Page 52 - Handbook of Gold Exploration and Evaluation

Nature and history of gold 33

first evidence of large-scale fabrication of gold has been revealed by modern
archaeologists who discovered highly sophisticated gold art objects and jewel-
lery dating back to about 3000 BC in Sumerian tombs at Ur in Mesopotamia. By
1200 BC, goldsmiths of the Chavin civilisation in Peru were making gold
ornaments and other artefacts by hammering and shaping.

Sumerian influence
The earliest recorded civilisations, Sumeria and Babylonia, were founded
between the twin rivers Tigris and Euphrates in lower Mesopotamia some 4,500
years BC with priests as secular rulers. Engineering practice was directed
initially towards the invention and manufacture of farming equipment and
machines for the supply and control of water for agricultural purposes (Vargos
and Gallegos, 1992). The foundation was laid nevertheless for the development
of all branches of modern engineering practice. Civilisations in China and India
may have been developed around the same time, but there was little contact
between the East and the West and the influence of ancient technological
development is traceable mainly to the Mesopotamian culture.
The many Sumerian achievements included discovery of the wheel, moulding
and burning of mud bricks for building, and ploughs pulled by cattle. By inventing
a form of writing (pictographs with 2,000 symbols) they introduced the first means
of recording thought as well as history. Between 1900 and 1800 BC, Mesopo-
tamian mathematicians are believed to have discovered the theorem later to be
known as the `Pythagoras Theorem' by the Greek mathematician and philosopher
Pythagoras (580±500 BC). Multiplication tables appeared in Mesopotamia around
1750 BC. In 1600 BC, Chaldean astrologers in Mesopotamia identified the Zodiac.
Sumerian engineering skills had a profound influence on the development of gold
processing technology. Gold was smelted in Egypt and Sumeria about 3500 BC
and around 2500 BC a form of soldering was developed by the Chaldeans in Ur,
Mesopotamia, for joining sheets of gold.
Understanding of hydraulic principles made possible the construction of
dams, and the design of water control mechanisms and channelling of water over
long distances. Construction difficulties were resolved as they arose; e.g. the
firing of mud bricks to give added strength for the formation of cantilevers and
arches. This made possible the design of supports for both mining excavation
and metallurgical structures. A ziggurat in Ur (Mesopotamia) 12 m high demon-
strated the familiarity of Sumerians with columns, domes, arches and vaults
(Hellemans and Bunch, 1988).
By around 2000 BC the early Minoan civilisation of Crete became a gold
centre surpassed only by Egypt. Although there were few natural resources, the
Minoans were superb goldsmiths, skilled in the most advanced kinds of gold
fabrication. According to Greek tradition, Homer attributed the magnificently
decorated shield of Achilles to Hephaestus of Crete. Eruption of the volcano of