SUMERIA AND EGYPT

The gold that first attracted the ancients, of course, was alluvial gold. They associated it with the gods, especially the sun god, because of its color and brightness.

The Sumerians, a people who lived in the Middle East five Thousand years before Christ, were highly skilled goldsmiths and jewelers .Even then, they had learned how to stretch gold by hammering for ornamental and other purposes. Their tombs reveal that gold was reserved for royalty, with silver and copper ornaments worn by ladies-in-waiting and others.

The ancient Egyptians, who followed the Sumerians, became still more skilled at working with gold, as anyone who has seen the of Tutankhamen knows. They developed techniques for ngraving, embossing, etching, filigree, and enameling with metal engraving gems. They were so profligate with gold that sometimes royalty wore little else. One reason was that they were skilled in another way-at finding gold. Wherever they found they looked for gold and developed techniques, as well, for mining gold.

The mining of gold required another art, smelting, since mined rarely pure. The rock and ore were crushed in a mill and then sieve-like vessels, which were put in an oven. A charcoal fire kindled and kept going by blowpipes until the ore had reached melting point of gold-1,063° Centigrade-at which time the gold flowed out of the holes in the vessel. In the meantime, which has a lower melting point)had already been refined.

As Egyptians became more expert and extended the length of time the firing, the gold became purer because more silver had been from the gold. Even so, the gold was probably not as pure today's gold. It was most likely 22-karat, rather than 24-karat gold.