Gold in antiquity: Did you mean...?

A chunk of quartz with gold from the Witwatersrand mines in South Africa. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

An aerial view of Gold Beach during the D-Day Normandy Landings of 6 June 1944. The smoke is from German defensive positions struck by Allied naval and air bombardment. (Imperial War Museums)

Gold stater from Lydia, reign of Croesus, 560-546 BCE. O: Lion and ox. R: Two incuse squares.

In the Late Roman Period, precious metal that had been paid in tax was melted down into bars before being re-minted, to eliminate plated forgeries. Because local mint officials could be corrupt, the bars were stamped...

A captured German bunker with 50-mm gun at Gold Beach, attacked during the D-Day Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. (Imperial War Museums)

The convex and carved surfaces of the earrings. Each earring is composed of nine lunar-shaped segments forming a flattened half- ball. The cuneiform signs run vertically from above downward, starting from the right...

A gold and garnet ring from Agrigento, Sicily, 3rd century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Agrigento).

This is the upper surface of the earring. Note how the cuneiform signs were carved and distributed and their distance from the center. The cuneiform text is read vertically, from the upper surface downwards on...

A photograph of liquid gold in a refinery.

Both earrings are placed in a mirror-image position, with the lower surfaces facing each other. Each earring is composed of nine lunar-shaped segments forming a flattened half- ball. The cuneiform signs run vertically...