Earrings, ornaments decorating the ears, have been one of the principal forms of jewelry throughout recorded history. The term usually refers to ornaments worn attached to the earlobes, though in the late twentieth century it expanded somewhat to include ornaments worn the other parts of the ear, such as ear cuffs, and is used to describe pieces of jewelry in earring form, even when they are worn through piercings in other parts of the body. The most common means of attaching earrings to the earlobes has been to pierce holes in the lobes, through which a loop or post may be passed.
In many cultures and contexts, earrings have traditionally been worn as symbols of cultural or tribal identity, as markers of age, marital status, or rank, or because they are believed to have protective or medicinal powers. Even when they have served other purposes, however, the primary function of earrings has been a decorative one.
The Ancient World on earrings
In antiquity, earrings were one of the most popular forms of jewelry. The crescent-shaped gold hoops worn by Sumerian women around 2500 B.C.E are the earliest earrings for which there is archaeological evidence. By 1000 B.C.E, tapered hoop earrings, most commonly of gold but also of silver and bronze, had spread throughout the Aegean World and Western Asia. In Crete and Cyprus, earrings were embellished with twisted gold wire, clusters of beads, and pendants stamped out of thin sheet gold.
The Roman Earrings
The Roman earrings were similar to Etruscan styles until the first century, when new styles with disks and pendants mounted on S-shaped ear hooks appeared. Coloured stones and pearls were favoured, and earring styles proliferated to satisfy the Roman taste for ostentatious display. At its height, the Roman Empire had the effect of standardizing styles of jewelry over much of the known world; after the center of influence shifted to Byzantium in c.e 330, and Roman influence began to decline, local variations once more emerged. Characteristic Byzantine earrings were plain gold hoops with multiple pearl pendants hung on chains, and crescent-shaped earrings of gold filigree.
Earrings in the Twentieth Century
By 1900, as earrings declined in size and importance, many women stopped wearing them altogether. Some commentators denounced ear-piercing as barbaric, and women who pierced their ears were considered ‘fast’, or not quite respectable. In spite of piercing’s negative image, small screw earrings continued to be worn, and new screw-back fittings, which could be tightened onto unpierced earlobes, were available for those who did not wish to pierce their ears. Around 1908, pendant earrings were revived, but with light, articulated drops of smaller stones rather than single-stone drops; diamonds, pearls, and stones matching the colour of the costume were the most popular materials. Earrings have become a popular form of personal expression, and how and when they are worn, along with their function within an ensemble, became largely a matter of personal choice.
