The Sumerian civilisations in Mesopotamia were the first to use techniques like filigree and granulation. Excavations of the ancient city of Ur have revealed royal graves with pieces featuring these techniques from as far back as 2500BC. The Sumerian craftsmen used gold and silver in combination with precious stones like agate, lapis lazuli, and carnelian. The jewelry produced by the Sumerians consisted of sheet gold cut into earrings, complicated gold chains and necklaces and even stone-inlaid finger rings.

From Mesopotamia, the techniques spread west to present-day Turkey where excavations have revealed fine gold jewelry at Troy that has been dated to 2500-2300BC. The movement may have spread further west towards Greece and Crete as finds of lesser quality and of a slightly later date imply.

On the other side of the Mediterranean, jewellery began to play an important role by the 19th century BC in the Egyptian culture. The Egyptians developed many substitutes for precious stones. Faience and later glass beads have been found in great amounts. Precious stone simulants were invented and are here to stay.

From about 1700BC the Minoan civilisation shows to have mastered the fine techniques of filigree, granulation, and repoussé. The jewelry that has been unearthed on Crete shows strong influences from both Mesopotamia and Egypt but with its own strong design. The Minoan techniques and style jumped to mainland Greece with the city of Mycenae being the port of entry. The Mycenaean civilisation took over the Minoan decorative styles and gradually changed them into a style of their own.

Northern Europe came into it’s Bronze Age around 2000 BC and a few well-made items from between 1800 and 1500 BC have been excavated on the British Isles. It was only after 1500 BC that the extent of the pre-Celtic cultures’ metal jewelry becomes apparent. Tin, gold, and amber acted as natural riches that enabled the tribes living in these areas to trade with Mediterranean cultures. Rich grave gifts at several spots suggest a fairly well-developed society. Around 1100-1000 BC a century of widespread disruption took place. The cultures that emerged from this century of regression, first the Urnfield culture and later The Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, had picked up on the progressive line of technical development and craftsmanship that we are reading about throughout this article.

The Celts used red enamel in their jewelry from around 400 BC. The technique of applying enamel dates back to the Minoan and Mycenaean times when simple encrusted enameled pieces were made. The Celtic craftsmen took enamel application to the next level through cloisonné and champlevé enameling was used to make very colourful body decorations.

The Celtic culture encompassed a wide variety of cultures living in the northern part of Europe that shared the same style and technique of their (metal) products. As a result, we see a somewhat uniform development in Celtic jewelry right up to the Roman conquest of the Celtic world in the first century BC.

From around 800 BC, the Phoenician traders started to establish colonies all around the Mediterranean. They came from the eastern Mediterranean coast, the area that is now Lebanon and Israel and influenced the jewelry-making of the Greeks and Etruscans. The Phoenicians were the connecting element between the long traditions of Egypt and Mesopotamia and the ‘new’ civilisations in Greece and Italy.

Intaglios and cameos originated in ancient Greece where glyptography was perfected to an art form. The Greeks, like every other civilisation up until then, used stones that could be worked easily with the abrasives at hand and yet were hard enough to withstand the hardships of normal daily wear and tear. The most common abrasive in those times was quartz sand which was readily available and was used to polish cryptocrystalline quartz such as agate and carnelian and softer materials like lapis lazuli.

One ancient culture that has left us splendid proof of their gold working skills was the Etruscans. From the 8th century BC and on, this civilisation perfected gold working techniques that were clearly influenced by Greek culture(s). The fine detail of the Etruscan jewelry is of the highest quality and they used many colored stones. The Etruscan style was adopted by the Romans and formed the basis for Roman art and jewelry. One of the characteristics that the Romans adopted from the Etruscans was the love of precious stones in their jewelry.

The Roman Empire connected the Western Asian cultures directly with the Celtic Western European cultures. The excellent infrastructure provided by the Romans boosted trade enormously and triggered a vast exchange of products from the East to the west and vice versa. The Celts “Romanized’ quickly and took over Roman ideas of beauty. The characteristic Celtic jewelry made a place for Roman techniques and styles.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Great Migration of cultures put an end to the Celtic civilisations. The inlaying of colored precious stones and the revival of the old Celtic champlevé enameling makes jewelry from this period very colorful. The Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist far into the Middle Ages and developed a style of its own, influenced by the East.