Fig.3 Necklaces of gold biconical beads from Leukas 
Mid-3rd millenium BC.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 6285.

Fig.4 Gold discs with repousse decoration from Shaft Grave III of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. Athens, Second half of 16th century BC.
National Archaeological Museum, 18, 14, 4. 

Fig.5 Gold diadem with repousse decoration from Shaft Grave IV of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. 
Late 16th century BC.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 286. 

Fig.6 Silver pin with gold head in the shape of a female figure supporting papyrus branches in her outstretched arms. From Shaft Grave III of Grave Circle A at Mycenae. 
Second half of 16th century BC.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum, 75. 

Fig.7 Gold pendant with a pair of wasps or bees. Superb specimen of Minoan goldsmithing with granulation and filigree technique. 
From Chrysolakkos, Malia, Crete. 
1800-1600 BC.
Herakleion Museum. 

Jewellery-making began in earnest in Greece around the middle of the Early Bronze Age, with a variety of types, shapes and techniques. This art continued to flourish until the end of the Bronze Age. The jewellery known mainly comes from graves, for apart from bedecking the living it also accompanied the dead as funerary goods. It was widely distributed in both mainland and island Greece. Many types of jewellery, particularly of the Late Bronze Age, are also known from the iconography, such as the diverse ornaments worn by men and women illustrated in the wall-paintings of the period.
Jewellery was surely an indication of the wearers' wealth and superior social status, indeed analogous to the value of the materials from which it was made.

Already from the Early Bronze Age metal jewellery dominated. Not only is metal a more valuable material than stone or bone, it can also be formed into a greater variety of shapes and designs. In this period, moreover, the influence of the East is obvious in the Aegean region, especially in the sphere of metalworking. The jewellery of the islands and Crete displays similarities to corresponding pieces from Syria and Mesopotamia, even though a pronounced local element is manifest, bespeaking the inspiration and ideas of indigenous craftsmen.

In the Cyclades silver and bronze ornaments, such as diadems, bracelets and pins, prevailed. Outstanding is a large silver diadem from Chalandriani on Syros, decorated in repousse with a scene of a deity, sun-discs and animals. Numerous other pieces of jewellery, mainly necklaces, were made of less precious materials, such as bone, shell, semi-precious and ordinary stones.
Rich and notable assemblages of Early Bronze Age jewellery have been discovered in the northeast Aegean. Famous are the gold ornaments from Poliochni on Lemnos in a variety of shapes - earrings (fig.1), hair ornaments, necklaces, pins, bracelets - which display remarkable affinity to the contemporary gold jewellery in the 'treasures' of Troy.

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