Gold jewelry earrings history
Browse around this site for information on gold. How to care and clean your gold jewelry. We might even be able to help answer these questions for you. Like how to find a good gold quality jewelry piece. How to price gold and our favorite gold history.
Gold has been treasured since ancient times for its beauty and permanence. Most of the gold that is fabricated today goes into the manufacture of jewelry. However, because of its superior electrical conductivity and resistance to corrosion and other desirable combinations of physical and chemical properties, gold also emerged in the late 20th century as an essential industrial metal. Gold performs critical functions in computers, communications equipment, spacecraft, jet aircraft engines, and a host of other products.
Earrings are believed to have originated in Western Asia in about
3000 B.C. From the beginning, there were two main types of earrings: the
simple hoop, and the more elaborate pendant. The oldest earrings ever
unearthed by archaeologists date to about 2,500 B.C. and were discovered
in Iraq (of all places) at the royal graves of Ur.
Hoop earrings of gold, silver, and bronze have also been found in
ancient graves in Crete, dating to about 2000 B.C. Although burying
jewels along with the dead was customary at the time, the everyday use
of earrings has been well documented, too, thanks to enduring images on
coins, vase paintings, and terra-cotta figures. Ancient Greek coin
depicts nymph Arethusa wearing typical pendant earrings (circa 400 B.C.)