THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND THE MIDDLE AGES

With the fall of the Roman Empire and the corning of the Dark Ages, the knowledge of mining gold was lost again. What gold was ready available was often melted and recast, not that the limitations imposed by the lack of more gold caused hardship, at least during we Byzantine Empire.

The Byzantine emperors were lavish in their :se of gold, especially for religious purposes. Gold, at one time the symbol of sun gods, became the symbol of the Holy Ghost and of Mary. At the same time, early Christians treasured the kingdom of 7eaven more highly than earthly possessions, and relics of the bone and hair of saints became more valuable than golden and jeweled amulets.

By the time of the Middle Ages, there was little gold in Europe, mainly because there was little commerce or trade during the times of Holy Roman Emperors like Charlemagne and Otto I. The shortage led the alchemists to try to make gold from base metals. That situation changed as the Crusades offered an opportunity not only to serve God by the retaking of Jerusalem from the heathens but also to take their wealth.

Interestingly enough, the Prophet Mohammed, who founded the Moslem religion in the seventh century, had said men could own gold but wearing it was ostentatious and effeminate. That did not stop many a Moslem prince from owning and wearing a variety of precious gems, especially diamonds.

As the Crusades lost their hold on men's imagination, another vision arose: the discovery of America. Queen Isabella of Spain even sold or pawned her jewels, a common practice among royalty of the time to finance both domestic projects and war, to pay for Columbus's first voyage. Inca’s being declared free, Pizarro held him in protective custody and letter had him killed.