The Long History of Gold

Few metals have had such an influence on human history as gold. It is arguably history’s most valued commodity, and so much can be written on the history of this metal. Its beauty and brilliance have given gold its power, linking it to wealth, social status, beauty, the divine, and even immortality. While we are unsure of the very first instances that humans took an interest in gold, the first recorded finding of gold was in Palaeolithic caves in Spain that date as far back as 40,000 BC. It has been prized in almost every civilisation since, and so begins the long story of its history.

 

Sumerian Gold & The Epic of Gilgamesh

History begins at Sumer—to quote the title of the acclaimed book by Samuel Noah Kramer. Recognised as the earliest known civilisation, gold held immense cultural and economic significance. Sumerians thrived in Mesopotamia around 3000 BCE, where gold was seen as a symbol of true divine and royal power, reserved for the elite and for religious offerings. Sumerians did not use gold as coinage but valued it for its rarity, lustre, and malleability in functional and decorative uses. Gold both adorned ceremonial temples and was crafted into intricate jewellery and decorated ceremonial objects. The Royal Cemetery of Ur revealed treasures including solid gold headpieces, a decorated dagger with a solid gold blade, and tools that corroborate Sumerian metalworking sophistication.

Dagger from Royal Cemetery of Ur with solid gold blade

Though likely much older than mainstream archaeology cares to acknowledge or even understand, The Sumerian King List, a columnar stone tablet dating back to 2084 BC and detailing the epic chronology of antediluvian kingships and dynasties – focuses on reign lengths, cities, and divine appointment of kingship, but includes one notable and often-cited reference to gold, in the context of describing the wealth and splendour of a city:

‘In E-ana, the throne was of gold and lapis lazuli; it belonged to Gilgamesh’

This brief line found in some versions of the King List and referenced in associated Sumerian texts connects the city of Uruk and Gilgamesh, the king of legend in ancient Mesopotamia, with the use of gold.

Gold is also mentioned in the Epic of Gilgamesh, one of the oldest surviving Sumerian stone texts. The text offers insight into the importance of gold in Mesopotamian culture, where it is frequently expressed as being associated with splendour and immortality and describes the majesty and wealth of rulers and distant lands, notably the city of Uruk. Uruk is described as a place of immense prosperity, and the Epic describes the journey Gilgamesh takes to this domain rich in gold and precious materials, affirming its connection to divine or otherworldly realms. Gold was seen far beyond its physical value for Sumerians. It embodied beauty and divinity, and it was significant to Sumerian material culture and mythology.

Cuneiform tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh

Gold in Dynastic Egypt

Gold was believed to be the ‘flesh of the gods’ in Egyptian antiquity. Egyptian beliefs considered pharaohs living representations of their gods, and as such, were buried in gold-laden sarcophagi, and the divine status of pharaohs endured in the afterlife. As in Sumeria, gold held a sacred and eternal quality that made it central to both religious lore and royal iconography. The earliest examples of Egyptians show they worked with gold as far back as 3000 BCE during the first dynastic period. Gold was possibly sourced from the Eastern Desert and Nubia regions, which were renowned for their gold deposits.

The funerary mask of Tutankhamun is the iconic example, as it is the only surviving, fully intact royal burial mask recovered; every other pharaonic tomb in the Valley of the Kings had been found and pillaged by tomb robbers of antiquity. Tutankhamun’s tomb was cleverly hidden and somehow remained hidden for centuries and was the archaeological find that changed everything we know about not only the pharaonic

burial process but also much of their religious and social beliefs and how gold was central to Egyptian culture. The mask is solid gold and reflects their belief in gold’s power to preserve the soul and secure immortality.

Gold was key in Egypt's economy and negotiations. While not used in coins, it was shaped into rings, ingots, and amulets, and used in trade and tributes. Pharaohs demonstrated their wealth and power with gold headdresses and jewellery, chariots and the artistic decoration of their temples and palaces. The prolific use of gold all throughout Egyptian culture solidified its reputation as a dominant and influential power over all surrounding regions for centuries.

