Tolita-Tumaco gold figure

Discovered near the border of Colombia and Ecuador, the 100 BC figure is from the Tumaco-Tolita culture. The Tumaco-La Tolita lived on the coasts of Ecuador and extended as far north as Buenaventura, in Colombia.

The peak of the Tolita culture lasted around 700 years. Its demise was marked by the abandonment of the Island of La Tolita around 400 AD. The artisans of the Tumaco culture excelled in the work of gold, platinum and tumbaga (an alloy of gold and copper). These metals were mainly used for artistic objects. The earliest evidence of the use of metals in the region comes from the archaeological site near the Islandof la Tolita, where a sheet of gold was found that was dated between 915 and 780 BC. The metalsmiths of the Tolita culture were the first in the world to work with platinum, at least 1,400 years before European blacksmiths. Platinum has a very high melting point, so Tolita blacksmiths had to develop techniques to work the metal without melting it, one of them is sintering, which is achieved by mixing platinum powder in gold or silver.

Trove of 11th century gold coins in ancient Caesarea

In 2018 six rare Byzantine gold coins and 18 Fatimid-era coins testified to a wealthy family fleeing conquest on the eve of the bloody 1101 crusade. 24 gold coins and a gold earring was discovered in a well-hidden bronze pot during excavations in the ancient harbor of Caesarea. The dinars were all 24k gold, whereas the Byzantine coins were 22k. The treasure was likely hidden during flight from the bloody Crusader battle of 1101 at the seaside stronghold, in which the ruling Fatimid empire was routed and its people massacred or taken as slaves. The hoard was immensely valuable. One or two of the gold coins were the equivalent of the annual salary of a farmer.

Baldwin I of Jerusalem was behind the Crusader conquest of Caesarea in 1101. After his coronation on Dec 25, 1100, he captured a series of port cities from the Egypt-based Fatimid empire.

Five of the six rare 'Christian' coins belong to the reign of Byzantine Emperor Michael VII Doukas (1071–1079).

Caesarea was the capital of the Roman province of Judaea in 6 ce. It was a centre of early Christianity. The Jewish revolt against Rome was touched off at Caesarea in 66 ce. Caesarea was the capital of the province renamed Syria-Palaestina by Hadrian.

Under the Byzantines it was capital of the province of Palaestina Prima. The city declined under later Byzantine and Arab rule. Its port and part of the ancient citadel were rebuilt by the crusaders; the city was successively taken and retaken by Muslim and crusader forces.

Umutkor collar - Attila the Hun

Authorities of Kyrgyzstan suspected the 5th-century Eastern Hunnic gold collar sold by Sotheby’s was taken from the country illegally. The Umutkor collar was sold for £242,500 ($380,215) in 2014. The royal collar and beads set with garnets and glass belonged to Sansyzbay Umutkor, who bought it circa 1890-1895. The collar was handed down by family descent until it was exported to Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2013.

Eastern Hunnic jewellery is exceedingly rare. A complete collar is spectacular. The unrecorded fifth century gold royal collar set with garnets and glass is from the time of Attila the Hun.

The magnificent collar would have been worn only by those of the highest status.

Attila and his Huns are seen in the West as barbarians. Attila led military raids on both the Eastern and Western Roman Empires. In the late fourth and fifth centuries they viciously subjected all of the European tribes and forced Rome and Constantinople to pay vast sums to keep the Hunnic horde out of their cities.

The Barbarians accelerated the fall of Rome.

Attila the Hun is considered by most Hungarians as the founder of the country. According to ancient records, Attila died in his palace across the Danube after a feast celebrating his marriage to a beautiful young gothic princess named Ildico. Legend says that his men diverted a section of a river, buried the coffin under the riverbed, and were then killed to keep the exact location a secret.

Iron shackles from Ghozza reflect harsh reality

Excavations at a 2,200-year-old mining village in Ghozza, Egypt in 2020 revealed a grim reality ... forced slave labour. Egyptian gold mining activity in the region saw a rise in the Hellenistic period (332–30 BC).

40 mines were opened under the Ptolemies following Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt in 332 BC.

The new dynasty founded by Ptolemy I needed gold to fund military campaigns, prestige projects abroad and monumental buildings in Alexandria to reflect its power and wealth. Ghozza was the northern-most Ptolemaic gold mine and the workforce processed ore with hand grinding stones. Hundreds of ostraca (pottery sherds used as surfaces for writing) found at the site provide a record of daily activities. They showed that some miners received wages. Two sets of iron shackles revealed some labour was forced. These were clearly for human use and could not have been removed without assistance. While they allowed the hands to remain free, walking with them would have been slow and exhausting.

