Early History of Beaded Jewelry

Beaded Jewelry has a very long history that can be traced before the dawn of the earliest civilizations. Prehistoric and ancient beaded jewelry gives us not only inspiration but also insights on some of the earliest of human culture. Some of the beaded jewelry designed in the prehistoric and ancient times look very similar to the modern beaded jewelry of today.

The earliest samples of beaded jewelry where made with perforated beads made of snail shells, ostrich egg, bone, teeth, stone, mother-of-pearl, and mammoth tusks. These beaded jewelry where created by early man, some samples dating 75,000 years ago. Today, with slight variations, we use a lot of similar materials in the creation of our own beaded jewelry.

Latter on, the ancient Egyptians used various jewelry beading materials to produce some of the most stunning beaded jewelry ever unearthed. They used gold, turquoise, carnelian and lapis-lazuli. Lapis-lazuli in particular has been a very important jewelry material for the Ancient Egyptians and is a very highly valued mineral for beaded jewelry.

The ancient Egyptians where the first to create beaded glass jewelry, some experts even believe that they prefer glass bead jewelries more than those made of natural materials. In fact, they might have perfected the creation of glass beads because for nearly each gemstone, there was a glass formulation used by the Egyptians to mimic it.

Like many ancient cultures, color has significance to the Egyptians as well. They value jewelry with green and red highly.

Link the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Mesopotamians also valued lapis-lazuli as well as jasper, carnelian, and agates. They also excelled in metalworking techniques. Some of their beaded jewelry designs remain a source of inspiration even today.

There is much debate to what the function of beaded jewelry is during the ancient and pre-historic times. It is likely that beaded jewelry functions then as they do today; mainly for ornamental value or as a sign of social status. However, it is also likely that ancient and prehistoric people value beaded jewelry also for superstitious associations and perceived mystical properties. Many experts believe than the ancients use certain colored beads to ward off misfortunes (such as blue beads to ward off the evil eye) and some beads to attract good luck.

When looking at the creations of ancient and pre-historic peoples, one can just imagine how well that their designs stand the test of time. In fact, many these beaded jewelry can still be worn fashionably today as in the past.

For more information on the history of jewelry, you can read wikipedia's entry on jewelry.