Changes

In the New World, the region of the Andes, in Peru specifically, has the earliest dated gold finds, where objects date to around 2000 BC. Interestingly, these early gold finds are in the form of jewelry and found in burial context, similar to the Old World discoveries. <ref> For more information about the earliest gold artefacts from Peru, see: Aldenderfer, M., N. M. Craig, R. J. Speakman, and R. Popelka-Filcoff. 2008. “Four-Thousand-Year-Old Gold Artifacts from the Lake Titicaca Basin, Southern Peru.” ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105'' (13): 5002–5. doi:10.1073/pnas.0710937105. </ref> This could suggest, similar to other regions, that as social hierarchy and stratification became established, gold was one object that differentiated the status of humans within society. In other words, gold becomes associated with wealth and power soon after it begins to be used (Figure 3).

==Role in Society==