Jewelry, ornaments made of precious metals, often set with gemstones, worn by since ancient times by people of all cultures for personal adornment, as badges of social or official rank, and as emblems of religious, social, or political affiliation. In its widest sense the term jewelry encompasses objects made of many kinds of organic and inorganic
materials such as hair, feathers, leather, scales, bones, shells, wood, ceramics, metals, and minerals.

However, the term jewelry properly refers to mounted precious or semiprecious stones and to objects made of valuable or attractive metals such as gold, silver, platinum, copper, and brass. Jewelry has been worn on the head in the form of crowns, diadems, tiaras, aigrettes, hairpins, hat ornaments, earrings, nose rings, earplugs, and lip rings: on the neck in the form of collars necklaces, and pendants; on the breast in the form of pectorals, brooches, clasps, and buttons; on the limbs in the form of rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets; and at the waist in the
form of belts and girdles, with pendants such as chatelaines, scent cases, and rosaries.

 

Current knowledge of ancient jewelry is derived largely from the preservation of personal objects in tombs. Information about the jewelry of cultures that did not bury valuables with the dead comes from portraits in surviving painting and sculpture.

The Egyptians also were among the first to incorporate precious stones in their jewelry, using such gemstones as amethyst, turquoise and lapis lazuli, and they also used enameling. Many drawings of Egyptians show them wearing two bracelets on each arm, one on the wrist and another above the elbow. An especially popular ornament was the signet ring. Jewelry motifs – the scarab (beetle),
lotus, falcon, serpent, and eye, for example – were derived from religious symbols. Vast quantities of jewelry have been found in tombs. Especially notable are ornaments from the tomb of Tutankhamen (reigned 1333-1323 BC), of the 18th Dynasty, now in the Egyptian Museum, Cairo.