23 August 2016

World's oldest gold artifact

Archaeologists dug up the gold artifact, which is just an eight of an inch in diameter and dates from 4,500–4,600 B.C., at what was believed to be the first urban settlement in Europe. It’s just outside of the modern town of Pazardzhik [Bulgaria].

What’s particularly interesting about the item is that researchers believe it to be 200 years older than gold jewelry discovered back in 1976 in the coastal town of Varna, thought to be the oldest in existence. That would make this speck-like bead the oldest piece of gold in the world.

1 comment:

  1. Harrumph... "the oldest piece of gold in the world"?

    For your daily dose of pedantry: The author of the article should have noted that All gold in the world is essentially the same age (except for some that has occurred through radioactive decay of heavier elements). All the nice stuff heavier than iron (and let's be honest here most of the iron and carbon and stuff too) was formed in the same supernova that seeded the protoplanetary disk with heavy elements and made it possible for there to be things other than stars and gas giants filled with hydrogen and helium around.

    But yes: The earliest piece of gold known to have been worked by human hands.


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