Are you one of those people who feels naked without their jewellery? Rushed out to work this morning without your collection of silver rings? Feel you can’t function without them? You’re certainly not alone, there are many people who feel the same way and when you think about the roots of jewellery it is not surprising that we feel the need to wear it.

Jewellery itself can be traced back to Africa where there were beads made out of snail shells which date back over 75,000 years ago. The Cro-Magnons who were anatomically advanced humans in Europe were wearing bracelets and necklaces made out of bones, teeth, stones which were then strung upon an animal sinew of a piece of string. Some of these even had mother-of-pearl pieces. The Southern Russians however liked carved bracelets made out of mammoth tusks. It was not until about 7,000 years ago that copper jewellery was around.

In Asia the earliest culture to start making jewellery was the Chinese about 5,000 years ago. This jewellery was motivated by religion and had many Buddhist symbols contained within the designs. They used mainly silver for their jewellery craft which was often matched with blue their favourite colour. But historically the Chinese prefer jade over the other stones as they feel it has human qualities such as beauty, durability and hardness. Initially these jade silver jewellery designs were quite simplistic but as they evolved the rings between the 4th and 7th centures BCE shows signs of having been worked on with compound milling machine. This was hundreds of years before there was any sign of this type of machinery in the western world.

The Chinese also placed silver jewellery on their graves which is supported by the finds of aarchaeologists; most Chinese graves contain decorative jewellery. When still alive both sexes in China wore jewellery which was to show their wealth and nobility, this later developed into a way to accentuate beauty also. Men would wear decorative hat buttons which howed rank and they also wore gold or silver rings. Amulets were also commonplace quite often with a Chinese symbol such as the dragon or the phoenix. The women also wore strips of gold on their foreheads, like a headband or predecessor of the tiara, which was decorated with gemtones.

Across the world there are many stories of the history of jewellery, the significance in various ways and how it was worn and why. Rings are a sign of eternity because of the shape, and silver rings are stylish and throughout the ages and cultures have been enhanced with carvings, stones, cameos, intaglios and more. On top of that each finger that we place the ring on has a different meaning. The thumb is controlled by the planet Mars and therefore is related to marriage, imprisonment, war and enmity. The index finger is under Jupiter which is related to riches, medicines, longevity, treasures and honours. The middle finger is ruled by Saturn which is governed by buildings, life, meditations and doctrines. The ring finger is under the sun and signifies a long life, great honours and wisdom. The last but not least, little finger is under Mercurywhich is about making gold and all knowledge. So this may explain to you why you will want to wear rings on certain fingers. It can be a good idea to change this around for balance now that you understand the significance of each finger