How to hype a ring: the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring and the evidence

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, European jewellery

an elizabethan ring and the evidence

How to hype a ring: the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring

Published Sept 4, 2026

Sometimes, I come across a piece of jewellery that puzzles me. The other day, I spotted a gold ring offered by Berganza London as the ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’. Set with a carnelian intaglio depicting a male bust in the likeness of a Roman emperor, it is a beautiful and rare piece of Elizabethan jewellery.

But how do we know this is really the ring of Edward de Vere?

I started reading the description, then went looking for the archaeological find record. And somewhere between what we know about the ring and what has been suggested about its former owner, I felt the leap from evidence to interpretation had become rather large, and so I wanted to take you along to separate fact from story!

The Elizabethan gold ring and its intaglio

The ring itself is a gold ring, with a beautifully decorated shank and bezel in a foliage design. The ring is set with an engraved carnelian, showing a bust of a bearded man, wearing a coronet with large radiating points. This is an ornament borrowed from Roman times, when notably the god Sol was depicted with such a head ornament: they are stylized rays of sun. That fits with the time period the ring was made: from the 16^th century onwards, people of the upper layers in society began to take an interest in Classical Antiquity. It’s a beautiful piece, and it is absolutely rare.

See the ring, a parallel, and a cast of the intaglio here

But on Berganza’s website, it is listed as ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’ and the page title itself says ‘Elizabethan piece of jewellery Edward de Vere’. Edward de Vere was a confidant and favourite of Elizabeth I, which leads to the description of this piece being ‘an important piece of Elizabethan history’.

Wait, how did we arrive at this very specific attribution?

Where was the ‘Edward de Vere’ ring found?

For that, we need to retrace the find circumstances. Where did this piece of jewellery come from?

As mentioned on the website, it was found by a metal detectorist in 2018 ‘near Hedingham Castle in Essex’.

But what is ‘near’? That is a conspicuously vague term, so I looked up the Portable Antiquities Scheme Database. In the UK, metal detectorist finds need to be registered, and so there is a find record of the ring here. You’ll find it listed in the references below this blog. Side note: this record is not referenced on the Berganza site. The find spot is given as the Greenstead Green and Halstead Rural parish – so not an exact location, but the parish it was found in. That is not unusual, and I assume the exact coordinates of the find are known with PAS.

Hedingham Castle is not located in that parish, though, but in (unsurprisingly) Castle Hedingham Parish. That is roughly 2 miles from the parish boundary listed as the find spot, so ‘near’ is still an hour’s or so walk away.

The PAS record further lists that the find fulfilled the requirements of the Treasure Act, but was disclaimed as Treasure in 2020 following further research and returned to the finder.

Why has the ring been linked to Edward de Vere?

Now to the Edward de Vere part.

Hedingham Castle is the ancestral castle of Edward de Vere. And because it was found ‘near’ the castle, it was assumed to be associated with its famous inhabitant. The video on this particular ring shown on Berganza’s Instagram (see it here) even suggests ‘an intimate likeness’ between the carving on the intaglio and the few surviving portraits of De Vere.

So, a ring with an intaglio that was fashionable in court circles at that time, found a considerable distance from Hedingham Castle, shows an intimate likeness to a man of whom very few portraits survive? Dating a ring to the Elizabethan period is one thing. Attributing it to a particular Elizabethan individual requires another level of evidence, I think.

To be fair, Berganza is appropriately careful in their wording. The description uses phrases such as ‘it has been suggested’ and ‘thought to have been commissioned and owned’, so the connection with Edward de Vere is never explicitly presented as established fact. I appreciate that distinction.

At the same time, the overall presentation points quite strongly in that direction. The ring is listed as the ‘Historic Ring of Edward de Vere’ in the listing page’s title tag you see in your browser’s tab, the page title identifies it as an ‘Elizabethan piece of jewellery Edward de Vere’, and the description concludes: ‘We rarely acquire a piece so historically connected and in such remarkable, museum quality condition.’

