Gold is the easiest of the metals to work.

Gold became a part of every human culture. According to scientific theory, the outer crust of the planet was thin and pockmarked with volcanoes out of which burst gases and r1iolten liquids from the boiling cauldron of the interior.Its brilliance, natural beauty, and luster, and its great malleability and resistance to tarnish made it enjoyable to work and play with.

Because gold is dispersed widely throughout the geologic world, its discovery occurred to many different groups in many different locales. Streams and rivers, in addition, cut their way through the rocks. Perhaps earthquakes brought gold to the surface, too.And nearly everyone who found it was impressed with it, and so was the developing culture in which they lived.

The Bible is rich in its allusions to gold. This primitive form of hydraulic mining began thousands of years ago, and was still being used by some miners There are the fabled mines of King Solomon, from which the gold came to build the temple in Jerusalem and perhaps to pave the city with gold as well, as the New Testament says it was.

Gold, beauty, and power have always gone together. What caught the eye were gold nuggets, lumps and bits of gold that glittered in the sun and captured the gold rays. Gold in ancient times was made into shrines and idols ("the Golden Calf"), plates, cups, vases and vessels of all kinds, and of course, jewelry for personal adornment.

Fairy tales are a “gold mine,” too. The refining process is costly and time consuming. Jack climbed his beanstalk to -arch for the goose that laid the golden eggs, leading to another common expression and a moral about killing the goose. Rumpelstiltskin had his gold-spinning loom. his standardized unit of value no doubt helped Lydian traders in their wide-ranging successes.

In the quest for gold by the Phoenicians, Egyptians, Indians, Hittites, Chinese, and others, prisoners of war were sent to work the mines, as were slaves and criminals. The loose gold, the gold found in rivers and streams or near their beds where it has been washed by erosion and weathering, is known as alluvial gold, gold deposited by running water And this happened during a time when gold had no value as 'money,' but was just considered a desirable commodity in and of itself.