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→Early Use of Gold
[[File:Or de Varna - Nécropole.jpg|thumbnail|right|Figure 2. A burial of a high status individual at Varna Necropolis; this individual stands out from among the graves and seems to have a substantial amount of gold compared to other graves.]]
In the southern Levant, a cave in the area of Nahal Qanah contained eight artifacts from a burial context that suggests a type of elite burial ground could have been established by the 4th millennium BC. These gold objects were in the form of gold rings. In fact, the find suggests gold could have already become the privy of the most elite in society. <ref>For more information about the Nahal Qanah cave, see: Gopher, Avi, Tseviḳah Tsuḳ, and I. Carmi. 1996. The Naḥal Qanah Cave: Earliest Gold in the Southern Levant. Monograph Series / Tel Aviv University, Sonia and Marco Nadler Institute of Archaeology, no. 12. Tel Aviv: Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University Publications Section.</ref> What the finds at Nahal Qanah and Varna Necropolis show is that early from gold's history it had already become an object that differentiated wealth and status in societies. HoweverIn fact, we can say that gold seems to be associated with hierarchy, different levels of power, and different access of wealth at its inception of use. Clearly this relates to the traits of its beauty and rarity, although it is one of the only types of elements we known that seems to have these cultural attributes true for a large number of societies. Perhaps, though, there are differences in its view, as seen by these early societies. For instance, the finds in the south Levant showed that gold was even more restricted, perhaps to suggesting it may have only been accessed by the most elite members of society. In both in the Bulgaria and south Levant cases, gold was found in the form of body jewellery; in the majority of early finds of gold known, in fact, gold was often associated as a body adornment, whether for the living or the dead. <ref>For more information on the analysis of the Nahal Qanah finds, see: Shalev, Sariel. 1995. “Metals in Ancient Israel: Archaeological Interperetation of Chemical Analysis.” Israel Journal of Chemistry 35 (2): 109–16.</ref>This suggests gold, at the very least, was an element intended for display, whether to the living or to the dead, and can be considered a type of showing off perhaps, to impress others, the gods, or even spirits.
In Egypt and Mesopotamia, the two main regions where early urban cultures developed, gold was used by the 5th millennium BC. In Egypt, significant mining was likely already taking place in areas where gold deposits were commonly found, mainly in areas of southern Egypt and Nubia. <ref>For more information about gold mining and gold in Egypt, see: Klemm, Rosemarie, and Dietrich Klemm. 2013. Gold and Gold Mining in Ancient Egypt and Nubia: Geoarchaeology of the Ancient Gold Mining Sites in the Egyptian and Sudanese Eastern Deserts.New York: Springer.</ref> In Mesopotamia, the first gold appears in the 5th millennium BC during the Ubaid period. We begin to get references to gold in texts by the 3rd millennium BC, showing it becoming an important object for imports. What early texts also show is that states had a large control of the gold trade, although it was not exclusive to states. Nevertheless, gold became mostly associated with priests/temples and royalty. Private households also traded gold and often did attempt to acquire it as an important long-term holding, but rarely was gold buried by private houses with graves (i.e., it was probably far too valuable for common households to remove this item from their wealth). <ref>For examples of how gold was possibly used by households in ancient Mesopotamia, see: Nemet-Nejat, Karen Rhea. 1998. Daily Life in Ancient Mesopotamia. The Greenwood Press “Daily Life through History” Series. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, pg. 123.</ref> Gold, for private households, becomes a way for families to preserve and pass on wealth, given its great value and non-perishable nature.