So while the individual claims are carefully qualified, the cumulative effect is rather more confident. A possible association gradually starts to feel like a provenance, but in reality, we do not know how historically connected this ring is.

And there is more!

From Edward de Vere to Shakespeare

There is a theory that Edward de Vere is actually none other than William Shakespeare: William Shakespeare would have been the pseudonym under which he penned famous works such as Macbeth.

And here the layers of possibility start to pile up. We have a ring that might be associated with Edward de Vere, based largely on where it was found and a suggested resemblance in the intaglio. De Vere, in turn, might, according to the Oxfordian theory, have written the works attributed to William Shakespeare.

That is overdoing it, I feel, as there is no solid evidence for the first claim to begin with.

What can we actually say about this ring?

None of this makes the ring itself any less fascinating. It is a rare and beautiful piece of Elizabethan jewellery, found in Essex and recorded through the Portable Antiquities Scheme. But there is a difference between what we know and what we would like to know. A find spot in the wider vicinity of Hedingham Castle does not by itself connect the ring to Edward de Vere, and a perceived resemblance in an intaglio is not the same as an identified portrait. Taking the next step, from Edward de Vere to Shakespeare, moves us further still from the evidence.

And that is exactly what interests me here: not whether someone has technically claimed that Edward de Vere owned this ring, because they have not, but how easy it is to arrive at a compelling association that the available evidence cannot actually confirm.

And that is why provenance matters so much. Objects acquire stories remarkably easily, especially when a famous name can be found to hitch the tale onto. And if it is repeated often enough, a possibility quickly turns into an attribution, and an attribution then becomes apparent fact. Key takeaway from this piece of jewellery: read a description carefully and separate established fact from (admittedly!) intriguing possibility.

Personally, I think this ring is interesting enough without the hype!

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References

PAS record: Flynn, S. (2018) ESS-A69E73: Post Medieval finger-ring. Web page available at https://finds.org.uk/pas/recorded-find/ESS-A69E73 under a CC-BY licence [Accessed: 04 Sep 2026 09:52:38]

Berganza listing: https://www.berganza.com/knowledge/extraordinary-jewellery/pieces-of-interest/important-piece-of-elizabethan-history [Accessed September 4th, 2026]

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The Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog: Sigrid van Roode

Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on jewellery, informal ritual and collections. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only. Sigrid strongly believes in accessibility of knowledge, and aims to provide reliable and trustworthy content: that’s why the Bedouin Silver blog provides references and citations.

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Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry: what does it actually show?

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, European jewellery

what does it actually show?

Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry

Published Sept 3, 2026

You probably heard one way or another, but in 2026, the Bayeux Tapestry is on loan to England from France. It’s on display in the British Museum while in its home of Bayeux, France, a new museum is being built. This historic loan prompted me to have a look at the tapestry again – in search of jewellery, of course! Especially since there is not all that much adornment featured.

What is the Bayeux Tapestry?

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous surviving works from medieval Europe. Created in the late 11th century, it shows the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066, ending with the Battle of Hastings.

It is not actually a tapestry, though: the scenes are embroidered in coloured wool onto a linen fabric of nearly 69 meters in length and approximately 70 centimetres in height. This horizontal banner, which is more what it was, was made to measure for the nave of Bayeux Cathedral. So, when you walked in, you’d see the entire story unfold, and then you could walk past it to see the details. Those include details that can only be seen from a close distance, such as texture in clothing, details of horse gear, the detailing around the rim of a drinking horn, and much more.

Close viewing was the idea, and that brings me to the question of the jewellery: what jewellery was featured on the Bayeux Tapestry?

What jewellery is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry?

There is surprisingly little jewellery featured on the Bayeux Tapestry; in fact, there is only one type of jewel that features with any prominence and that is the disc brooch. This is seen worn by men to close their mantle: sometimes on the shoulder, and sometimes on the upper chest. The image above of Harold Godwinson shows a disc brooch worn on the shoulder.

