Much can be learned about a society from the small objects and tools lost or discarded by its people. This is never more true than when one studies the items used for human adornment. Finger rings, clasps for cloak or toga, small bells worn as jewellery, earrings, and objects worn around the neck as pendants all have their tales to tell. Jewellery discovered in hoards and finds ranges from exquisite works of art that graced the necks and hands of empresses such as might be seen in the Louvre today to the rather plain and inexpensive pieces worn by people of a less wealthy station in life. Even the humblest slave girl might wear earrings or a ring or two.
Many people today think of an ancient artifact as having been created by a master craftsman, the very rare and expensive object of the art collector's quest. This stereotype is not necessarily true. By the time of the late republic and early empire, the Romans as well as those living in Roman provinces had developed techniques for mass production of such items as glass bottles, arrow piles and sling bolts, oil lamps, and small items of inexpensive jewellery. Rings in particular were mass produced in such great quantities that they are available today for only a few dollars.
The Romans were particularly fond of pearls. Taken by divers from oysters in the warm Mediterranean Sea, these gems are formed when a grain of sand or other sharp particle falls into an oyster's shell. The oyster builds up many layers of pearl to coat the irritating particle, and the result is a lustrous gem of great beauty. The image of Empress Aelia Flaccilla on this page is taken from a bronze coin struck in her name. The portrait clearly shows her pearl diadem and necklace.
Other gems and gemstones favored by the Romans included the bright blue Lapis Lazuli, any red stone such as ruby, garnet, carnelian agate and jasper, red and pink coral which grew in the Mediterranean, and amber, which came mainly from the Baltic Sea regions. Gems were typically carved with an intaglio, or incuse design or were carved en cabochon (rounded or oval stone) rather than faceted like modern gemstones. Cameos in which a stone or shell with different colored layers is carved leaving a background of a different color from the design were and still are very popular in that part of the world. Beautiful cameos exist of Augustus and other emperors. One beautiful cameo dating from late antiquity depicts the emperor Honorius and his wife, the Empress Maria, daughter of the famous Roman Vandal general Stilicho.