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DID YOU KNOW?
CULTURE OF GOLD
Article # : gold192
CULTURE OF GOLD
• The oldest worked-gold objects, the products of the ancient Thracian civilization, were made as early as 4000 BC, and were discovered at a burial site in Varna, Bulgaria.
• In the Aztec language, the name for gold is teocuitlatl, which means "excrement of the gods."
• For the Inka and other peoples of the Andean region of South America, gold was the "sweat of the sun," the most sacred of all deities.
• The original story of El Dorado—"the gilded one"—described a ritual in which the chief of the Andean Muisca nation, covered in gold dust, made offerings of gold into a mountain lake. Spanish conquistadores of the 1530s were gripped by the story; eventually it turned into the legend of a lost city of gold.
• Virtually all of the Inkas' golden treasure was melted down, first in a vain attempt to ransom their captured king. Then, after his execution, more gold was commandeered to fill the coffers of the Spanish treasury.
• The "Welcome Stranger," the largest gold nugget ever recorded, was found in Victoria, Australia, in 1869. It weighed 78 kilograms (about 172 pounds). When it was melted down, it produced 71 kilograms (156 pounds) of pure gold.
• The largest gold nugget believed to exist today is the "Hand of Faith," a 60-pound specimen discovered in Victoria, Australia, in October, 1980. It is currently on display at the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas.
• Today, India is the world's largest consumer of gold. South Asian jewelry is generally of higher purity than western jewelry—22 karats, compared to 14 karats.
• The Federal Reserve Bank of New York holds the world's largest accumulation of monetary gold. The vault is 25 meters (80 feet) beneath the street and holds $147 billion worth of gold bullion. The bedrock of Manhattan is strong enough to support the weight of the vault, its door, and the gold inside.
Source: AMNH.org