Czech garnet has been found in streams and fields since prehistoric times. The first to use it for jewellery were primitive rulers in the times of the migration of peoples in the fifth century AD.

There are examples from all over Europe: jewellery of the Visigoths in Spain, the Frankish Empire (the treasure of king Childeric), the Danubian Lowland, Transylvania, Italy, the Caucasus, and Sassanid Persia.