By Victor Epand
In the ancient times, gold was in great demand for making jewelry. Gold was rare, it would not get dull and the best part was that it was flexible; therefore it was quite easy to make various designs out of it. Fantastic necklaces, diadems, bracelets, earrings, pendants, armlets, head ornaments, rings, pectoral ornaments and collars created out of gold were all manufactured in ancient Egypt.
You must be aware that ancient Egypt was the land of the Pharaohs. In the year 1922, Howard Carter in one of his excavations stumbled upon the grand discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb along with a lot of gold funerary relics; each and every piece depicted the work of art that was prevalent in ancient Egypt. Then comes the Gold and Gems that was available in Greece in the 1400 BC era.
During the ancient times in Greece, beads that were in the shape of natural forms such as beetles, flowers and shells were created on a huge scale. Gorgeous and fragile earrings and necklaces were discovered in burial locations in parts of Northern Greece. By 300 BC, the Greeks were busy manufacturing multi colored jewelry and they made use of pearls, emeralds, amethysts and garnets.
In addition, they made use of materials like enamel, colored stones and glass. They also created carved cameos of Indian Sardonyx together with filigree gold work. Indian Sardonyx basically is a brown pink and cream agate stone with stripes. Beads were manufactured in a method by sticking two flat pieces of gold together and packing them up with sand. Now let us know about the magnificent Italian Gold and striking Roman Coinage.
During the Eight century BC, the Italian Etruscans in the Tuscany region manufactured gold work that had a texture of granules. They manufactured huge earrings, necklaces, bracelets and fibulae or clasps. In addition to all this they manufactured pendants that were unique. These pendants were created to be hollow so that perfume could be filled in it. To this day and age the Italians are well known for their excellent quality as well as stylish fashion of manufacturing gorgeous designs in gold.
The Romans used to make use of 18 and 24 carat gold in coinage. The coinage happened to be the craftsman's raw material for ornamental jewel work, as it was quite easily accessible. Some 2000 years back, the Romans used to make use of sapphires brought in from Sri Lanka, amber, cloudy emeralds, Indian diamond crystals and garnets. When England was ruled by the Romans, fossilized wood known as jet from the North of England was shaped into remarkable pieces. Then there was the Pearls and Gems Authentic and Artificial Jewelry.
Jewels at all times have been made use of as symbols of love. Excellent quality gems and precious metals were used to make good quality artificial jewelry in order to trick people into buying them instead of the authentic ones. Authentic pearls and gemstones were brought in from the east and the Italians were the ones who mainly purchased them. The Italian traders after that went on to sell the merchandise in Europe.
