Jewelry in Iran

Every country has its own unique culture and in the Iranian culture jewelry & adornments have been central to the identity of the men & women of Iran. Culture can be visible & sometimes it gets lost, but Iran is one country where the culture has taken a beating but the visibility of its past history is still there. Iran is an ancient culture, artifact which date back to 10000 years has been found, prevalent amongst these artifacts other than everyday household goods has been the jewelry and pearls (Perlen) that the people of Iran used to wear in their day to day life.

Jewelry in Iran is as old as their history and these jewels were made of all types of available material. Jewels were made from decorative beads; turquoise, copper silver & gold were commonly found to be used by the women & most of the men.
The artisans in Iran were known to use precious & semi precious stones & metal to create rings, necklaces, bracelets, foot adornments, hip belts and many other forms of jewelry. Iran is where the first mirrors were found, these mirrors date back to 4500 years back, no wonder the people of Iran wanted to see how they looked after wearing their jewels. In Iran jewelry were not only used as adornments to decorated themselves, but there is also evidence to prove that jewel like rings, pendants, tiny pins were used to ward of ill omens and bring them good luck.
There are stories of how the women of Iran loved their ornaments so much that after their death all their choice jewelry was buried with them. Also the jewels made in Iran had some very typical designs for both men & women. The ornaments with two ends like belts & bracelets had the symbols of loin, ram, snake, goose or dear.  
It is no different in the present times, even today symbols of royalty like King Darius Lion or the ancient Iranian chariots which symbolized power & ancient glory will be found to be extensively used in the jewelry made for Iranian men. The history of Iran & their culture have influenced the jewelry designs to a great extent and till this day wearing jewels with these symbols is a reminder of the past glory and the power of Iran.

The famous Kohinoor diamond has know to be originated from the famed jewelry collection of the Iranian rulers who took great pride in building & recording their collection. A major chunk of these historical jewels from Iran are the center of attraction in many of the western museums & private collections. One unique piece of artifact adorned with precious stones is the Imperial globe of Iran which is studded with 51000 precious gems.
Today the people of Iran are more conservative and it is a norm for 18-23 carat gold to be the main form of jewelry. Also it is the women who are into jewels rather than the men, but Iranians as a people have a special place for their Jewelry.

Wedding Jewelry (Brautschmuck)