In some instances, the brooch closing a mantle seems to be more square than disc-shaped, such as in the image of King Edward the Confessor shown above.

I included an example of how we may imagine such a brooch to look like above. Popular in the 11th century were enameled brooches and brooches with filigree and precious stones.

Bayeux Tapestry jewellery and the archaeological record

There was of course more jewellery in existence during the 11^th century than shown on the Bayeux Tapestry. Finger rings, for example, were among the pieces of jewellery most often worn. When Edward’s tomb was opened in 1102, Osbert of Clare described the king as wearing a crown and finger ring [1]. But such a ring was never depicted on the artwork in Bayeux, while he is shown wearing a crown.

Likewise, other embellishments such as decorated straps, ornate belts, pins etc are missing from the Bayeux Tapestry as well, while we know these existed.

Why is there so little jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry?

The Bayeux Tapestry shows much less jewellery than we know existed. Why is that?

Firstly, the artwork shows a series of mainly military events. Here, identity and status are portrayed through more martial elements such as helmets, shields, swords, and horse gear. The disc brooches fit in with that aesthetic: they close the cloaks and mantles of high-ranking persons. In fact, brooches were an important part of personal identity, a notion that only grew stronger after the Norman conquests. [2]

Secondly, status is not just expressed through jewellery, but significantly also in textiles. Their colours, trimmings and textures would have sent messages to viewers on the status of the persons depicted. Edward’s garment for example, as depicted in the first scene of the artwork, has distinctive ornamental trimming, alongside richly represented cushions and hangings.

The Bayeux Tapestry is not a photographic record of reality, but includes jewellery when this serves the narrative. We see it feature mainly where authority is visualized, such as in the representation of Edward, Harold and William.

Jewellery on the Bayeux Tapestry: what it tells us about its time

So, if you do have the opportunity to see the Bayeux Tapestry and hope to find complete picture of 11th-century jewellery, you will come away disappointed. But that absence is interesting in itself. Jewellery appears selectively, particularly where it helps communicate status and authority, while other forms of adornment that we know from archaeological and written sources are left out.

That makes the Bayeux Tapestry useful in a different way. Rather than showing us everything people actually wore, it shows us which details made sense to the makers, and, even more, to the viewers of this extraordinary embroidered narrative. And sometimes, what an artwork leaves out can be just as revealing as what it includes!

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References

See this blog https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/texts-films-customs-and-event/non-fictional-works/king-edward-the-confessor-s-embroidered-mantle

And for a complete overview of the tapestry: https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/everything-you-need-know-about-bayeux-tapestry

[1] Gale R. Owen-Crocker and Maren Clegg Hyer, eds., Refashioning Medieval and Early Modern Dress: A Tribute to Robin Netherton. (Medieval and Renaissance Clothing and Textiles.) Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2019

[2] Weetch, R. Tradition and innovation: Lead-alloy brooches and urban identities in the 11th century. In D. M. Hadley & C. Dyer (Eds.), The Archaeology of the 11th Century: Continuities and Transformations (pp. 263–282). Routledge, 2017

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Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Museums & Exhibitions

Archaeological jewellery

Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed

Published July 4, 2025

Humans have been making and wearing jewellery for thousands of years. In fact, the first non-utilitarian objects ever created by humans were items of personal adornment. When you have been following this blog, you know jewellery is more than decoration—it’s a genuine historical source. Each excavated piece gives us a new perspective on our past and ourselves. It reveals trade routes, cultural connections, social hierarchy, and spiritual beliefs. Bodemjuweeltjes/Gems Unearthed is an exhibition in the Zeeuws Museum, The Netherlands, that discusses precisely these themes – so I had to go and see!

