History of Granulation
The oldest example of granulation is from 2500 BC and was discovered between 1922 and 1934. The discovery was made in the tomb of Queen Pu-Abi Ur, a city in Sumer (Sumerians) which would have been northwest of Basra Iraq. Sumer was a division of Babylonia.
The granulation on these examples is very crude in application, thus leading one to believe that the Sumerians were experimenting with this process. Taking this into consideration and the fact that all of their metals had to have been imported, the Sumerians were still very skilled in gold and silver.
It is believed that the technique of the Sumerian goldsmiths spread over western Asia, then north to the Mediterranean and Turkey, then west to Greece and Crete.
Although granulation might have first been used by the Sumerians, it was the Etruscans who truly developed the technique's possibilities.
Etruscan jewelry is thought of in two phases: Early Etruscan (from the 7th to the 5th centuries BC) and late Etruscan (from 400 BC t o250 BC). During the early phase, Etruscan excelled in granulation. Not only was it used in formation of patterns, but also to illustrate entire scenes. The jewelry from this period was simple, incorporating large areas of sheet gold with no ornamentation and only sparingly using gemstones.