Footprints Braclets – History of Jewelry

For thousands of years, women and men have worn bracelets to express many things, including their wealth as well as their religious devotion. The modern woman wearing a salvation bracelet shows religious devotion much the way ancient women wore charms to worship Pharaoh. Both used bodily adornment to make a personal statement about something of worth to them.  The history of bracelets is a long and storied one, beginning in about 2500 B.C.

The earliest known evidence of bracelet wearing was in southern Mesopotamia. The women of Sumer wore bracelets, as well as other pieces of jewelry, to express their social status.  Other religious themes include the footprints bracelet.  When archaeologists unearthed the tombs of Ur, they found bracelets buried with the women who wore them, as it was local custom to be buried with jewelry. 

Word traveled fast for ancient times, and within 500 years bracelets were being work in Ancient Egypt.  Excavations of Pompeii after the Vesuvias eruption in 79 A.D. yielded bracelets, showing that the style had gone beyond upper class Sumeria.  Egyptian Pharaohs popularized charm bracelets; though they had been used as far back as the Neolithic era when men collected odds and ends made of wood or stone and carried them to ward off enemies.  Of course Christian bracelets are another popular style.  The term “lucky charms” comes from the idea that charms had power to protect the wearer.   The Pharaohs used charms to indicate their status to the Gods in the afterlife. 

In ancient Greece men wore bracelets.  Soldiers wore leather bands on their arms, often decorated with silver, gold, and gemstones.  They called them “bracels,” which Latin base meant “arm.”  Soon the style spread to women, who wore a more diminutive version called a “bracel-et.”

People continued to wear bracelets through the times of the Middle Ages, through the Baroque and Renaissance, and up to the present.

Bracelets are made from a variety of materials, including beads, iron, copper, leather, gemstones, and metals.  Bone and teeth were used in the earliest of times, as well.  Styles varied, naturally, and generally in harmony with the dress styles.  In times of ancient Rome and Greece, short sleeves left a lot of real estate on the arm for bands placed both low and high.  Upper arm bracelets have an exotic look that is still striking even today.

The materials used for bracelets are diverse, and they include gold, silver, gemstones, and beads. Today’s advanced plastics make for fantastic costume jewelry that is both low in price and stylish.  Regardless of the size of your budget, there is surely a beautiful choice for you.