Medieval jewelry

Major stylistic phases include barbarian, Byzantine, Carolingian and Ottonian, Viking, and the Late Middle Ages, when Western European styles became relatively similar.

Most styles and techniques used in jewelry for personal adornment, the main subject of this article, were also used in pieces of decorated metalwork, which was the most prestigious form of art through most of this period; these were often much larger.

Arm-rings ("armillae") and sometimes ankle-rings were also sometimes worn, and sometimes (for the very rich) many small of pieces of jewelry were sewn into the cloth of garments forming patterns.

[4] Pilgrims also took such souvenirs from these sites, usually oils or pieces of earth, in hopes that they would protect them on their journey back home and improve the quality of their prayers.

For example, certain jewels were worn by pregnant women to ensure a safe pregnancy and delivery as death through childbirth was common.

[3] Lapidaries were an extremely popular type of work in the Middle Ages, and listed the many medical and quasi-magical powers attributed to gems, as well as their religious symbolism and sometimes their astrological significance.

[4] By the end of the period, the types of personal jewelry worn by wealthy women were not very different from those found today, with rings, necklaces, brooches, lockets and (less often) earrings all popular.

But accessories such as belts and purses, as well as other personal possessions such as combs and book-covers might also be jeweled in a way rarely found today.

Poorer women wore smaller quantities of similar styles of personal jewelry in cheaper materials, as today.

Wealthy men wore far more jewelry than today, often including large chain collars, and a cap badge, which might be very extravagant.

[10] Ignoring its beauty and the possible association with the sun's perceived mystical powers, the main advantage of using gold to create jewelry was its malleability.

In contrast silver was mined in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, with very large deposits discovered at Kutná Hora in Bohemia in 1298 that lasted until the end of the period.

[12] Ancient engraved gems were often reused among stones, which in early medieval jeweled objects were often set profusely, spaced out across surfaces, mixed with ornaments in gold.

Current analytical evidence has shown that it has also a double composite chemical nature: the inorganic part forms the inert mass on which to work metals and can be made of sand, clay, powdered bricks and tiles, or the so-called cocciopesto (powdered bricks mixed with mortar), while the organic part works as an adhesive between metal and wood and is made of wax and/or pitch.

[14] Barbarian jewelry of the Migration Period is one of the most common forms of surviving art from their cultures, and the personal adornment of the elite was clearly considered of great importance, for men as well of women.

Large jeweled fibula brooches, worn singly (with a cloak) or in pairs (for many types of women's dress) on the chest were made in a number of forms based on Roman styles, as the barbarian peoples including the Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Franks, Anglo-Saxons and Lombards took over the territories of the Western Roman Empire.

Though mostly based on Roman models, styles varied with the different tribes or people, and the jewelry buried in graves can be used to trace the movement of ethnic groups, having presumably served with other aspects of costume as a cultural identifier for the living.

The finest and most famous collection of barbarian jewelry is the set for the adornment of (probably) an Anglo-Saxon king of about 620 recovered at the Sutton Hoo burial site in England in the mid-20th century.

[24] Viking jewelry began rather plainly – with unadorned bands and rings – but quickly developed into intricate and masterful artistry, with a strong preference for silver, unusual in the Middle Ages.

[25] The main themes in Viking jewelry are patterns of nature and animals, increasing in abstraction as the time period progressed.

Goldsmiths used the techniques of soldering, plating and gilding to create a larger workable surface or to cover a secondary metal with a thin layer of gold for jewelry design.

[36] These techniques allowed for intense detail and delicacy because the wires or grains could easily be worked into twisted patterns and minuscule facets.