Gems Unearthed: the theme of the exhibition

Gems Unearthed invites visitors to think about these meanings while appreciating the objects themselves—pendants, chains, rings, bracelets, brooches, buckles, and hairpins, some several thousand years old. I appreicated that the introduction included an explanation of what we miss: only what has survived is on display. Metals like bronze and gold, glass, and gemstones have endured, while organic materials such as textiles and plant fibres have largely decayed.

The exhibition also features a strong selection of pieces from the early Middle Ages (my favourite!), a time when it was common to bury people in their finest clothes and jewellery. The exhibition fills three rooms in the museum – so let me walk you through!

Medieval glass beads in vibrant colours against a black background. This photo is part of an article on archaeological jewellery on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Showcase with rings in the exhibition Bodemjuweeltjes, with four photos of gold rings inserted into the image. This photo is part of a blog article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: archeological jewellery

The first room focuses on archaeological jewellery. One thing I appreciated was the way the pieces were displayed at different levels, corresponding to their age: older items at the bottom, newer ones higher up – just like archaeological layers. You can see what I mean in the photos above: click to enlarge them to take in the details. It’s a great way to show development over time, and I thought it was well designed. The display levels even use different earthy tones to enhance the layered effect.

However, I’m not sure all visitors will pick up on this… because the room is very dark. Like, well and truly dark. While the jewellery itself is well lit and stands out, the overall lighting (or should I say lack of it) makes it hard to read the explanatory texts on the brochure that visitors receive. The texts on the sides of the showcases, indicating which level corresponds to which time period, are also hard to read.

This room opens with one of the oldest known pieces from the Netherlands: a boar’s tooth pendant dating from around 9000–4000 BCE. The showcases are organised by jewellery type, so you’ll find showcases dedicated to pendants, rings, necklaces, bracelets…I like how the chronological layout helps place them in context, so even when you’re just admiring the pieces, you’ll get a sense of their relative age and development.

Glass chevron beads against a dark background. The image shows how these beads are constructed, and is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Photo of part of a bone, from which small discs have been perforated to serve as beads. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Image showing a brigh showcase with chunky amber beads, and three beads enlarged next to it. The beads were excavated in the Netherlands. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: production and craftmanship

The next room is dedicated to jewellery production, and it’s much brighter. I found this section especially interesting because it explains how these items were made, showing techniques and tools that help you understand the craftsmanship involved. It shows moulds and half products, and touches on recycling: this happened quite often in the past. Just one example is a fibula (a clothing pin) made with an Arab coin which was found in the province of Friesland.

There is a selection of stones and gems, including a practice stone for intaglio cutting – every craft needs practising, and this is a piece I love! A beautiful set of chunky amber beads, along with garnets, Meerschaum, jet and more illustrates the range of materials used.

A separate showcase deals with the production of beads: Roman mosaic glass inlays, recycled for their glass in the early Middle Ages, 17^th century glass beads known as chevron beads, consisting of multiple layers of glass (and a few misfits), a piece of bone used to cut out small beads in a monastery…while small, this room manages to pack in quite a few techniques and materials!

Photocollage showing traditional Dutch clasp and head ornaments in gold, against a background of jewellery drawings. This image is part of an article on the Bedouin SIlver Jewellery Blog.

Three gold rings from Zeeland, the Netherlands, and a drawing of a woman in traditional Zeeland dress. This collage is part of an article on the Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Photocollage of archaeological jewellery. This image is part of a blog article on the reliabe and fully referenced Bedouin Silver Jewellery Blog.

Gems Unearthed: traditional Zeeland jewellery

The third and final room is even brighter and focuses on traditional jewellery from the museum’s own region. I really enjoyed this part! It features a careful selection of local gold and silver jewellery, jewellers’ drawings, and images of people wearing these pieces. There’s also a section on filigree, which played an important role in local traditions. In this way, the last room ties together what you’ve seen earlier: design patterns that go back centuries and a continuing story of skilled production.

