Gold in antiquity: Did you mean...?

The interior hollow surface of the earring. Note how the carved cuneiform signs appear on this side and how the goldsmith joined the “lunar-shaped” segments of the earring. The cuneiform text is read vertically...

Roman gold and saphire ring, second half of the 2nd century CE. The ring has a garnet centre stone. From an unidentified marble sarcophagus in Rome. (Palazzo Massimo, Rome)

5-6th century CE gold earrings from the Silla Kingdom (57 BCE - 668 CE) of south-eastern Korea. From a tomb in the Gyeongju area. National Treasure No. 52. (National Museum of Korea, Seoul, South Korea)

Gold hair ornament from Agrigento, Sicily, 3rd century BCE. The central medallion depicts Medusa. Archaeological Museum of Agrigento.

A model of a 150-mm gun casement located at Longues-sur-mer on Gold Beach of the D-Day Normandy landings of 6 June 1944. (The Mémorial de Caen)

This is the upper surface of the earring . The right lower circle is broken and at the center of the trifoliate group lies a single golden sphere. The cuneiform text is read vertically, from the upper surface downwards...

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...

Roman gold and saphire rings, second half of the 2nd century CE. The ring on the right has a garnet centre stone. From an unidentified marble sarcophagus in Rome. (Palazzo Massimo, Rome)

A photograph of liquid gold in a refinery.

Gold shield with the head of god Sebiumeker. From the treasure of the Nubian queen Amanishakheto, pyramid N6, Meroe, modern-day northern Sudan. Meroitic period, around 1 CE. (State Museum of Egyptian Art, Munich, Germany...