The History of Gold Jewelry, Part 1

Humankind have long been fascinated by the beauty of gold and since the earlier years of civilisation gold have been used to decorate us in the word form of jewelry. Let's return a expression at how gold jewellery have been used in the assorted parts of the human race during the last five thousand years.

The Sumerian Civilization, located in present-day Iraq, is well known as the topographic point where one of the first systems of authorship was developed. There gold was used to do necklaces earrings, rings, watchbands and other decorations as early as 2500 BC.

Sumerian goldworkers used sophisticated metalworking techniques such as as cold hammering, casting, soldering, and were particularly skilled in decorating with filigree (fine-wire ornamentation). They also practiced "granulation" using minute driblets of gold to heighten the beauty of the jewelry.

Jewelry played an of import function in Egyptian civilisation where its usage days of the month back to 3000 BC. A grave picture of late 15th century B.C. demoes a smith using pair of tongs and a blowtube to anneal gold. The celebrated grave of Tutankhamun or King Tut incorporates numerous pieces of mulct gold jewellery embedded with cherished stones. These pieces of jewellery are on show in the national museum in El Qahira and one thousands of visitants each twenty-four hours wonder at the accomplishment of these early goldworkers and jewelers.

On Mediterranean Sea island of Crete, now portion of Greece, gold jewellery also played an of import function as early as 2400 BC. The jewellery makers of Kriti may have got gotten their cognition from Occident Asia and they were experts in fashioning gold jewelry. Diadems, hair ornaments, beads, bracelets, and complex iron have got been establish in Minoan graves on Crete. It is also believed that Asiatic techniques of filigree and granulation tissue were introduced to Kriti around 2000 BC.

Around 1550 B.C. Minoan civilization and its jewellery styles spreading to Greece, then dominated by the city-state of Mycenea, located 90 statute miles sou'-west of present-day Athens.

Metalworking techniques spreading outward from Hellenic Republic and reached northern Europe as early as 1800 BC. There is also grounds that the Celtic Language and early British people traded with the eastern Mediterranean Sea civilisations by this clip and exchanged their merchandises for gold beads.

By 1200 B.C. jewellery devising was growing in Central and Horse Opera Europe. Bronze and gold was used to do jewellery and the spiral was the most common type of decoration. Twined gold torcs were made in the British Isles and northern French Republic from the 5th to the 1st century BC. Torcs, also spelled Torq, were stiff round cervix rings or necklaces that were open-ended at the front. Massive circlets for the cervixes and weaponry were the feature decoration of the heads of the Celtic Language race. The Celts also used tooth enamel and inlay to decorate jewelry.

In the adjacent article of this series, I will follow the usage of gold jewellery in the Etruscan, Roman and Hellenistic time periods as well as giving a expression at the function of gold jewellery in the Renaissance.

Bo Carpenter of Jerry Lee Lewis Jewelers is a jewellery expert and frequently composes about jewellery and related to topics. Jerry Lee Lewis Jewelers is proud to transport the full line of Pandora Bracelets, Pandora Beads and other Pandora Jewelry. For more than information, contact Jerry Lee Lewis Jewelers at 877-88-LEWIS or visit www.pandorabraceletsusa.com.