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Jewelry
Ornaments of precious metal, sometimes set with gems, worn since ancient
times by people of all cultures for personal adornment, as badges of
social or official rank, and as emblems of religious, social, or political
affiliation. In its widest sense the term jewelry encompasses
objects made of many kinds of organic and inorganic materials such as
hair, feathers, leather, scales, bones, shells, wood, ceramics, metals,
and minerals. However, the term properly refers to mounted precious or
semiprecious stones and to objects made of valuable or attractive metals
such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, and brass. Jewelry has been worn
on the head in the form of crowns, diadems, tiaras, aigrettes, hairpins,
hat ornaments, earrings, nose rings, earplugs, and lip rings; on the neck
in the form of collars, necklaces, and pendants; on the breast in the form
of pectorals, brooches, clasps, and buttons; on the limbs in the form of
rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets; and at the waist in the form of
belts and girdles, with pendants such as chatelaines, scent cases, and
rosaries. Current knowledge of ancient jewelry is derived largely from the
preservation of personal objects in tombs. Information about the jewelry
of cultures that did not bury valuables with the dead comes from portraits
in surviving painting and sculpture.
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