Pearl Jewelry: A Testament to Our Lives Why do we wear jewelry? Usually, it’s because we like how it makes us look and feel – beautiful and confident. That’s not the only reason, though. Often times there are a much deeper meaning to why we choose to beautify our outfits with jewelry.
Why Our Ancestors Donned Jewelry For almost 75,000 years, humans adorned themselves with jewelry for different reasons. Jewelry was often worn by emperors, pharaohs, kings, and queens as a symbol of status, wealth, and power. Only the rich could afford valuable gems and metals like pearls, diamonds, gold, silver, and other precious stones. However, that didn’t keep the less fortunate from embellishing themselves: Throughout the ages, people often created jewelry from leather, wood, shells, seeds, feathers, and other beautiful items they could lay their hands on. Jewelry was also believed to have supernatural and healing powers. One such example is the ancient Egyptians. A favorite, the Eye of Horus with a green or turquoise stone set as the pupil, represented protection and health. Evil eye jewelry and talismans, which was first recorded about 5,000 years ago by the Mesopotamians, was believed to protect the wearer from evil forces. This symbol is found in Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu cultures.