An Anklet (in Arabic: خلخال), ankle chain, or ankle bracelet, is an ornament worn around the ankle. Barefoot anklets and toe rings historically have been worn for centuries by girls and women in Egypt and other countries of the Arab world especially among Bedouin and in the countryside and by married women in India.
In the United States both casual and more formal anklets became fashionable in the late twentieth century. While in western popular culture both younger men and women may wear casual leather anklets, they are popular among barefoot women.
Formal anklets (of silver, gold, or beads) are used by some women as fashion jewelry.[citation needed] Anklets are an important piece of jewelry in Indian marriages worn along with saris.
Much more rarely, an ankle chain is joined by a stretch of chain to limit the step. This practice was once more prevalent in the Middle East, where the effect was to give a 'feminine' short tripping step.
today a few western women follow this practice, but rarely in public. Very few people even have 'permanent', e.g. soldered-on, ankle chains, and more rarely still, so is the connecting chain.
Europe
Bronze anklets are visible as early as the Bronze Age in temperate Europe, in an area roughly along the Danube, in the Alpine foreland, up the Rhine to the Atlantic, and also down the Rhône (Sherratt, 2001).
These were found among hoards in these areas, along with other bronze items characteristic of this time (c. 1800 BCE onwards), and are attributable to the Tumulus culture that spread across this region.
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