A few Interesting Facts about Jewellery

Jewellery has been playing a great role in our life, for both men & women. Since old times, people loved to look at their best and loved to show their uniqueness by adorning themselves with rings, bracelets, anklets, hairclips, earrings, etc. Even though jewellery items, designs, metals or materials differ from era to era or from one place to another, the purpose of jewellery remains the same. Show off the best in us.

However, sometimes we take certain things as default without thinking of what is behind them. For example, why do we call body adornments jewellery? What is the origin of this word? Or the names of precious metals and gemstones. Where was the first jewellery discovered? From where diamonds & other gemstones come from. So, let us dig in deep to know a few facts related to jewellery that are unknown to many of us.

The origin of jewellery-related names is interesting to know. For example, the word jewellery comes from the French word Joule, which is derived from the Latin word “jocale”. The word means plaything. As for the word gold, it comes from the Germanic word, i.e. old English word “geolu”, which simply means yellow. The shining colour of this precious metal played a great role in shaping its name.

Diamond is derived from the ancient Greek word “Adamas”, which means invincible. That is due to its hardness and extraordinary properties to protect its wearers against poison or harm, according to ancient myths.

The word pearl was first used in the 1300s, and it originated from the French word “Perle”, which is derived from the Latin word “Perna”, which means sea mussel. However, the Greek word for pearl means unique. They particularly used pearls in romantic customs as they were symbols of devotion and love.

Recent excavation work in the Bizmone cave in Morocco shows that the oldest jewellery item was a chain of beads, or as we refer to it nowadays, a necklace. This item was made from Nassarius shell and is dated back 100000 years ago.

The oldest pearl in the world was found on Al-Marwah Island, near Abu Dhabi, the capital city of UAE, and it dates back to 8000 years ago. However, the first pearl jewellery was found inside the tomb of a Persian princess.

It is nice to know certain facts behind a gold necklace you wear or a pair of pearl earrings. Here are further interesting facts;

1. Diamonds were first discovered in India, and the estimated age of a diamond is between 1-3 billion years.
2. The Largest gold nuggets of 200 pounds were found in Australia.
3. The original colour of gold is pure yellow, and other colours we find in jewellery are mixed alloys, usually copper, silver, and palladium. The concentration of each metal affects the overall colour. For example, a rose gold bracelet is an alloy with a high concentration of copper.
4. China is the largest gold supplier in the world, but India is at the top when it comes to gold demand. UAE is among the top 5 countries with the highest gold demand.
5. Opal once the most popular gemstone in Europe has lost its popularity due to a novel by Sir Walter Scott. The unfortunate fate the protagonist in the novel faced was associated with opal, and since then, opal has become the stone for bad luck and misfortunate.