Ancient Egypt Jewelry and More!

Natural objects such as seeds, berries, shells, bone and teeth used as adornment have been found in prehistoric sites. Fossilized shells used as beads on a necklace have been excavated from a site in Moravia dated at around 3,000 BC. In later ages gemstones have been used as religious symbols, to display wealth and status and as good luck charms and amulets.

More than 4,500 years ago jade carving was already long established in China. Sumerian and Egyptian craftsmen were making jewellry set with lapis lazuli, carnelian, turquoise, amethyst and garnet. Agate was particularly popular with the Romans who skillfully used the differently colored layers to make beautiful cameos.

Travellers along trade routes brought many gemstones used in early jewelry. Beautifully colored pebbles in streambeds and on beaches were probably the first gems to attract the human eye and imagination. As civilizations evolved a greater variety of gem minerals and more reliable sources of supply became available through organized mining and trading.

The Egyptians mined turquoise in Sinai and amethyst near Aswan. They imported lapis lazuli from Afghanistan the only source known to the ancient world. These remote mines are perhaps the world’s longest operating mines still yielding the finest quality lapis lazuli after more than 6,000 years. The Romans mined agate in Germany and these deposits again formed the basis of an important local industry from medieval times. Idar-Oberstein still has a thriving gem and jewelry trade, working on gemstones imported from all over the world.

The gem gravels of India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar are legendary for the rich variety of their gemstones. They have produced the finest diamonds, sapphires, rubies, and spinels for many centuries. An ancient Sanskrit manuscript records that Indian diamonds were an important source of state revenue over 2,000 years ago.

Great gems from these sources have always exerted a powerful fascination. When the Koh-I-Noor diamond was presented to the Mughal Emperor Babur in 1526, its value was set at one day of the whole world’s expenditure. A few of these gems even carry written evidence of an illustrious past. The Shah Diamond is inscribed with the names of the three royal owner including Shah Jahan

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