Gold in antiquity: Did you mean...?

A gold necklace with flying eagles and pendant discs. From modern-day Turkey. Hittite, 1400-1200 BCE. (The British Museum, London).

These enigmatic mounts may have been emblems of office. Rivets and rivet-holes show that some were attached to other objects, perhaps bone or ivory rods that decayed in the ground. The most elaborate mount comprises a...

A gold and carnelian ring with leaf of life carving. Acropolis, Herakleia, southern Italy. 1st century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Siritide, Policoro, Italy)

A gold ring with female head from Tarentum (Taranto), southern Italy. 4th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

Gold collar, Co. Clare, Ireland, c. 800-700 BCE. National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology, Dublin.

Gold vessel with a long spout that would probably have been used as a drinking straw, from the Royal Cemetery at Ur, Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day Iraq, Early Dynastic Period, c. 2600 BCE. The British Museum, London.

Gold and glass paste pendant earring with filigree and granulation. Acropolis, Herakleia, southern Italy. 1st century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Siritide, Policoro, Italy)

A gold diadem with central knot of Hercules from Tarentum (Taranto), southern Italy. 4th century BCE. (Archaeological Museum of Taranto, Italy)

Hollow gold balls, found at Tumna, Co. Roscommon, Ireland, in 1843, dating to the Late Bronze Age. National Museum of Ireland-Archaeology, Dublin. Eleven balls are said to have been found when a group of men were tilling land...

A gold hairnet, Greece, 3rd century BCE. In the centre is a relief of Artemis. (National Archaeological Museum, Athens)