I was just curious if anyone had an explanation as to how and why many civilizations, even on other continents during ancient times valued gold. An example was when the spanish "tyrant" Hernan Cortez found the Aztec empire. Although the Americas was considered to be a new unexplored continent, the Aztecs also valued gold.

I'm wondering if at some point in the past people from the Americas communicated or even traded with other continents.

The Aztecs valued gold in a different way, not face value. As did the Incans I believe. As to why, maybe we could search back into early Western civilzations.

A few common reasons across the ancient world.

Gold looks nice. In a world of stone, wood, maybe iron, gold stands out as not just a nice metal but THE metal since it could be panned out of streams. Aside from that is is shiney, yellow, and reflects the sun well.

Gold is easy to work with and collect. You do not need to mine or smelt gold, it is soft for a metal, easy to work with, and can be collected in pretty large quantities without smelting it from ore.

Somebody (I think it was here on ATS?) once mentionned the possibility that gold might be present everywhere, like even in other world/dimension, and that, kind of unconsciously, living beings have always valued gold. Just wanted to share, I don't really believe that, altho it's not entirely impossible.

Another note: Alchemist always attributed great value to gold, almost more then only monetary. Isn't it a little weird? Maybe they wanted to turn raw metals into gold, but for some other goals than just getting money easily.

[Edited on 4-1-2004 by m0rbid]

At various points in history tobacco, cocoa and even salt were more highly sought than gold.

It wasn't long ago in America that land was a few dollars an acre...there was just so much of it! Now it's more valuable than gold.

Historically, land remains the best investment of all time.

Gold also apprently had healing properties to it. Certain asian and south American cultures believed so, at least.

DE

There is a really good book called The Key to Lost Civilizations that talks about reasons they valued gold. I believe they also used gold in some sort of religious way.

Many older cultures valued jade above gold especially in relation to religious beliefs.

I believe it is one of the theories of why Cortez was allowed to carry off the gold without a fight.

I agree with the thought that Gold has some other beneficial qualities other than just $$$$ value.

example, I can only wear gold. not that I am allergic to any other type of metal, but to me gold is "warm" it is an "earth" element and helps to keep me grounded...it feels good on my skin

btw, if you are into meditating, astral projecting, remote viewing that sort of thing, gold will ground you and hamper your abilities to achieve oobes and spiritual awareness, so remove your jewelry before practicing.

gold is a metal. Break this metal down into its monatomic state and drink it....It is good for the body.

Do a search on White gold.

White Gold when heated to a high enough temperature disappears. If you wave a spatular through the area where it is meant to be, then cool down the oven that u were heating the white gold with....and the white gold will reappear in the exact same position it was left in before and while heating, but before the spatular went through. Meaning it simply went to another dimension.

White gold is also good for the brain, Helps with spirituality, astral travel, etc.

Gold is liek one of the best conductors on the planet i think. And also i thin kthe ancents used it alot for thier technologies, as well as silver.

Originally posted by DaRAGE
gold is a metal. Break this metal down into its monatomic state and drink it....It is good for the body.

Do a search on White gold.

White Gold when heated to a high enough temperature disappears. If you wave a spatular through the area where it is meant to be, then cool down the oven that u were heating the white gold with....and the white gold will reappear in the exact same position it was left in before and while heating, but before the spatular went through. Meaning it simply went to another dimension.

White gold is also good for the brain, Helps with spirituality, astral travel, etc.

Gold is liek one of the best conductors on the planet i think. And also i thin kthe ancents used it alot for thier technologies, as well as silver.

wow...I find that thing you said about heating up white gold very interesting...do you have any links to that?

Goldshlager is the best example that I can think of for pro's of ingesting gold. I believe that it allows for the alcohol to run more into the bloodstream, or something like that, but the main point is that you get drunk alot faster, especially if you like cinnamon schnaps.

Not only is gold beatiful and good to work with, but it stays that way. Unlike silver and a host of other metals it will not tarnish or rust.

As stated it is also a fabulus conductor of electricity and heat (but does have a low melting point).

Maybe the ancient civilizations valued gold because they could've made jewlery and it was soft metal so they could make coins for money out of it, or because it was shiny

[Edited on 18-2-2004 by AD5673]