How Jewelry Came To Be

Amethyst, for instance, was thought to sober drunks, quell ***ual passion and cure baldness. Aquamarine was considered to protect seafarers, whilst emeralds increased fertility and intelligence. Rubies provided defense against every type of misfortune and created hostile neighbors friendly. Medieval Europeans dreaded the opal because of its resemblance to ;the Evil Eye; and it truly is from their fear that Sir Walter Scott, in 1829, wrote ;Anne of Geierstein;. In this novel, the *** death is attributed towards the wearing of an opal, which is why, to this day, the superstition exists that it poor luck to wear an opal unless it really is your birthstone.The word ;jewelry; is derived in the Latin word jocale, meaning ;plaything;and is used to describe any piece of precious material used to adorn one self. Students with the natural sciences are in agreement when they say that of all the creatures within the animal kingdom, only human beings seek to adorn themselves.Prior to written language, or the spoken word, there was jewelry! According to archaelogists, even primitive man wore jewelry inside form of twine, stones and animal teeth and ;the very first spiritual want of a barbarous man is decoration;. Early in its inception, jewelry was associated with religious rites. Gold and jewels have been applied as gifts for that maintenance of worship and as protection against occult forces. In accordance with this began the presumption that precious stones possessed magical powers and could affect the fortunes with the wearer.