History of Jewelry

The art of jew­elry mak­ing dates back to the be­gin­ning of hu­man civil­iz­a­tion. Its evol­u­tion and de­vel­op­ment par­al­lel the pro­gres­sion of man­kind, al­ways re­flect­ing the views and cus­toms of the time. The design, pur­pose, and ap­pear­ance of jew­elry are con­stantly chan­ging and some­times provide rare in­form­a­tion about past cul­tures. The jew­elry of our an­cest­ors can of­fer in­sight in­to their val­ues, con­vic­tions, cus­toms, cul­tur­al her­it­age, and their tech­no­lo­gic­al skills. Check art­icles of this sec­tion to learn more about the his­tory of jew­elry mak­ing from an­cient days to mod­ern times.

Early Findings

The first prim­it­ive items made to dec­or­ate the hu­man body were found in Africa, where the earli­est Homo sapi­ens settled. A neck­lace, more than 75,000 years old, was made of snail shells. Beads, 45,000 years old, were made of os­trich egg­shells. Some later jew­elry pieces, such as beads and brace­lets of stones, shells, bones, teeth, and an­im­al leath­er, were dis­covered at the Cro-Magnon set­tle­ments in Europe. You can find more in­ter­est­ing facts about jew­elry of early ages in the Early Find­ings art­icle.

Learn more about Early Findings.

Epochs and Styles

Since it first emerged, jew­elry it­self hasn’t changed fun­da­ment­ally through the ages. Beads, brace­lets, pendants, and brooches ap­peared in pre­his­tor­ic times and are still in fash­ion today. Dec­or­a­tion style, however, has been con­stantly chan­ging. Be­sides that, each epoch has its own un­der­stand­ing and meas­ure­ment of beauty. This art­icle provides de­tailed in­form­a­tion about the evol­u­tion of or­na­ments and the ways jew­elry has been dec­or­ated throughout vari­ous epochs.

Learn more about Epochs and Styles.