Solid Gold Egyptian Pectoral Plate of Amenemope

Egyptian King Tutankhamun’s gold sarcophagus

 

Gold in Ancient Greece

Ancient Grecian culture revered gold as divine and revered it for its beauty, as seen by the way gold featured in religious rituals and personal adornment. Greek artisans used filigree and granulation techniques to craft detailed and sophisticated solid gold jewellery, ceremonial vessels, and decorative objects. Gold was offered to Apollo and Athena in their dedicated temples, and it decorated the statues of the gods themselves.

 

The ethereal chryselephantine statue of Zeus at Olympia is considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and although destroyed during the 6th century AD, details of its beauty and form are preserved through countless descriptions and representations on Grecian coins and artwork. Gold's symbolic power extended to Grecian funerary practices where it decorated burial masks, funerary wreaths, and objects honouring and recognising the departed.

While Greece itself had limited gold resources, trade and conquest from Persia and Thrace—modern day Turkey and Bulgaria—brought wealth home during and after the campaigns of Alexander the Great. Minted first during the 4th century BCE, gold coins became a medium for economic control and political power. They bore the likenesses of Greek gods or rulers, linking the material wealth of gold to divinity and royal authority. Gold was the marker of affluence and a conduit for religious expression and imperial aspiration.

Chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of Zeus

Early Greek coinage

Gold in Dynastic and Pre-Dynastic China

In both pre-dynastic and dynastic China, gold was revered for its beauty and symbolic association with immortality and cosmic harmony. Most early Chinese societies used gold sparingly, as seen in Liangzhu Bronze Age culture from 3300–2300 BC, where gold was rarely used but implied status as well as spiritual and religious prestige, often for decoration in elite burials or religious ceremony.

Later, with the rise of both the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, gold began to appear more frequently in ceremonial and royal artifacts, portraying the ruler's connection to his divine authority. By the Han Dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), gold featured even more prominently in burial goods, royal attire, and regalia, symbolising wealth and eternal life. Despite growing in use through the centuries, gold remained a metal reserved for distinction and the elite of society, always tied to spiritual nobility and political authority.

 

Sunken Ships of Antiquity

Many shipwrecks carrying enormous gold cargos have been sought and found through history, many from following historical accounts of their trade routes and cargo ledgers and employing modern efforts to recover their treasure. The SS Central America, or the ‘Ship of Gold’ as it came to be known, sank near South Carolina in 1857, carrying over 13 tonnes of gold from the California Gold Rush. Over US$100 million in gold coins and bars were recovered in efforts that spanned 2 decades.

The Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank in 1622 near the Florida Keys during a hurricane and was discovered in 1985 after a 16-year-long search. It held a gold haul worth over US$450 million and included gold bars, coins, and many other gold artifacts.

The successful recovery of the HMS Edinburgh, a British warship which sank in 1942 while transporting Soviet gold bullion as payment to the Allies, recovered over 4 tonnes of gold at a value of over US$100 million in 1981 salvage efforts.

Some wrecks known to be carrying gold cargo have remained undiscovered despite extensive searches. The Portuguese vessel Flor de la Mar sank in 1511 off the coast of Sumatra. It has yet to be recovered and is reportedly carrying the largest treasure of unknown value ever to be lost at sea—gold, precious stones, and tributes from the Sultan of Malacca.

Most recently, the potential identification of a Colombian Caribbean shipwreck as the legendary San José galleon—a Spanish 18th-century warship known as the ‘holy grail’ of shipwrecks, thought to be carrying US$11 million in gold and silver as well as caches of emeralds. The vessel that sank during a naval battle with the British sometime in 1708 has been at the centre of a long and passionate archaeological search since the 1980s and has now possibly been identified. Its treasure remains unrecovered due to a legal dispute between the Colombian Government and an American underwater salvage firm as to who found it first, but photos have emerged recently of gold coins with mint marks from Lima, Peru, in 1707.

The countless accounts of recovering shipwrecks reflect the enduring attraction of gold and the lengths people will go to get their hands on it, in the face of the costs and complexities around marine recovery operations. Each vessel recovered fuels an ongoing interest in continued oceanic treasure hunting.

