Changes

Nevertheless, there are key differences with how gold was treated in early societies. In the ancient Near East, gold was often found as jewelry with women, suggesting women often wore gold as representing family wealth or were often the ones who literally wore the family's wealth. <ref> For further information on women in ancient Near East society and wealth, see: Chavalas, Mark W., ed. 2012. Women in the Ancient Near East: A Sourcebook. Routledge Sourcebooks for the Ancient World. London: Routledge. </ref> This could be one reason we find female burials often have large quantities of gold. For example, the burial of the Queen or Priestess of Puabi from the ancient city of Ur is one example of this (Figure 4).

It is also by the 3rd millennium BC that we begin to see gold having more of a trade value, although very likely this occurred earlier. We see evidence of gold being shipped in from distant regions, such as India or Anatolia, in places such as Mesopotamia. In the 2nd millennium BC, when the trade in gold became more substantial in the eastern Mediterranean region, it is during this active time of trade that gold becomes a standard used to measure value of other commodities. In fact, gold, between 1600-1200 BC or the Late Bronze Age, was becoming the basis of value for many valuable objects now being traded between Central Asia and the Mediterranean, including metals such as tin and copper. <ref> For more information on the Late Bronze Age gold standard, see: Edwards, Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen, ed. 2003. History of the Middle East and the Aegean Region C. 1380 - 1000 B.C. 3. ed., 6. printing. The Cambridge Ancient History, Vol. 2, Pt. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.</ref> However, this was a relatively exceptional period, as in most other Bronze Age periods silver was considered the more common standard, given its greater prevalence. <ref>For a history of gold and its role in ancient societies, see: Bernstein, Peter L. 2004. The Power of Gold: The History of an Obsession. Illustrated ed. New York: Wiley. </ref>