Gems Unearthed: an overview of archaeological and traditional jewellery

This is a lovely exhibition: small, but with a lot of beautiful items presented in a coherent manner! The publication accompanying the exhibition is also a delight: a magazine-style publication, offering more insights on some of the pieces shown as well as personal insights by collectors and curators alike on a really wide variety of jewellery-related topics.

The exhibition texts are available in both Dutch and English, so you’ll be able to enjoy the full range of information.

All in all, should you find yourself in The Netherlands, this exhibition is definitely worth a trip to Zeeland!

More on the exhibition is on the website of the Zeeuws Museum.

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Ancient jewellery: Iraq

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | Ancient jewellery, Cultures & People

Jewellery history of Mesopotamia

Ancient jewellery from Iraq

Published March 9, 2025

When we talk about the beginnings of jewellery history, few places are as important as Iraq — ancient Mesopotamia. From the royal tombs of Ur, with their breathtaking hoards of gold, to the tiny glass beads produced in early workshops, the region offers a vivid picture of how people used jewellery to express power, belief, and identity.

These finds are not just beautiful ornaments. They reveal the skills of Mesopotamian craftsmen, the reach of early trade networks, and the ways jewellery was tied to life, death, and status. Looking at the jewellery of ancient Iraq means looking at some of the oldest traditions of adornment in the world — traditions that influenced cultures far beyond the Tigris and Euphrates.

This blog is part of my series on Ancient Jewellery, exploring how adornment shaped identity across the Middle East and Mediterranean. You can also read about jewellery from ancient Syria, ancient jewellery from Lebanon, and more to come.

Iraq’s early jewellery history: Mesopotamian gold, beads & trade

Iraq is home to the two rivers that provided the perfect circumstances for early civilization: the Tigris and the Euphrates. The ancient name ‘Mesopotamia’ refers to these two rivers, as it literally means ‘between rivers’.

The rivers provided not only fertile ground but also formed trade corridors with southern Anatolia as well as with the Indus Valley to the east. It is not surprising that these circumstances gave rise to some of the earliest cities and city-states.

In the north of Iraq, near current-day Mosul, Tepe Gawra was a site that has been inhabited from 5,000 BCE onwards until 1,500 BCE. It’s from this place that the earliest use of gold in Southwest Asia has been preserved: wire and beads form telling tales of both technological achievements and trade.

Tepe Gawra grew into one of the earliest industrial cities, bringing wealth to an upper layer of its inhabitants, and that shows in the burials of the late 4^th millennium. Gold rosettes and beads, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, and turquoise from Sinai all testify to the trade hub that Tepe Gawra was.

The gold of Ur & elite burials: jewellery significance in royal tombs

In the south of Iraq, the city of Ur was a major urban site in ancient Sumer. Its cemetery of thousands of burials, dating to around 2,500 BCE, is world famous. Only a few of these contained abundant riches, and thus were called ‘Royal Tombs’ by their excavator, Leonard Woolley.

Although some of the deceased were indeed of royal status, the majority were elite members, courtiers and attendants, buried together with their ruler.

The burials contained lavish jewellery sets in gold, carnelian and lapis lazuli, and it has been proposed that the jewellery items with which each individual was interred, were somehow linked to their status and position.

Certain jewellery items are only used for men, where others are mainly worn by women. A further differentiation may be seen between royal and priestly elite members. Jewellery here does not only communicate wealth, but also complex organizational structures.

Jewellery of Queen Puabi: power, ritual & female adornment

Probably the most well-known burial in Ur is that of Queen Puabi. She was buried with copious amounts of jewellery in gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian.

As the roof of her tomb had collapsed in the past, it has been difficult to reconstruct the jumble of beads and other ornaments into the objects we are familiar with today. Her spectacular jewellery is also significant for more than just status and power. Recent research by Kim Benzel has shown that it may very well also have been charged with ritual or magic power.

In Puabi’s jewellery, references to fertility are abundant. Vegetation and floral motifs abound, and what is more, the use of gold seems to be focusing on the upper part of the body: as if in death, she was a radiant goddess in an aura of vegetation.

