Introduction

Necklaces have existed ever since our ancestors began to walk upright. Our desire to adorn ourselves has been evident since ancient times with Paleolithic and Neolithic necklaces made from shells, bones, teeth, and claws found at sites of archaeological explorations. As our sophistication and knowledge grew so did the variety of materials and the level of detail and design used in jewelry. The Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, virtually all civilizations, had unique methods for designing and making jewelry, ranging from simple strung bead arrangements to more elaborate combinations of materials and patterns.

Antiquity

Ancient Egyptians favored a “broad collar” comprised of beads strung in vertical, parallel rows fashioned in a bib-like shape, tied with a cord at the back. Heavy funerary collars were created from metal sheet and chased with talismanic Egyptian motifs. Strings of beads tied in the back with a cord were worn choker style and pectorals designed as large emblematic motifs were inlaid with faience and gemstones.

The Minoan civilization stamped out gold beads to create many different forms of jewelry. Necklaces and pendants featured beads decorated with complex granulation and repoussé. An Egyptian influence was evident in their choice of pectorals and the motifs that they created and adorned with expert use of filigree. Large gold disks with repoussé animals were often suspended from the pectorals. The Minoans were also clever chain weavers and, as a result, chains began to be worn as necklaces in their own right without the addition of charms, pendants or other symbolic motifs.

The Etruscans were the ancient world’s most accomplished goldsmiths. Fabulous necklaces included the art of chain making further embellished with a myriad of repoussébeads with intricate granulated designs. When discovered centuries later, jewelers tried in vain to emulate the fine work of the unparalleled civilization. The techniques they used for accomplishing such incredible granulated designs frustrated generations of jewelers who strove tirelessly to recreate the magic.

Classical Greek necklaces linked together repoussé motifs sometimes decorated with filigree and granulation and suspending hollow forms such as amphorae, flower buds, beads, flowers and human heads. Medallions with elaborate designs were suspended from chains featuring these incredible repoussé motifs along with swags of chain.

Discussing jewelry from the Hellenistic period under the rule of Alexander the Great, J. Anderson Black explains in A History of Jewelry: Five Thousand Years:

Rather than imposing their old designs on the newly-conquered territories, the Greeks absorbed what was best from the art of each nation and evolved a hybrid. This was undoubted the richest period for jewelry and goldwork in the history of the Aegean world. For one thing gold was more readily available both from deposits in Asia and Egypt, and from looted treasures which could be broken up and the metal re-used.¹

Their interpretation of Etruscan design adapted the strap necklace but replaced the pendants with more geometric forms abandoning the Etruscan figurative motifs. More gemstones were being used and chains included finials and gold, glass and gemstone beads.

Roman jewelry design was of Hellenistic origin until the 2nd century A.D. when Roman jewelers began to use the technique of opus interrasile resulting in an openwork pattern in metal. They also took the art of niello and applied it to jewelry. Romans were responsible for adding a good deal of color to jewelry using colored stones polished en cabochon. Chains suspended coins and medallions and included colored stones and segments pierced with the opus interrasile technique.

Early Celtic necklaces included torcs of twisted rod or ribbon held in place by a simple clasp. Trade with other parts of the world brought them beads made from faience and amber which they fashioned into necklaces. Similar to a pectoral was the Irish gorget. Designed as a broad crescent cut from sheet metal, it was enhanced by repoussé work and finished with large disk-shaped terminals.

Scandinavian Jewelry c.6th century featured elaborate and intricate abstract themes, including their use of a technique called “chip cutting” which involved chiseling glimmering “facets” onto gold surfaces. Combining this with filigree and repoussé resulted in a hitherto unseen style. With the passing of time, simpler geometric designs emerged.