4,000-Year-Old Gold Necklace Found In Peru

Said To Be Earliest Gold Jewelry Made In Americas; Shock Find For Scientists

(AP)  The earliest known gold jewelry made in the Americas has been discovered in southern Peru.

The gold necklace, made nearly 4,000 years ago, was found in a burial site near Lake Titicaca, researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The discovery "was a complete shock," said Mark Aldenderfer, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona.

"It was not expected in the least," he said in a telephone interview. "It's always fun to find something and go, 'Wow, what is that doing here?"'

In the past, it had been assumed that a society needed to be settled to produce agricultural surpluses that can support activities such as making ornamental objects, he explained.

But the people living in this region at the time were still primarily hunter-gatherers, he said. "They were on their way to becoming settled peoples, but they were not quite there yet."

Someone, though, had the time and knowledge to make this ornament, which he speculates is a sign of importance.

"These folks are obtaining this by their effort, accumulating more wealth and using objects for prestige," Aldenderfer said. It says: "Pay attention to me, I'm successful."

There is no evidence at the site that shows how it was made, he said. But it looks like a nugget of native raw gold, which occurs near the area, was pounded flat in a stone mortar and pestle.

Then the gold was probably wrapped around a piece of wood and pounded until it was folded into a tube, he said.

The researchers restrung the necklace, alternating nine small gold tubes with a series of round stones, identified as either greenstone or turquoise, with holes in them that were found in the same grave.

The next oldest gold ornaments found in this hemisphere, also located in Peru but farther north, date to about 600 years later than this necklace, Aldenderfer said.

Scott Raymond, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary, Canada, said the date of the necklace is "remarkably early for that region to have something of that order."

He said he had not previously seen any substantial evidence from that period of the kind of ceremonialism that developed later.

The oldest previously known worked gold was found in highland Peru and dated to about 3,500 years ago, said Raymond, who was not part of the research team.

Heather Lechtman of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called the design "very interesting for such a very early piece of jewelry."

Lechtman, who was not part of the research team, said it was not surprising that early people used gold because it is available in that area and easy to work.

The research was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the University of Missouri.

[pensacola88]

Paleo Human cultures of South America and North America are highly underrated. History books declaring that civilization began in Iraq''s Mesopotania are WRONG!!! Evidence shows those claims follow a superficial criteria that is not even accurate.

Much of the Vatican''s influence on recorded history and how it is taught will give way to new findings that show civilizations occurred earlier in areas remote from the Mideast.

[juwboy]

According to "Morning of the Magicians", a book I read years ago, ancient objects made from aluminum have been found in Australia.

Assuming they are not modern fakes/forgeries, I have the following question ...

Considering what it takes to refine aluminum from its ores in this day and age, could anyone explain how primitive Man was able to produce these artifacts?

[marc411]

And the all time oldest joke is the ENTIRE universe was built in 7 "SEVEN" days.

:-) More specifically: the oldest joke on Earth, that "the universe was built in 7 days", is 6,000 years old

[feelfree1]

God gave that necklace to me, a long time ago.

I have been looking all over for that thing.

Thanks for finding it.

I''ll be right over to pick it up.

[fibonacci_]

loool the oldest desert is 5000 years old.

[caliengineer]

Why is it that the oldest desert is 5000 yo, the oldest site is 4500 yo, the oldest plant is 6000 yo, the oldest reef is 3500 yo... and yet science keeps telling us that the planet is several billion yo?

Um, they''re liars, maybe?

[fibonacci_]

looool IRLiberal, I thought you guys might like that.

[corrice602]

I listen to people and scientist stating that this are unbeliveable fines. I would like to say that in the next comming years or even months in the artic area in do part to the so called global warming shall be many discoveries that will wash all of their scientific bull away. This so called discover is just one of many to come in the next few years as we start getting into uncharted territory. That will bring to light why 2012 is so important in the egyptian and mayan calenders. Write NASA and have them to check and see the drastic changes that are taking place in our solar system on each planet in our solar system and I will be it remains TOP Secret Information for a reason.

[rushlimpdrug]

Fox got the better article. They have one on a babylonian star chart from 5,500 years ago. It describes an asteroid impact that was recorded in Greek legend and in the old testament.
Posted by Cbscrash07 at 06:37 PM

Now that''s freakin'' hilarious!
An asteroid recorded by Greeks and the Old Testament?
Maybe the Chicago paper carried a story on the same asteroid?

[Syndicate]

Fox got the better article. They have one on a babylonian star chart from 5,500 years ago. It describes an asteroid impact that was recorded in Greek legend and in the old testament.

[rushlimpdrug]

Of course these people had no idea what they had done.

It took centuries before they even knew what to do with a necklace.

Uncivilized as they were they continued to live in caves and grunt.

[irliberal]

Wow - half as old as the world.

Posted by fibonacci_ at 03:53 PM

LOL stop it, you made me get Pepsi up my nose!

[amazedd]

Then, one bright sunny day, the hunter-gatherers said to themselves: Gee, let''s build the Mayan Civilization, pyramids and all. Overnight, like.

[jetlizhan]

wow - wonder what the value of it is??

[joyous88]

How long do you think it will take the republoCons

to steal this and give it to the wall street wealthy

[hbevis]

I AGREE COMPLETELY WITH WHAT gunownerdan SAID BELOW. I HAVE BEEN FINDING ARTIFACTS FOR OVER 60 YEARS. IF YOU HAVE THE TIME AND INCLINATION TO DO SO IT IS A GREAT HOBBY. hbevis

There is treasure in the ground almost everywhere.
In all 50 states you can find valuable artifacts lying in the ground that can be thousands of years old- stuff like arrowheads, axe heads, knives, pottery, carved shells, all kinds of stuff. Some of it can be pretty rare and valuable. All you gotta do is go out there and find it. Reading some books can help too so you can know where to go and what to look for.


Posted by gunownerdan at 01:37 PM : Apr 01, 2008

[fibonacci_]

Wow - half as old as the world.

[bluestardad]

Was that something Obamas preacher was wearing?

[tazntpa]

Didn''t know Mc Cain was wearing Bling back in the day!

[samthetvcat]

Doesn''t Ebay have about ten of these up for sale at any given time? :o