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Origin of jewelry...
Jewelry (also spelt jewellery, see spelling differences) is a personal ornament, such as a necklace, ring, or bracelet, made from jewels, precious metals or other substance. The word jewelry is derived from the word jewel, which was anglicised from the Old French "jouel" in around the 13th century.[citation needed] Further tracing leads back to the Latin word "jocale", meaning plaything. Jewelry is one of the oldest forms of body adornment; recently found 100,000 year-old Nassarius shells that were made into beads are thought to be the oldest known jewelry.[1] Although in earlier times jewelry was created for more practical uses, such as wealth storage and pinning clothes together, in recent times it has been used almost exclusively for decoration. The first pieces of jewelry were made from natural materials, such as bone, animal teeth, shell, wood, and carved stone. Jewelry was often made for people of high importance to show their status and, in many cases, they were buried with it. Jewelry is made out of almost every material known and has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings and many more types of jewelry. While high-quality and artistic pieces are made with gemstones and precious metals, less-costly costume jewelry is made from less-valuable materials and is mass-produced. New variations include wire sculpture (wrap) jewelry, using anything from base metal wire with rock tumbled stone to precious metals and precious gemstones.
Form and function
Jewelry has been used for a number of reasons:
- Currency, wealth display and storage,
- Functional use (such as clasps, pins, and buckles)
- Symbolism (to show membership or status)
- Protection (in the form of amulets and magical wards),[citation needed] and
- Artistic display
Most cultures have at some point had a practice of keeping large amounts of
wealth stored in the form of jewelry. Numerous cultures move wedding dowries in
the form of jewelry, or create jewelry as a means to store or display coins.
Alternatively, jewelry has been used as a currency or trade good; an example
being the use of slave
beads.[citation
needed]
Many items of jewelry, such as brooches and buckles originated
as purely functional items, but evolved into decorative items as their functional
requirement diminished.[2]
Jewelry can also be symbolic of group membership, as in the case of the Christian crucifix or Jewish Star
of David, or of status, as in the case of chains
of office, or the Western practice of married people
wearing a wedding
ring.
Wearing of amulets and devotional
medals to provide protection or ward off evil is common in some cultures;
these may take the form of symbols (such as the ankh),
stones, plants, animals, body parts (such as the Khamsa),
or glyphs (such
as stylized versions of the Throne
Verse in Islamic
art).[3]
Although artistic display has clearly been a function of jewelry from the very
beginning, the other roles described above tended to take primacy.[citation
needed] It was only in the late 19th century, with the work of such
masters as Peter
Carl Fabergé and René Lalique,
that art began to take primacy over function and wealth.[citation
needed] This trend has continued into modern times, expanded upon
by artists such as Robert
Lee Morris and Ed
Levin.