Assyrian jewellery & ornament in northern Mesopotamia

In the north of Iraq, the kingdom of Assyria flourished. Here, cities like Nineveh and Nimrud bloomed. In Nimrud, ancient Qalhu, in particular, four rich tombs have been excavated at the end of the 20^th century by the Iraqi Department of Antiquities.

Two queens were found buried together, Queen Yaba’, the wife of Tiglath-pileser III, and Queen Ataliya, who was married to Sargon II. From the excavation it became clear that the queens were dressed in fabrics that were embellished with countless gold ornaments shaped like stars, rosettes, wheels, discs, and triangles, along with jewellery like diadems, bracelets, anklets, rings and earrings.

The level of workmanship achieved is superb: the woven diadem of Queen Yaba’ is technically very difficult to create. The use of eye agates is one of the ancient precursors of eye beads as they are still used today.

Glass beads and trade: ancient Mesopotamia’s bead production

Glass beads excavated outside of Mesopotamia, sometimes at a considerable distance, tells us more about the wide reach of the trade network.

The most faraway example is a tomb from the 5^th to 3^rd century BCE in the city of Huludao in China, where glass eye beads have been excavated that were produced in Mesopotamia in the Late Bronze Age, around 1,100 BCE. Clearly these beads have traveled quite a distance in the centuries after their creation, but also in the time of the Bronze Age itself trade routes reached far.

Glass beads excavated in Europe were found to have been produced in Mesopotamia.

Medieval jewellery and continuing traditions in Iraq

During the Middle Ages, the area that is now Iraq continued to flourish as a trade hub. Baghdad was the capital of the Islamic world for a considerable time, and it is during the Middle Ages that we see forms and styles take shape that continue to be used in jewellery. The seal pendant shown here dates from ca 600 to 1200, and inscribed stones like these are still much sought after today.

These international connections are still visible in the traditional jewellery of Iraq. The silver jewellery of the tribes inhabiting the thick marshes in the south of Iraq has its own distinct style, while in the north of Iraq, the ethnic minority known as the Assyrians still have their own jewellery styles. In the cities, Ottoman jewellery styles have found their way into the spectrum of adornment, such as the characteristic belt buckles. All in all, Iraq is home to some of the most stunning and significant pieces of human adornment and history.

Ancient jewellery of Iraq: a testimony to human achievements

The story of ancient jewellery in Iraq spans millennia, from the gold rosettes of Ur to the bead production at Tepe Gawra, and from Assyrian diadems to medieval workshops in Baghdad. Across this long history, jewellery was never just decoration: it was a marker of rank, a tool of ritual, and a product of far-reaching trade.

For us today, these pieces provide a bridge to the people of ancient Mesopotamia. They remind us that even in the earliest civilisations, jewellery was already bound up with identity, belief, and cultural meaning. Whether a necklace buried with a queen or a simple bead traded across empires, each object tells us that adornment has always been central to human life.

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References

This is an updated, adapted and expanded version of a blog I wrote earlier for the Zay Initiative.

Alarashi, H. 2016. Butterfly Beads in the Neolithic Near East: Evolution, Technology and Socio-cultural Implications, in: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 26:3, pp. 493-512

Benzel, K. 2013. Puabi’s adornment for the afterlife: materials and technology of jewelry at Ur in Mesopotamia. PhD-thesis, Columbia University

Gansell, A. R. 2007. Identity and Adornment in the Third-millennium BCE Mesopotamian ‘Royal Cemetery’ at Ur, in: Cambridge Archaeological Journal 17:1, pp. 29-46

Gansell, A.R., S.L. James & S Dillon 2012. Women in ancient Mesopotamia, in: A Companion to Women in the Ancient World, pp. 11-24

Hussein, M.M. 2016. Nimrud. The Queens’ Tombs. Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage, Baghdad/Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Acces this publication here

