Ancient+Greece+Jewelry

Ancient Greek Jewelry By: Zoe Do we still wear the same type of jewelry as we did in ancient times or has our taste in jewelry changed? In ancient times people would wear gold earrings and bracelets. They would also wear armbands. Men in ancient times would actually wear bangles that had animal heads on the end of them. It might seem surprising but our taste in jewelry has not really changed from Ancient Greece to today.

Jewelry has been around in Greece since the Mycenaean age to the Hellenistic period. They would usually use shells and have animals represented in their jewelry. Some of the symbols that were most popular were beetles and flowers. Greeks would also put gemstones in their jewelry. The Mycenaean age of jewelry was a little bit simpler and did not have very many gemstones. The Hellenistic period had more gems in their jewelry due to other civilizations bringing new things. Rome was one of the civilizations that influenced the Greeks to use more gems than stones. Some of the gems they would use were pearls, amethyst, garnet, aquarium, and topaz.

The Greeks made their jewelry very fine and detailed. They would use gold and silver and gemstones or pearls. Soon making jewelry became an art. In Greek jewelry they would create very detailed scenes of battles or gods. The most popular metal to make jewelry in ancient times was gold because it was easy to bend. Also did not tarnish like other metals. Greek jewelry had a lot of metal and in the Mycenaean age there were swirls in the metal and had to do more with plants and animals and shells. There was definitely a lot of detail in their jewelry.

The rich usually were the ones who could afford jewelry. Most women in Ancient Greece wore their hair with a headband. The headbands were usually made out of ribbon or a piece of metal. Women would also use filigree gold hairpins to put up their hair. For hand mirrors they would carve into one side a scene of the gods or animals. On the other side they would polish it until you could see your reflection. Also they would usually give jewelry as a wedding gift. Jewelry was usually buried with high respected or honored people maybe to represent wealth or high ranking.

It seems that our jewelry still has characteristics from Ancient Greece times but with our modern taste in it. For example the Greeks used to put birthstones in their jewelry and today we still wear our birthstones. They would have a lot of filigree gold detail in their jewelry. We have so much detail in our jewelry today thanks to the Greeks.

Greek jewelry is still popular and still being sold to this day. Today some people make handmade Greek jewelry and sell it on the internet. This shows you that ancient jewelry is still making a profit and that it may never go out of style. It makes you wonder if our jewelry maybe later will become an artifact or not.

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