They Took It With Them

In much of the ancient world, owning gold was the exclusive right of nobility. The Egyptians filled the tombs of their pharaohs with gold to support them in the afterlife. Artisans of the Hissar III culture beat gold nuggets into thin sheets, then shaped them into adornments. Other ancient civilizations, especially the nomadic Scythians, who lived north of the Black Sea in the last thousand years BC, used gold ornaments and objects in burials and other religious rituals.