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The history of
jewellery is a long one, with many different uses among
different cultures. It has endured for thousands of years and
has provided various insights into how ancient cultures worked.
India
The Indian sub-continent has the longest continuous legacy of
jewellery making anywhere. While Western traditions were heavily
influenced by waxing and waning empires, India enjoyed a
continuous development of art forms for some 5000 years.[30] One
of the first to start jewellery making were the peoples of the
Indus Valley Civilization. By 1,500 BC the peoples of the Indus
Valley were creating gold earrings and necklaces, bead necklaces
and metallic bangles. Before 2,100 BC, prior to the period when
metals were widely used, the largest jewellery trade in the
Indus Valley region was the bead trade. Beads in the Indus
Valley were made using simple techniques. First, a bead maker
would need a rough stone, which would be bought from an eastern
stone trader. The stone would then be placed into a hot oven
where it would be heated until it turned deep red, a colour
highly prized by people of the Indus Valley. The red stone would
then be chipped to the right size and a hole drilled through it
with primitive drills. The beads were then polished. Some beads
were also painted with designs. This art form was often passed
down through family; children of bead makers often learnt how to
work beads from a young age.
Jewellery in the Indus Valley was worn predominantly by females,
who wore numerous clay or shell bracelets on their wrists. They
were often shaped like doughnuts and painted black. Over time,
clay bangles were discarded for more durable ones. In India
today, bangles are made out of metal or glass. Other pieces that
women frequently wore were thin bands of gold that would be worn
on the forehead, earrings, primitive brooches, chokers and gold
rings. The people of the region were much more urbanised than
the rest of the area, so the jewellery worn was of heavier make
once the civilization developed. Although women wore jewellery
the most, some men in the Indus Valley wore beads. Small beads
were often crafted to be placed in men and women’s hair. The
beads were so small they usually measured in at only one
millimetre long.
Unlike many other cultures, Indus Valley jewellery was never
buried with the dead. Instead, jewellery was passed down to
children or family. Nobility and goldsmiths often hid their
jewellery under their floorboards to avoid theft.
As time progressed, the methods for jewellery advanced, thus
allowing complex jewellery to be made. Necklaces were soon
adorned with gems and green stone.
Although they used other gems prior, India was the first country
to mine diamonds, with some mines dating back to 296 BC.
However, axes dating to 4,000 BC found in China from previous
factions of the country, contain traces of diamond dust used to
sharpen the blades. While China used the diamonds they found
mainly for carving jade, India traded the diamonds, realising
their valuable qualities. This trade almost vanished 1,000 years
after Christianity grew as a religion, as Christians rejected
the diamonds which were used in Indian religious amulets. Along
with Arabians from the Middle East restricting the trade,
India’s diamond jewellery trade lulled.
Today, many of the jewellery designs and traditions are still
used and jewellery is commonplace in Indian ceremonies and
weddings. |