Lost treasure of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha

Coins recovered from the 18^th Century San Jose galleon

The Gold Rush Era: A Fever That Changed the World

California’s infamous rush to gold in 1848–1855 was the genesis of the phenomenon of gold prospecting. Within a year, over 300,000+ prospectors descended on the region from across the US, Latin America, Europe, and Asia. This sparked a series of rushes globally – the Klondike rush in Canada's Yukon, rushes in Alaska, South Africa, and New Zealand all followed, with Australia’s own rush beginning in 1851 in Bathurst and Ballarat. Gold rushes fundamentally reshaped whole economies and rapidly transformed small frontier towns into booming businesses.

The pipe dream of instant riches drew men and women into an extremely harsh environment to prospect. They endured extremes in weather, squalid living conditions which bred diseases, as well as isolation and hard labour. Only a small percentage struck riches—most prospectors barely made enough only to survive, or failed to find gold at all. Levi Strauss’ denim pants were the best example of the largest profits being made by those who sold supplies, tools, and food to prospectors.

Despite the hardship, the amount of gold recovered was incredible. The California rush alone yielded over 340,000kg of gold by the mid-1850s, equivalent to hundreds of billions of dollars today. In Australia, Victoria's goldfields produced over one third of the world’s gold in the 1850s. Gold discoveries laid the foundation for the modern global gold market, linking gold to national currencies and bank reserves, also cementing gold’s status as a source of wealth and value.

California gold rush gold coin

Gold panning in 1900 in Australia

The United States Adopts a Gold and Silver Standard

In 1792, the United States Congress passed the Mint and Coinage Act - a decision that would change the modern history of gold. This Act established a fixed price of gold in US dollars. Gold and silver coins became legal tender in the United States, as did the Spanish Real, a silver coin of the Spanish Empire.

At the time, gold was worth approximately 15 times more than silver. Silver was used for small denomination purchases while gold was used for large denominations. The US mint was legally required to buy and sell gold and silver at a rate of 15 parts silver to 1 part gold. As a result, the market rate for gold rarely varied beyond 15.5 to 1 or 16 to 1.

That ratio would change after the Civil War. It was during the Civil War that the US was unable to pay off its debts using gold or silver, and in 1862 paper money was declared to be legal tender, marking the first time a fiat currency was used as an official currency in the United States.

A few years later, silver was officially removed from the US Mint’s fixed rate system under the Coinage Act of 1873, later criticised by Americans as the Crime of ’73. This officially removed the silver dollar from circulation, although coins worth less than $1 still contained silver. The United States would never again use silver dollars, though the issue remained an important political topic through the late 1800s. In 1900, the gold dollar was declared to be the definitive standard unit of account in the United States, and promissory paper dollars were issued to represent the country’s gold reserves.

 

A New Era for Money and Markets

The United States formally came off the gold standard in 1971, after nearly two centuries of tying its currency to a fixed weight of gold. This moment in time is referred to as the ‘Nixon Shock’, which occurred when President Richard Nixon halted the convertibility of US dollars into gold for any foreign government. The decision was fuelled by inflation, trade imbalances, and waning US gold reserves. This move marked the collapse of the Bretton Woods system, which had dictated international finance since 1944 and began an era of fiat currencies. After becoming legal again for private ownership in 1975, gold promptly regained its historical status as a safe haven investment. Its price catapulted in the late 1970s during geopolitical tension and inflation to peak at US$850 oz in 1980.

Rare photo inside Fort Knox 1961

Gold Today

Today, gold plays a dual role in the economy. It is no longer used in everyday transactions, so not a currency in the modern sense - but it remains a solid store of value and a form of monetary insurance. Central banks continue to buy and repatriate tons each month to their respective countries, which is demonstrative of its relevance to modern-day value.

People continue to prospect for gold all over the world and seek the long sunken golden treasures of ships that have yet to be found. Gold continues to be valued today in a way that is not so different from its first uses in antiquity. It remains the most valuable precious metal and retains the same recognition as a store of value, and is what people look to invest in for long-term financial safety and security.

While it pays no yield and is not tied to productive output like equities, its scarcity, independence from government policy, and record over five millennia of being a representation of true and enduring value, ensure it remains respected and relevant, still also holding the spiritual and religious significance as always.