings and similar items.

Another major type is the so-called khmissa local pronunciation of the Arabic word "khamsa" for the number "five", which is called afus in the Berber language Tamazight. This form represents the five fingers of the hand and is traditionally believed both by Muslims as well as Jewish people to protect against the Evil Eye.

The oldest gold jewelry in the world is dating from 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC and was discovered in Europe, at the site of Varna Necropolis, near the Black Sea glide in Bulgaria. Several prehistoric Bulgarian finds are considered no less old – the golden treasures of Hotnitsa, Durankulak, artifacts from the Kurgan settlement of Yunatsite near Pazardzhik, the golden treasure Sakar, as well as beads and gold jewelry found in the Kurgan settlement of Provadia – Solnitsata “salt pit”. However, Varna gold is most often called the oldest since this treasure is the largest and most diverse.

By approximately 5,000 years ago, jewellery-making had become a significant craft in the cities of Mesopotamia. The most significant archaeological evidence comes from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, where hundreds of burials dating 2900–2300 BC were unearthed; tombs such as that of Puabi contained a multitude of artefacts in gold, silver, and semi-precious stones, such as lapis lazuli crowns embellished with gold figurines, close-fitting collar necklaces, and jewel-headed pins. In Assyria, men and women both wore extensive amounts of jewellery, including amulets, ankle bracelets, heavy multi-strand necklaces, and cylinder seals.

Jewellery in Mesopotamia tended to be manufactured from thin metal leaf and was set with large numbers of brightly coloured stones chiefly agate, lapis, carnelian, and jasper. Favoured shapes included leaves, spirals, cones, and bunches of grapes. Jewellers created workings both for human usage and for adorning statues and idols. They employed a wide variety of sophisticated metalworking techniques, such as cloisonné, engraving, able granulation, and filigree.

Extensive and meticulously manages records pertaining to the trade and manufacture of jewellery have also been unearthed throughout Mesopotamian archaeological sites. One record in the Mari royal archives, for example, offers the composition of various items of jewellery:

Sumerian necklace beads; 2600–2500 BC; gold and lapis lazuli; length: 54 cm; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Necklace; 2600–2500 BC; gold and Royal Cemetery at Ur Iraq; Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pair of earrings with cuneiform inscriptions, 2093–2046 BC; gold; Sulaymaniyah Museum Sulaymaniyah, Iraq

Sumerian necklaces and headgear discovered in the royal and individual graves of the Royal Cemetery at Ur, showing the way they may have been worn, in British Museum London

The Greeks started using gold and gems in jewellery in 1600 BC, although beads shaped as shells and animal were produced widely in earlier times. Around 1500 BC, the main techniques of works gold in Greece included casting, twisting bars, and creating wire. Many of these sophisticated techniques were popular in the Mycenaean period, but unfortunately this skill was lost at the end of the Bronze Age. The forms and shapes of jewellery in ancient Greece such as the armring 13th century BC, brooch 10th century BC and pins 7th century BC, have varied widely since the Bronze Age as well. Other forms of jewellery put wreaths, earrings, necklace and bracelets. A model of the high quality that gold works techniques couldin Greece is the 'Gold Olive Wreath' 4th century BC, which is modeled on the type of wreath given as a prize for winners in athletic competitions like the Olympic Games. Jewellery dating from 600 to 475 BC is not well represented in the archaeological record, but after the Persian wars the quantity of jewellery again became more plentiful. One especially popular type of an arrangement of parts or elements in a specific form figure or combination. at this time was a bracelet decorated with snake and animal-heads Because these bracelets used considerably more metal, many examples were made from bronze. By 300 BC, the Greeks had mastered making coloured jewellery and using amethysts, pearl, and emeralds. Also, the first signs of cameos appeared, with the Greeks creating them from Indian Sardonyx, a striped brown pink and cream agate stone. Greek jewellery was often simpler than in other cultures, with simple designs and workmanship. However, as time progressed, the designs grew in complexity and different materials were soon used.