The dazzliningly illustrated story of how the world''s most
beautiful element has influenced the art, economy, and society of
every civilization. When Hesiod, the Greek poet of the eighth
century B.C., recounted the history of the world as he understood
it, he described the legendary first generation of mortal men, who
lived in peace and ease, as the ?people of gold.? Nearly three
millennia later, we still refer to a particularly happy or
prosperous era as a ?golden age.? The reason Hesiod?s metaphor
translates so perfectly into our own idiom is that the mystique of
gold, the quintessential precious metal, is truly universal. The
very scarcity of gold accounts for part of its allure and much of
its monetary value: the total volume of gold ever mined, from
prehistory to the present day, would probably fit inside a cube
with sides just twenty yards 18 m long. Yet gold?s incredible
material properties also contribute to its appeal. Gold does not
corrode, so it never loses its brilliant luster, and it can be
chased, embossed, punched, drawn into wires, hammered foil-thin,
and shaped in countless other ways. This engaging book reveals that
the ways in which gold, in turn, has shaped humanity are no less
numerous. Since prehistory, for example, artisans have fashioned
gold into ritual objects and high-status ornaments; beginning in
the sixth century B.C., gold served as currency; and even in the
modern era it has encouraged wars of conquest and triggered frantic
gold rushes. Each chapter is devoted to one historical epoch,
explaining how people of that time mined and refined gold, and how
they used it for cultural and economic purposes. Two hundred
gorgeous color photographs illustrate golden objets d?art as
diverse as the funerary masks of Tutankhamen; intricate Celtic
jewelry; a figurine of ?El Dorado,? a pre-Columbian chief said to
ritualistically cover his entire body in gold dust; bejeweled
medieval reliquaries and crucifixes; and even Gustav Klimt?s
gold-drenched canvas The Kiss. With its authoritative yet lively
text and these arresting illustrations, The Lure of Gold sets, as
it were, the gold standard for books on material culture. AUTHOR
Dr. Hans-Gert Bachmann, who studied geosciences at the University
of Bonn, has taken part in many archaeological excavations and
surveys in Europe and the Near East. From 1963 to 1993 he held a
senior position at Degussa, a global gold and silver refining
company based in Germany. Currently he is an honorary professor at
the University of Frankfurt am Main and at the Institute of
Archaeology, University College, London. ILLUSTRATIONS 285 colour
illustrations *
關於作者：
When Hesiod, the Greek poet of the eighth century b.c.,
recounted the history of the world as he understood it, he
described the legendary first generation of mortal men, who lived
in peace and ease, as the "people of gold." Nearly three millennia
later, we still refer to a particularly happy era as a "golden
age." The reason Hesiod''s metaphor translates so perfectly into our
own idiom is that the mystique of gold, the quintessential precious
metal, is truly universal. The very scarcity of gold accounts for
part of its allure and much of its monetary value: the total volume
of gold ever mined, from prehistory to the present day, would
probably fit inside a cube with sides just twenty yards 18 meters
long. Yet gold''s incredible material properties also contribute to
its appeal. Gold doesn''t corrode, so it never loses its brilliant
luster, and it''s the most ductile and malleable of the metals; that
is, it can be chased, embossed, punched, drawn into wires, hammered
foil-thin, and shaped in countless other ways.
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