Authentic Bronze Roman Rings - History

Ancient Bronze Jewellery

Roman Bronze Ring Just as today, jewelry was an important part of Roman life and culture. Jewelry reflected then as now the wealth and status of the wearer. In the Roman Republic, (before 44 BC), by law only citizens could wear rings. And a male citizen could only wear one ring, and that ring was made of iron. In the early empire only Patricians, (the upper class of citizens), could wear gold rings. Other citizens and freemen could wear silver or bronze. Slaves were not allowed to wear rings at all except in some circumstances, iron. As the empire expanded the laws and customs regarding jewelry were relaxed. Clothing was dictated by social class, and changed little for over 1000 years. Consequently jewelry and hairstyles were the dominant means of expressing a Roman's social and economic status. In the later empire some people wore rings on every finger, and even on their toes! The normal everyday Roman was not this ostentatious.

See our selection of Bronze Roman Rings here

They wore only one or two rings, usually of bronze. Since Roman clothing had no pockets, one popular ring was the key ring. Unlike the modern key ring which holds a group of keys together, a Roman key ring was a finger ring containing an actual key, possibly to a strongbox where the family valuables were stored, or maybe even to the door of the wearer's house. Bronze was popular because it was much less expensive than other metals, and when polished it could look almost like gold. There are some Roman bronze rings that even have a thin plating of gold. Just like their more expensive counterparts, bronze rings sometimes had a semi-precious stone or polished glass inset into the bezel. Most though were just inscribed with one of a large variety of symbols. The Romans were a superstitious people. Many of the symbols were good luck charms, asking for favors from a particular god, or protection by another. The Roman military sometimes wore rings with the insignia of their legion, or in commemoration of a great victory.

Roman jewellery was made throughout the empire from 27BC, when Roman styles absorbed Greek culture, until the founding of Constantinople in AD330, when Byzantine styles gradually took over. Many towns throughout the empire have produced evidence for metal working in the forms of hearths, slag and scraps of metal or crucibles.

With brooches an essential item of dress, and tombstones showing evidence of a lively jewellery market in general,

Styles and Materials

bronze rings Romano-British jewellery was made and used in Britain after the Roman conquest in AD43, using Roman or native styles or a combination of both. Polychrome jewellery was made using a technique learnt from the Greeks. This was multicoloured by reason of being inlaid with gems and glass in rub-over settings (bringing a collar of gold up over the edges of the stone rather than using the modern clasp setting).

Opus interrasile is a style of open-work decoration of metal used by the Etruscans, the Romans from the third century onwards, and then the Byzantines. It was made by piercing metal to form a fine fretwork, often creating a filigree-type background with a solid image left in relief.

Dipped enamelling had been used in Greek jewellery since the third century BC, and was still practiced in Roman times. This involved dipping a heated metal core into molten glass then shaping it, and was mostly used for pendant earrings. Enamelling in general was very popular in the western provinces.

Precious stones including sapphires, aquamarines, topaz, garnet, cornelian, occasional uncut diamonds, and pearls were used in bezel (rub-over) settings for rings, necklaces and bracelets. Emeralds from Egypt or the Red Sea were also known. Glass, bone and pottery beads were used too.

Jet from Whitby was of such fine quality it was shipped to Rome, and to the Rhineland, where the absence of waste material makes it clear that the items were manufactured in Yorkshire and exported as finished products. Pendants, beads, pins, rings and armlets were all made.

British pearls were known to Tacitus (end of the first century) and were still being sold in the fourth century. Silver, from the Mendip hills, was mined as a by-product of the lead industry. However, the silver yield was very low in Britain compared to other lead-mining areas in Europe.

Sometimes these designs refer to a specific place and on some occasions they refer to a specific celestial event or a day of the year when such an event will occur which is quite exciting from an astronomical or astrological point of view. There are also a few broken lines that may have formed a "Serpent" figure right behind the Moon which is exciting because this may reference a certain time of the year when the Serpent Constellation is seen in the night sky. The image on this ring is a "Moon" symbol. The image is done on a curved, 10mm rounded bezel and is a nicely cut image of the full moon which is the symbol of the Goddess Diana. This symbol is related to the magic circles that you see on other Roman rings, but when you see it like this, it depicts the moon. It would be my guess that the owner of this ring had a name that started with the first few letters or the whole word LUNA in it.

It was quite common for Roman to use a symbol that was related to or derived from their name. We also know it depicts the moon because though it is a substantial carving, all the surfaces that are on it are nice and smooth like the moon and opposed to the sun which is always depicted with rays coming out of it. Depicted on the bezel, is a single Legion Battle Standard. This type is related to the "Vexillum" but instead of a pendant flag, this type always had disks or circlets upon it. This example seems to mix both methods of depicting this design. There is some debate as to which part of a legion these represented but there are some theories that these represented a particular Cohort within a Legion.

ORION'S BELT DESIGN

roman jewellery The belt of the Giant Orion is made up of three stars. Mintaka , the westernmost star in the belt, comes from the Arabic word for belt. Alnilam, the center star in the belt, means "a belt of pearls". And Alnitak, the eastern-most star, means the girdle. All three are at the same distance from us and, with Rigel, Saiph, and Meissa, probably formed at about the same time some ten million years ago from the molecular clouds astronomers have found in Orion.

Animal Designs.

ancient jewelry The ancient Romans were very fond of statues and reliefs showing hunting scenes, including scenes where the hunter was an animal; they were also interested in statues of exotic animals..

The Roman Eagle

The Roman ensigns had on their top an eagle representing Rome. These symbols were held high by a special group of soldiers and during the battles they indicated the location of the commanding officers and they gave reassurance to the Roman legionaries. The choice of the eagle as the symbol of command was widespread among ancient civilizations. In Rome, according to the legend, this choice was due to the fact that Romulus, the founder of Rome, first saw an eagle, when he was competing (in a sort of modern bird-watching exercise) with his brother Remus for who should be the founder of the new town. The Roman eagle was usually represented with open wings and it was often inscribed within an oak-wreath

Lions

The lion, the king of the animals, was mainly associated by the Romans with the myth of Hercules, who was always portrayed wearing a lion skin. Lions protected the dead in the Roman sarcophagi . The Romans liked in particular scenes showing the lion in the act of hunting a deer and some of these reliefs can be seen on Roman jewellery.

Jewellery History