History of Jewelry

Jewellery (Jewelry in American spelling) comprises ornamental objects worn by persons, typically made with gems and precious metals. Costume jewellery is made from less valuable materials. However, jewellery can and has been made out of almost every kind of material. The word is derived from the word "jewel", which was anglicised from the Old French "jouel" in around the 13th century. Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. Some cultures have a practice of keeping large amounts of wealth stored in the form of jewellery. Jewellery can also be symbolic, as in the case of Jews wearing a Star of David in the form of jewellery, or, as is the case in many Western cultures, married people wearing a wedding ring. Also see what is: Star of David Jewellery in various forms has been made and worn by both sexes in almost every (if not every) human culture, on every inhabited continent. Personal adornment seems to be a basic human tendency. Timeline This is a timeline of Jewelry production from the first uses of metal in history to the Renaissance. 7000 BCE - Uses of copper in Anatolia, Iran and Eastern Europe. 5000 BCE - Uses of copper in Egypt. 4000 BCE - Smelting technology for copper in Egypt and Iran. 3450 BCE - Use of natural zinc/copper alloy in Egypt. 3500 BCE - Gold makes an appearance in Egyptian jewellery. 3000 BCE - Egypt and Iran making simple hammered iron beads 3000 BCE - The Middle East employ semi-mass-production 2000 BCE - First signs of the swaging technique 2600 BCE - Beaded wires began to be used. 2500 BCE - Egyptians using copper/lead alloys. 2500 BCE - True iron production technology in Near East. 2500 BCE - The intentional addition of silver and copper to gold. 2500 BCE - Gold wires are characterized by seam lines that follow a spiral path along the wire. 2000 BCE - Use of patterned punches 1500 BCE - Earplugs and earrings become popular in Egypt. 1400 BCE - Egypt Amarna period, using resin and mud for repoussé backing. 1400 BCE - Deliberate addition of zinc to copper in Canaan. 1400 BCE - Philistines have iron. 1400 BCE - Very copper rich gold alloys popular in Egypt. 1000 BCE - Persian sheet bronze work 0.05mm thick. 1000 BCE - The start of true engraving. 900 BCE - The Greeks have iron. 700 BCE - World's oldest coinage in Lydia. 575 BCE - In Greece, jewellery is still very rare. 500 BCE - Hafted hammers were being used in some parts. 500 BCE - Iron in use in Britain 400 BCE - Greeks using Beeswax for filler in repoussé. 350 BCE - Use of combined punches and dies of bronze. 325 BCE - Animal or human-headed hoop earrings were popular. 300 BCE - Diadems are first seen. 300 BCE - Red Coral popular in Celtic jewellery. ACE 50 - Start of the Roman period, where addition of silver to gold becomes almost unknown. ACE 100 - Sulfur fills hollow gold items throughout the Roman Empire. ACE 150 - Tin rings found in Nubia ACE 300 - Lead becomes more common in places. ACE 400 - Pewter jewellery is made. ACE 400 - A shale die is found in Britain. ACE 1500 - The Renaissance Chinese made first use of diamonds The axes were fashioned from the second-hardest mineral known to science Stone age craftsmen in China were polishing objects using diamond 2,000 years before anyone else had the same idea, new evidence suggests. Gold First Used 4000 BCE: Gold is first known to be used in parts of Central and Eastern Europe. 3000 BCE The Egyptians master the arts of beating gold into leaf and alloying gold with other metals to achieve variations in hardness and color. They also develop the ability to cast gold, using the lost-wax technique still used in today's jewelry industry. The Sumer civilization of southern Iraq uses gold to create a wide range of jewelry, often using sophisticated and varied styles still worn today.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Jewelry. History of Jewelry

Diamond -- History

Diamonds are thought to have been first recognized and mined in India, where significant alluvial deposits of the stone could then be found. The earliest written reference can be found in the Buddhist text, the Anguttara Nikaya another sanskrit text, the Arthashastra, which was completed around 296 BCE and describes diamond's hardness, luster, and dispersion. Diamonds quickly became associated with divinity, being used to decorate religious icons, and were believed to bring good fortune to those who carried them. Ownership was restricted among various castes by color, with only kings being allowed to own all colors of diamond.

In February 2005, a joint Chinese-U.S. team of archaeologists reported the discovery of four corundum-rich stone ceremonial burial axes originating from China's Liangzhu and Sanxingcun cultures (4000 BCE–2500 BCE) which, because of the axes' specular surfaces, the scientists believe were polished using diamond powder [2] [3]. Although there are diamond deposits now known to exist close to the burial sites, no direct evidence of coeval diamond mining has been found: the researchers came to this conclusion by polishing corundum using various lapidary abrasives and modern techniques then comparing the results using an atomic force microscope. At that scale, the surface of the modern diamond-polished corundum closely resembled that of the axes; however, the polishes of the latter were superior.

Diamonds were traded to both the east and west of India and were recognized by various cultures for their gemological or industrial uses. In his work Naturalis Historia, the Roman writer Pliny the Elder noted diamond's ornamental uses, as well as its usefulness to engravers because of its hardness. In China, diamonds seem to have been used primarily as diamond tools for engraving jade and drilling holes in beads. Archaeological evidence from Yemen suggests that diamonds were used as drill tips as early as the 4th century BCE. In Europe, however, diamonds disappeared for almost 1,000 years following the rise of Christianity because of two effects: early Christians rejected diamonds because of their earlier use in amulets, and Arabic traders restricted the flow of trade between Europe and India.


Until the late Middle Ages, diamonds were most prized in their natural octahedral state, perhaps with the crystal surfaces polished to increase luster and remove foreign material. Around 1300, the flow of diamonds into Europe increased via Venice's trade network, with most flowing through the low country ports of Bruges, Antwerp, and Amsterdam. During this time, the taboo against cutting diamonds into gem shapes, which was established over 1,000 years earlier in the traditions of India, ended allowing the development of diamond cutting technology to begin in earnest. By 1375, a guild of diamond polishers had been established at Nuremberg. Over the following centuries, various diamond cuts were introduced which increasingly demonstrated the fire and brilliance that makes diamonds treasured today: the table cut, the briolette (around 1476), the rose cut (mid-16th century), and by the mid-17th century, the Mazarin, the first brilliant cut diamond design. In 1919, Marcel Tolkowsky developed an ideal round brilliant cut design that has set the standard for comparison of modern gems; however, diamond cuts have continued to be refined.

The rise in popularity of diamonds as gems seems to have paralleled increasing availability through European history. In the 13th century, King Louis IX of France established a law that only the king could own diamonds. However, within a century diamonds were popular gems among the moneyed aristocratic and merchant classes, and by 1477 had begun to be used in wedding rings. Popularity continued to rise as new cuts were developed that enhanced the diamond's aesthetic appeal, and has largely continued unabated to this day; diamonds have proven popular with all classes in society as their cost has become within reach. A number of large diamonds have become historically significant objects, as their inclusion in various sets of crown jewels and the purchase, sale, and sometimes theft of notable diamonds, have sometimes become politicized.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Diamonds.