Ancient writers identified the miners as prisoners of war and convicted criminals and that some were also slaves. They vividly described the harsh conditions endured by gold miners under the Ptolemies: “And those who have been condemned in this way—and they are of a great multitude and all have their feet bound—work at their tasks unceasingly both by day and throughout the entire night.” The shackles closely resemble those uncovered in the silver mines of Laurion, Greece. Its possible the technological knowledge used in Egyptian gold mines during the Hellenistic period was imported by Greek and Macedonian engineers. Beneath the grandeur of Egypt's wealth lies human exploitation and suffering.

The Monster of Troy

In Greek myth, a terrible sea monster suddenly appears on the Trojan coast, where it causes great destruction. To appease the beast, the king of Troy, Laomedon, sends his daughter Hesione as a sacrifice. At the last moment the hero Hercules arrives to slay the monster and rescue the princess.

A menacing creature lurks on an ancient Greek vase in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The scene is on a Corinthian krater dating to around 550 B.C. It is the oldest illustration of the ancient legend of the Monster of Troy. The vase shows Hesione and Hercules fighting the monster.

Hesione throws rocks from a pile at her feet while Hercules shoots arrows.

Some suggest that the Monster of Troy resembles a Plesiosaur, a Mesozoic marine reptile.

Plesiosaurs are amoung the largest marine apex predators in the fossil record.

Hercules and the Princess of Troy (1965)

The Lycurgus Cup - dichroic glass

While nanoparticles sound like a recent discovery, the tiny structures have been used for centuries. The Lycurgus cup, made by 4th century Roman artisans, features dichroic glass. The Lycurgus Cup, with gold and silver nanoparticles sprinkled throughout, produces a green appearance when light is shining on it from the front, and a red appearance when illuminated from behind. The cup was perhaps made in Alexandria or Rome about 290-325 AD. In 1958 Victor, Lord Rothschild sold the cup to the British Museum for £20,000.

The cup is also a very rare example of a complete Roman cage-cup, or diatretum, where the glass has been painstakingly cut and ground back to leave only a decorative "cage" at the original surface-level. The cup features a composition with figures, showing the mythical King Lycurgus, who tried to kill Ambrosia, a follower of the god Dionysus (Bacchus to the Romans). She was transformed into a vine that twined around the enraged king and restrained him, eventually killing him. Dionysus and two followers are shown taunting the king.

The process used to create the dichroic effect remains unclear, and it's likely that it wasn't well understood or controlled by the makers.

500 BC Celtic tomb reveals gold

In 2015 French archaeologists completed excavations of an ancient burial site revealing the decorated skeleton of a Celtic prince. The tomb was discovered in an industrial area of Lavau, a village near Troyes, about 150km southeast of Paris. The find was described as extraordinary by experts. Buried with a two-wheeled chariot, the body is believed to be a high ranking aristocrat from the Hallstatt culture that dominated central Europe during the Early Iron Age.

Well-preserved Greek and Etruscan relics were found, including a bronze cauldron, decorated by Dionysus' head, at the centre of a 40m-diameter burial mound. Bronze dinner sets, delicately decorated ceramic platters, elaborate Greek vases and, finally, the deceased's remains, resting on his ornate chariot and still wearing his gold. He was dubbed the Lavau Prince. He was in his forties, in good health and tall. His only injury was a broken collarbone. His name will probably never be known because Celtic cultures left no written records.

The skeleton sported ancient pieces of jewellery including a richly decorated gold torque weighing more than half a kilogram and gold bracelets. Remains of the deceased's clothing, such as shoe parts, finely worked amber beads that formed a necklace or hair decoration, and iron and coral hooks that attached to a piece of clothing were also retrieved.

The Greek vase held a secret. It once contained red wine, produced in the city of Marseilles or in Italy and costly to import.

Ancient Gold of Kazakhstan - Golden Man of Saka

Ancient burial mounds built by the Saka people of central Asia contained unfathomable gold riches. The Saka flourished from around the eighth century BC to the third century BC.

A discovery from the Yeleke Sazy burial mound in 2018 was male and about 18, dressed in gold. The finds date to the 7th or 8th century BC. Rockfall shielded his grave from looters for 2,500 years. The “golden man” was found in one of the burial mounds of the Eleke Sazy cemetery. His was only the second intact Saka burial to be discovered in Kazakhstan. The Saka people were feared warriors but were also skilled artisans who crafted gold and metal.

Archaeologists found the remains along with gold-embroidered armour and other precious artefacts during a dig. The garments and boots of the young man were embroidered with gold beads. There was a 1 kg gold torc on his neck.

The finds are from the Tarbagatai district, East Kazakhstan.

He had a golden dagger and a golden quiver.

The gold jewelry and items bear evidence of cutting-edge technology. People of that time had developed metallurgical expertise; mining, ore concentration, and smelting.

Discovered in the burial of Alike Sazy were arrow tips made of bronze. The artifacts are extremely well preserved and still remain sharp. The arrows were likely used for ritual purposes or as grave goods as they would be extremely valuable.

Grave of princess of Ukok