Over the centuries humans have adorned themselves in a wide variety of clothing and accessories. One of the most enduring pieces is the simple wrist bracelet. Recently the earliest evidence of this style of adornment was discovered by Russian archaeologists in the Denisovan Cave site in Siberia’s Altai Mountains. The Denisovans were an early type of hominid concurrent with Neanderthals and early Homo Sapiens. A bracelet was found made of stone in a part of the cave carbon dated to 40,000 BPE. Wrist bracelets are perhaps the oldest form of jewellery!
Early humans formed bracelets from woven grasses, wood, shells, and stones, then later from copper and bronze. The Denisovan example wasn’t the only very ancient bracelet to be found, more were unearthed in Russia thought to be 40,000 years old. Always fashion trendsetters, the ancient Egyptian wore bracelets in 5,000 BCE. Egyptian bracelets started with materials like stones, bones, and woo and originally served spiritual and religious purposes. The famed Scarab Bracelet is one ancient Egypt’s most recognised symbols, representing rebirth and regeneration. Egyptian myth spoke of the scarab god, Khepri pushing the sun across the sky to create dusk and dawn. Carved scarabs bracelets were worn as jewellery, and were often wrapped into the linen bandages of mummies.
By the time of the First Dynasty in 2680 BCE, the Egyptians wore bracelets crafted from gold and silver decorated with precious and semiprecious stones. The highly skilled goldsmiths of the New Kingdom in 1558 to 1085 BCE fashioned inlaid designs made of gemstones found all across Africa. Although bracelets of this period were often buried in tombs as part of the deceased individual’s earthly possessions, it it is thought that they were usually worn as decorative accessories more than as religious amulets or ritual talismans. The Ancient Egyptian tombs have been found to contain bracelets formed as hoops, strings of gold beads, and hinged bracelets made from plain or enamelled metals and unadorned by any stones. By the advent of the First Dynasty, the royalty wore bracelets made of rectangular beads called serekhs, that were made from turquoise, gold, and blue-glazed composites.
Archaeologists have found evidence that people wore bracelets all over the ancient world, from Mesopotamia, to India, and China made of a wide variety of materials. Following the Bronze Age of 2000 to 1400 BCE, artisans began to fashion bracelets from precious gold and silver. The gold bracelets were typically unadorned and hammered and bent into shape, while bronze bracelets were decorated with patterns and designs, most were penannular, or oval in shape, with expanding, trumpet-shaped ends. The ancient Chinese wore simple bracelets made of wood, jade, and gold on their wrists. Over time they grew more decorative, and were adorned with precious stones as jewellery became a symbol of status and wealth. In Pre-Columbian America, the indigenous artisans fashioned bracelets from precious minerals, jade, rock crystals, and gold.
The first written record of people wearing bracelets can be found in the Hebrew Scriptures during biblical times. The Bible states that there were three types of bracelets, one worn by men only, one worn exclusively by women, and another that could be worn by either sex. Unfortunately, their distinctive characteristics weren’t described and the knowledge has been lost!
Ancient Scandinavian and German warriors wore spiral armlets covering the entire forearm for both decorative purposes and armour. In Britain during the Celtic period, the men wore bracelets and armlets as protection against sword attacks.
In the ancient Mycenaean and Minoan periods bracelets were fashioned from sheet metal and featured elaborate loop-in-loop chains. The ancient Assyrians had two types of bracelets, stiff penannular hoops with enamelled lion’s heads, ram’s heads and sphinxes, and coiled spirals formed to appear as two interlocking snakes. These spiral forms were also common in Europe in the Iron Age. Around the eighth century BCE Scythian nobles wore sturdy gold bracelets featuring animal designs. The Scythians were powerful, nomadic tribes that ranged across southeastern Europe and Asia, famed for their fine metalworking and artistic style.
The Etruscans, who predated the Romans, are thought to be the first to create bracelets with separate, hinged panels, a style still popular today. Ancient Greek soldiers donned thick leather bracelets on their upper and lower arms as armour to protect their wrists from sword cuts, and they became a component of their traditional military uniform, later replaced by metal cuffs. The Roman army mimicked this practice, and crafted their own serpent-shaped arm bracelets. Mediterranean jewellery styles spread across Europe, but bracelets fell out of favour, especially among men, and were worn only by women as Europe transitioned to the Middle Ages. The decline in interest in bracelets was probably due to the Christian beliefs that discouraged bodily adornments since they suggested “an unhealthy regard for personal vanity.”
So, the bracelet has been with us for a very long time, across many cultures! They are still one of the most popular fashion adornments of today, and are worn by people of both sexes in many countries.
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