Gold in Ancient Art

No metal captures the human imagination quite like gold. Soft and shining like the sun, gold has long been treasured as a status symbol, currency, and sacred material. For thousands of years, people gave gifts, made sacrifices, and were buried with objects of gold. Their artifacts sometimes survived the long span of history to reach the present day. These items are now worth more than just their weight in gold—they exist as a link to the past and a tribute to the skill of human craftsmen.

These artifacts from the ancient world showcase the goldsmithing styles of distant civilizations, as collected by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They are presented roughly in order of time created, along with some information about the cultures they represent.

The Early History of Goldsmithing

When did people first begin to find, value, and work with gold? The answer predates history. Gold in its natural, solid form is common in many parts of the world. Humans have probably been stumbling across nuggets for tens of thousands of years. Gold was a prime candidate to teach humans metalworking. Besides its beautiful color, the metal is soft, melts easily, and doesn’t tarnish over time.

Currently, the oldest known worked gold artifacts come from the cave artifacts of Varna, Bulgaria. About 6,500 years ago, paleolithic people at Varna stored away at least 13 pounds of gold jewelry and ornaments. Their work shows a sophistication that suggests previous experience with gold, and a complex society that lavished gold on important people.

Gold in the Ancient World

One of the oldest known urban civilizations developed in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia around 6,000 years ago. The Sumerians, ruling from the walled city of Ur, left behind evidence of great wealth, including gold jewelry, decorative objects, helmets, and headdresses. Nearby, the long-lasting dynasties of Ancient Egypt also began to work gold extensively.

For these early civilizations, gold represented wealth, industry, and the sacred power of the sun. Initially, gold was mainly used for jewelry and decorative objects. Priests and rulers monopolized limited supplies of the metal to set themselves apart from common people and to please their gods. Gold would not be used to mint coins until much later, around 600 BCE in modern Turkey.

Ancient Egyptian Gold-working

Ancient Egypt has left us the majority of oldest known gold artifacts in the world. Fueled by both sun worship and the prolific mines of Nubia to the south, Egypt’s dynastic rulers couldn’t get enough. Hatshepsut, a female Pharaoh who reigned from 1479 to 1458 BCE, reportedly powdered her face with gold and silver dust. Much of the Egyptian gold was mixed with silver, a natural alloy called electrum. The Pharaohs, spanning 30 dynasties, left behind an unknown quantity of gold, despite being buried with it. Many of their tombs were plundered before (and sometimes after) modern archaeology emerged. One of the most pristine tombs, that of the boy king Tutankhamun, contained at least 2,500 pounds of the metal.

Gold in Persia and the Middle East

The Ancient Egyptians are famous for their gold, but they were far from the only civilization to adore the metal. The early powers of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Anatolia also worked with gold extensively. At its height, the Persian Achaemenid Empire united these regions, as well as Egypt and part of modern Greece, around 500 BCE. Conquerors like Cambyses and Cyrus the Great came to control some of the most gold-rich lands in the world. A contemporary king of Cyrus, the Greek Croesus of Lydia, was taken captive by the Achaemenid conqueror. Famous for his wealth as a king, Croesus is credited with minting the first gold coins, which the Persians then adopted.

Gold in the Americas

Across the oceans, other mighty civilizations rose in modern North, Central, and South America. The oldest discovered gold artifacts from the Americas are dated to about 4,000 years ago. The trove was discovered at the site Jiskairumoko near Puno, Peru and Lake Titicaca. Andean Peru would remain a hotspot of gold production right up to the fall of the Inca Empire by 1572. Mesoamerica adopted goldsmithing relatively late, but societies like the Maya, Olmecs, and Aztecs also produced sophisticated objects.

When European explorers arrived on the doorstep of American civilizations, they noted the beautiful gold ornaments worn in certain regions. The apparent riches of the land, rather than inciting wonder, seem to have sparked a frenzy of greed among the European monarchies. Much of the wealth of the Americas was plundered, and their artifacts melted down into ingots to enrich empires like Spain. Surviving gold objects, therefore, are extremely valuable.

