The Story of Gold in Antiquity

This precious metal "gold" has captured the hearts of man since its discovery and has driven people throughout history to fight, struggle, and develop various methods to help them mine more and more of this unique glittering gold.

So what is it in gold to make it so worthy that new places were discovered, and nations were destroyed for its sake?

For modern people, the answer will simply lie in the fact that gold is considered money by itself as it had been used as coins for a considerable amount of time. Moreover, being the premium and the most preferred precious metal that produces stylish gold earrings, fabulous gold sets, or lavish gold necklaces, it plays a significant role in jewellery makings, making another reason to view gold as worth keeping and buying.

However, the ancient people viewed it differently. They had several reasons to consider gold an important metal. They viewed the essence and the reality of this unique metal.

Gold is a mysterious metal in all its aspects. The first amazing feature that caught people's attention is its sparkling colour resembling the sun's shining rays. For many ancient civilizations, such as the Inca, gold was the representation of sun rays on earth. This view made gold sacred for the Inca since Sun was their ultimate God. Thus the importance of gold lies in its divinity.

The amazing abilities of gold, such as its durability and malleability, made it an alternative for eternity for the ancient Egyptians. These unique characteristics made ancient Egyptians view it as the symbol of eternity and immortality. This led to burying all gold properties such as gold earrings, pendants, diadems, rings, etc., along with the royal family or the pharaohs. Their coffins were of gold to ensure preserving their life, thus being immortal.

The Lydians had taken a further step with gold while inventing the gold coinage. This new trading system and money made Lydia one of the wealthiest kingdoms of ancient times. But unfortunately, this fact led to the destruction of this once great nation due to the greed of its king, Croesus. Croesus was driven by greed and blinded by his own pride. So he went into a war with the Persians, believing that he would win this war because he owned the most precious metal on earth. Instead, however, this war was the destruction of the Lydian kingdom.

Similar stories and beliefs based on gold and its symbolism were the seeds of creativity that built great civilizations such as ancient Egypt, Sumerians, Greece, Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad, Ottoman, etc., where their ruins show the significant effect of gold which was represented in their ancient walls, castles, temples, churches, mosques and many others.

Till now, gold is more than just a metal we use to create timeless gold jewellery. It is a metal that preserves the greatness of human creativity throughout time.