Maxwell-Hysop, K.R. 1960. The Ur Jewellery. A Re-Assessment in the Light of Some Recent Discoveries, in: Iraq Vol. 22, pp. 105-15

Jenkins, M. & M. Keene 1982. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Miller, N. F. 2000. Plant Forms in Jewellery from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, in: Iraq Vol. 62, pp. 149-155

Peasnall, B. & M.S. Rothmann. One of Iraq’s Earliest Towns. Excavating Tepe Gawra in the archives of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, in Expedition Vol. 45 no 3, pp. 34-39 Access this publication here

Varberg, J. et al. 2016. Mesopotamian glass from Late Bronze Age Egypt, Romania, Germany and Denmark, in: Journal of Archaeological Science 74, pp. 184-194

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Jewellery and Ramadan

by dr. Sigrid van Roode | General jewellery topics

Jewellery & religion

Jewellery and Ramadan

Published on February 25, 2025

Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, is a period of deep spiritual reflection, fasting, and community engagement for Muslims worldwide. The end of the month is celebrated, too, and during both the holy month itself and the Eid-celebration after, jewellery is important. This blog tells you more about jewellery and Ramadan!

Can you wear jewellery during Ramadan?

The short answer: yes! There are no specific rules in place that forbid the wearing of jewellery during Ramadan. Given that Ramadan is a month of reflection, modesty and devotion to God, it is however encouraged to be not too ostentatious.

So, in the end, wearing jewellery during Ramadan is a personal choice, influenced by cultural traditions, religious interpretation, and personal intent. If it aligns with modesty and does not distract from worship, it is widely accepted.

Jewellery as Ramadan gift

Jewellery makes a wonderful Ramadan gift. Gifts can be exchanged when breaking fast together: not every day, but when families visit each other on the occasion of a more formal iftar (the first meal of the day, just after dusk) or suhoor (the last meal of the day, just before dawn), small gifts add to familial bonds and to the celebratory atmosphere. Gifts are also extended to members of the community. [1]

That is a tradition that large brands have picked up upon, too. In the Gulf and the Arab Peninsula for example, the period leading up to and during Ramadan sees jewellery brands launching special collections that resonate with the spiritual and cultural themes of the month.

These collections often feature designs incorporating traditional motifs, like the crescent or eye, or calligraphy of one of the Names of God: try an Internet search on ‘Ramadan jewellery’ and see what beautiful collections are offered each year!

Jewellery & sales during Ramadan

The month of Ramadan often leads to a surge in economic activity, particularly in the jewellery sector. The last ten days of Ramadan are typically the busiest: this is when Eid al-Fitr is around the corner and the preparations for the celebrations start.

The importance of Eid al-Fitr is hard to overestimate: even though it is not one of the major holidays, many stores and offices are closed for several days, and it comes with the same stress-levels as Christmas: think of thorough house-cleaning, family visits and lots of cooking and eating together!

On Eid al-Fitr, people wear new clothes, and it is customary to give gifts. These often include jewellery as well.

Where does this custom of jewellery gifts during Ramadan come from…?

This tradition itself is rooted in the economic significance jewellery has had for millennia. Giving small pieces of jewellery is a way of adding to a personal savings’ account, you could say: husbands, brothers and uncles present smaller pieces of jewellery to the women of their families on celebratory occasions, and Ramadan is one of those occasions.

The emphasis on jewellery as you’ll find it today, with special Ramadan collections and jewellery heavily marketed as suitable Ramadan or Eid gift, is however more of a marketing principle of the last decades: before that, there was no such thing!

There is another aspect of jewellery in relation to Ramadan, and that is whether or not you should pay zakat over it: that’s what the next blog is about!

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References for Jewellery & Ramadan

[1] Hilma Granqvist mentions the giving of gifts to a male school teacher in Artas, Palestine, in the 1920s. H. Granqvist, Birth and Childhood among the Arabs, Soderstroms, p. 148.

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