Chinese and East Asian Goldsmithing

The empires of China did not prize gold as highly as, say, the Ancient Egyptians. Love of gold was more associated with the nomadic peoples of the Eurasian steppes, the traditional enemies of the settled Chinese states. In China, gold competed with materials like bronze and jade for social importance. Still, the metal was recognized for its beauty and as a means of exchange. And as the cultural influence of the steppe societies grew, gold also gained wider favor. The gold sycee, a type of bowl-shaped ingot currency, was used widely from the Qin dynasty to the 20th century.

Among the vast and diverse cultures of East Asia, gold usage varied with availability. Civilizations like Korea and Japan tended to follow Chinese styles. Southeast Asia developed a reputation as a golden paradise among Greek and Roman writers. The Malay Peninsula, for example, was known as the Golden Peninsula among Greek mapmakers.

Gold in Ancient Greece and Rome

The civilizations of the Mediterranean valued gold highly, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. Trading cultures like the Phoenicians carried gold across the region and even as far as the British Isles, which would later mark the northern extent of the Roman Empire. Gold deposits in Macedonia and Thrace funded the rise of Philip II and his son, Alexander the Great. As mentioned earlier, Croesus’ Lydia in Western Anatolia was also a major source of gold. The island of Cyprus, meanwhile, was home to vast copper reserves that also yielded small amounts of gold. Its copper industry was in such demand that Cyprus collected large quantities of gold as a byproduct.

On the Italian Peninsula, the Tuscan civilization set the stage for the advanced gold-working of the Roman Empire. Like the Egyptians, the Romans believed that gold was imbued with the sacred power of the sun. Gold jewelry brought good luck and fortune to its wearer. Later, Roman gold coins traveled far and wide along imperial roads. Troves of Roman gold are still occasionally discovered by lucky metal detectors.

Indian Goldsmithing

Another major source of gold in the ancient world was India, home to some of the oldest gold mines in the world. More gold flowed in through the subcontinent’s trade ports, which exported luxury items to civilizations like China and Rome. As a result, gold was a common ornament for Ancient Indian nobles, a trend that continues through traditional outfits to the modern day.

Gold to the Modern Day

These examples offer just a brief look into the global history of gold. While the largest civilizations in the world tended to produce the most gold objects, other kingdoms and societies also enjoyed periods of fabulous wealth. The Akan peoples of West Africa, for example, were famous for their rich gold deposits and the prestige it brought them. Gold mining remains a major industry in Ghana and its surrounding nations. On the West Coast of North America, discoveries of gold triggered vast gold rushes to areas like California and Alaska.

In 1971, US President Richard Nixon divorced the dollar from the gold standard, reducing international dependence on the metal for finance. Nonetheless, gold continues to be one of the most valuable products in the world. Today, the metal is also recognized for its usefulness in industry, such as its high conductivity. And, of course, gold jewelry still holds sentimental value around the globe. The gold jewelry industry was estimated at 117 billion dollars in 2018. Whether you love this metal for its history, its luster, or its technical applications, gold will likely remain an important part of human life for centuries to come.

References

“Archaeologist Finds Oldest Known Gold Artifacts in the Americas.” Phys.Org, phys.org/news/2008-03-archaeologist-oldest-gold-artifacts-americas.html.

Bernstein, Peter, and Paul Volcker. The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession. 2nd ed., Wiley, 2012.

Cosmo, Di Nicola. Ancient China and Its Enemies: The Rise of Nomadic Power in East Asian History. Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Curry, Andrew. “Mystery of the Varna Gold: What Caused These Ancient Societies to Disappear?” Smithsonian Magazine, 18 Apr. 2016, www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/varna-bulgaria-gold-graves-social-hierarchy-prehistoric-archaelogy-smithsonian-journeys-travel-quarterly-180958733.

“Jewelry Market Size, Share, Analysis | Industry Report, 2019-2025.” Grand View Research, www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/jewelry-market. Accessed 16 Nov. 2020.

Pillsbury, Joanne, et al. Golden Kingdoms: Luxury Arts in the Ancient Americas. 1st ed., J. Paul Getty Museum, 2017.

Schorsch, Deborah. “Gold in Ancient Egypt.” The Met, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jan. 2017, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/egold/hd_egold.htm.

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