When you buy gold you are actually buying a metal that is more valuable than any other metal in this world. No one really knows who and when gold was actually discovered. The human race probably came buy gold a few thousand years ago in the form of shinny yellow nuggets. There were many places where gold could be found, i.e. in streams, mines etc. It was probably the first metals that humans learnt about and became a part of human culture and worship. Gold attracted the attention of early humans because it was easy to mold, it had unparalleled beauty and it never tarnished.  

Gold was discovered in many different parts of the world, and incorporated into a number of ancient cultures. Almost everybody who came across gold was instantly attracted to its beauty, and the urge to acquire more gold, which led people who didn’t have gold to buy gold, by exchanging it for other items. Gold played a much bigger role in the development of science, technology and culture than any other metal. Although iron, copper and other metals are credited with human progress, but it was gold that fueled the trend of progress. Almost every ancient market would buy gold and sell gold in exchange for other useful items.

Gold in its purest form is soft and workable, unlike other metals that are hard to liberate from their ore origins. Gold was first used for ornamental purposes, its brilliance and beauty attracted ancient people who would buy gold jewelry to wear it in order to look beautiful. It was first linked to gods and royalty and later signified wealth and power.

The Significance of Gold in Ancient Religions

Early humans who came found gold associated gold with gods and power. It was a symbol for wealth and dominance. They not only used gold as jewelry but gold was also used for worship. Archeological records and artifacts suggest that statues of gods and deities were made from gold. It is unknown why human beings are so attracted to gold and why exactly is gold given such a high value. We know that gold became and still is a part of many ancient religions. Religion is something that human beings have always valued, probably even before they came across gold, they were in search of a god.  When they found gold, this instantly attracted them and led them to believe that it was a part of god, why else would it be so beautiful? Amazingly gold has been linked to almost every ancient religion around the world, which means that all human beings were thinking the same thing when they found gold, and they gave gold the same value they gave their gods. Idols and shrines were made of gold, along with vessels and cups as well as jewelry for kings and rulers. Regions and places where gold were not found, were considered to be poor, however the wealthy class of those regions would buy gold and use it as a form of offering to the gods.

The Gold of Troy

Evidence of the importance of gold can be seen from the treasure that was excavated in Turkey and dated back to 2450 - 2600 BC, which was rightfully named “Gold of Troy”. It contains a wide range of gold jewelry as well as gold plates and trays, some of them weighing in at a whole troy pound. However Gold had still not easy to come buy since it hadn’t become money yet. This is proof of the fact that gold held a lot of value even before the invention of money. It also demonstrates the length at which ancient civilizations went in order to acquire gold. Money first took the form of gold coins around 700 B.C. however every civilization tried its best to acquire as much gold as possible, prisoners and criminals were put to work in mines and rivers to find gold. This was because the more gold a civilization had the more powerful and influential it became.  Civilizations with less or no gold were forced to buy gold from nations that had, in exchange for items that they had, most ancient forms of trading relied on gold.

Where Did the Ancients Buy Gold From?

Now gold is the original form of money, in the ancient world barter was the only form of trading. Gold could buy almost anything, you didn’t need to trade rice for sugar, instead you could trade in gold for sugar or rice, simply because everybody wanted and needed gold. People started working in exchange for gold, which they used to buy other items. It was from this ancient practice that the value of gold began to be accessed in real world terms. Ancient farmers would buy gold in exchange for their produce. With the right amount of gold an ancient human being could buy anything it desired, which made him/her powerful. Since gold could be easily melted and formed, it made for an excellent trading medium. Later gold coins began to be manufactured and hence gold was given a specific value. Gold and silver coins replaced barter trade, and made commerce much easier.

The quest for gold began at around 500 BC when the ancient Greeks began to use it as money. The Greeks began to dig for gold and hence mining for gold began. This quest for finding more gold was furthered by the Roman Empire which had an insatiable hunger for gold. They minded throughout Europe and also helped advance the science of mining, they would even buy gold from nations that had plenty.  Streams of water that contained gold were diverted and sluices were built. There were probably the first to start and discover underground mining and separated gold from oars and rock. Mining gold for them was an inexpensive process since much of their labor was compromised of slaves, and convicts.

Early gold miners used water powered tools to mine for gold. Water was used to send sand that contained gold over a sheep’s skin that would then filter out the gold from the sand. The gold would be absorbed by the skin also known as a fleece, and when it reached it capacity this “golden fleece” as it was called would then be hung out to dry. After the fleece dried, the gold flakes would be beaten out so it falls to a container. This form of mining was used many thousands of years ago, and was still being used by gold miners in California during the 1849 gold rush. Lydian merchants manufactured the first coins at around 700 B.C. These gold coins contained 63% gold and 27% percent of Mixture as was known as ‘electrum’. This is what made Lydian traders so successful. Lydia had grown wealthy through their business processes, and by the time of Croesus they had one of the largest gold reserves. Today acquiring gold is as easy as browsing our online store to Buy Gold.

Tags: History of Gold

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 9th, 2008 at 4:08 pm and is filed under History of Gold. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.