It’s hard to imagine getting married without the symbolic bling of an engagement and wedding ring. Not only do they convey a symbolic union, but also the beauty of a loving relationship. How engagement rings and wedding bands have evolved throughout history may explain much about their significance today.
Where engagement rings first began is still unclear but anthropologists believe that the first engagement rings were simply made of woven grass or leather. Some anthropologists have asserted that tribal engagement rings took the form of a cord tied to the finger.
But most anthropologists agree that wedding bands were an Ancient Egyptian invention. Archaeologists have found that Ancient Egyptians would fashion plant sections into circles to symbolize an immortal union. The fourth finger of the left hand was believed to hold a special vein that was said to contain a love vein.
The Romans agreed with the Egyptians regarding the significance of the fourth finger on the left hand. They called it the vena amoris, or “vein of love”. One difference between the Egyptians and the Romans, however, was that a wedding band wasn’t merely a symbol of love, but one of ownership. A ring was the way that a Roman man would “claim” his woman. Also notable is the unsentimental and practical Roman engagement offering. The Roman version of the engagement ring included a set of small carved keys attached to them. Archaeologists
A popular wedding ring throughout Asia and the Arab world was the puzzle ring. This was a complex type of jewelry that could fall apart and be put back together again. Putting the ring back together required a special type of knowledge. If women were unfaithful by taking their ring off while their men were away, the man would know upon return as the ring would be nearly impossible to reconfigure for those without the requisite knowledge and skill.
Fifteenth, Sixteenth and seventeenth century Europeans would popularize the form of something analogous to the engagement ring, the “poesy ring”. These were predominantly used in France and England and often featured a short inscription signifying a couple’s promise to one another. Inscriptions would often be along the lines of “never to change”, “love is enough” and “forget me not”.
During the Colonial period in America, all forms of jewelry were prohibited due to Puritanical restrictions and the apparent moral degradation of such jewelry items. Women were offered a thimble to symbolize the conjugal union, although it wasn’t uncommon for women to remove the top of the thimble to form a type of ring.
Over time, engagement rings and wedding bands have evolved to become the classy diamond extravagances that we know now. The prominent idea that a man should spend a few months of his salary to pay for the diamond engagement ring originated from jeweler De Beers as a marketing tactic to get people to buy diamond rings. In the twentieth century, the wedding band and engagement ring industry skyrocketed until it was impossible for any woman to get married and not have a diamond on her finger.
Diamonds have been widely used in engagement rings since the mid-twentieth century. This opened many different options for symbolic gestures, such as solitaire engagement rings, diamond eternity rings and trinity rings. With solitaire engagement rings, the single stone is said to represent the couple’s unity, whereas trinity rings are three-stone diamond engagement rings where the stones represent the couple’s past, present and future. Either way you look at it, engagement rings can be symbolic gestures that represent more than your wedding day.
