Ancient Roman jewellery was an essential public display of wealth. Roman jewellery at first followed the trends set by the Etruscans. As the Roman empire grew, jewellery designs and materials became even more elaborate, incorporating different cultural styles from Greece, Egypt, North Africa and the East.
Granulation (from the Latin ‘granum’ meaning ‘grain’) was the technique used by Roman jewellers to create the miniature gold spheres which adorn the hoops. I The oldest known examples made with this process date back to 2500BC and were found in the tombs of Ur, in Mesopotamia. From there, the technique spread across the Near East and reached its peak with the Etruscans in the 7th-6th centuries BC.
To find out more about different metal decorative techniques please see our relevant blog post: Decorative Metalwork Techniques
