Necklaces

Archeologists believe that the necklace was born during the Stone Age about 40,000 years ago than previously believed. In April 2004, scientists were excavating a cave in South Africa and discovered about 41 mollusks that may have been strung as neck jewelry around 75,000 years ago.

Before this discovery, the oldest known necklace have been found out around 30,000 B.C. They are mainly made up of shells, stones, bones, claws or animal teeth which are strung on a thread. Basically, today also the same concepts are used though there are some minor variations.

In 2500 B.C. gold started to be used in neck jewelry. Gold neck chokers and adornments have been found out at the Royal Grave of UR. They are now known as Iraq. It was 2000 B.C. when Sumerian bead neck jewelry started to be used in alternating pattern of colored stones, gemstones and metals such as silver or copper.

Ancient Egyptian neck jewelry changed from simple stringed beads to complicated pattern and also included the broad collar and pectoral type. They were worn by both the sexes, mostly by wealthy and royal citizens. They were habitually buried with their dead owners.

During the period of the Classical Greek from about 480-300 B.C. most of the necklaces were of three dimensional pendants. They were mainly in the form of acorns, seeds or heads. They were balanced by way of a row of flat elements which were generally considered as some type of rosettes.

Alexander the great in 356 to 323 B.C. occupied the Orient. Gold was abundant throughout the Greek empire. It was habitually used in making necklaces and other types of jewelry for many centuries.

In 2nd and 3rd century, to wear multiple necklaces amongst people became much popular. The different types of neck jewelry sometimes showed the level of class or wealth of the wearer. Necklaces were much popular in whatever form they were made. Over the next few centuries, the fame of wearing of necklaces diminished significantly. Later on in 14th century, necklaces again started to regain their fame due to fashions décolletage.

After that necklaces became much popular in almost all the classes. A favorite gift provided by children to their mothers was fame or infamous macaroni necklace. Which mother will not love such a gift from the heart? They are valuable not in gold or gemstones but in heart value and sentiment.

Necklaces are now worn for a variety of reasons not the least of which personal adornment. Most of the people wear medals that are religiously significant like those with images of Jesus Christ or Saints. Many wear a plain cross while others wear a Crucifix which is a cross on which the image of the body of Christ is fixed firmly.

It stands to reason that it can be said that necklaces have been and will always remain a piece of jewelry which is totally versatile in its design and the intention of the wearer.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 10:20 am and is filed under Jewellery By Type. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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