You can coax yourself into believing that earrings are recent discoveries and that piercing one’s ear to embellish them is a recent phenomena, but that will far away from the truth. In fact, various types of evidences point out that they were worn by men, women and children in the ancient ages. Evidences such as biblical references, archaeological finds in the form of cave arts and jewelry fossils all point towards the fact that earrings had existed for several millennia across the globe in many different cultures and civilizations. A recent excavation has yielded a pair of pearl earrings from the grave of a Celtic princess which was 2600 years old.
Earrings have existed in various forms and especially in the form of studs since the ancient ages. People have worn stud earrings due to various reasons. While the ancient Africans used to wear it as a symbol allegiance to their Gods, Indians wore it as a custom right from the childhood. Discoveries have revealed that certain trends have existed in particular periods and eras, for instance, Greeks were fond of wearing dazzling colored gemstone stud earrings whereas Egyptians loved to wear beautiful gold earrings. Earrings were also worn to signify wealth and social status as only the wealthiest could afford gold earrings in ancient Egyptian civilization.
Apart from signifying socio-political status, earrings and particularly studs have been worn by women to beautify themselves. In certain tribal cultures plugs were worn by women as part of religious belief which has now been accepted as a style statement in the west. You can find men and women wearing earrings throughout the day in the present times. However, this was not the practice a century ago when women could wear it only during evening time.
It is also interesting to note the history of backs of earrings. Certain images from the mummy of Tutankhamen reveal that practice then was to wear ear stretchers while hoops and hook earrings were also popular. Securing the back of an earring not practiced by ancient Greeks but by other civilizations. The stud earring in which the back needs to be secured obviously takes off from where the hooks left. Traditionally a stud was simply pushed on to the post but now there is a lock system which prevents the studs from falling off. This particular 3mm Rhinestone Ear Studs in a 12 pair Tray is the most modern take on studs; smart, trendy and beautiful!