Goldworking

What it is

Over 3,000 objects of hammered and cast gold in grave 43 and others at Varna, the oldest gold hoard in the world. Gold, unalterable and rare, becomes the material symbol of power.

What it led to

• Visible social hierarchy: the first princely burials with sceptre and gold
• Trade in precious metal and salt (Provadia) across the Black Sea
• Gold as a standard of value and accumulable wealth

Built on

• Cold-hammered native copperc. 8000 BCE
• Salt production and walled town of Provadia-Solnitsatac. 5400-4200 BCE
• Copper smelting from orec. 5000 BCE
• Hammering of native copper

Made possible

• Commodity money (barley and silver standards)c. 3400 BCE
• Nebra sky discc. 1600 BCE
• Egyptian and Mesopotamian goldwork
• Gilding and alloys

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