About the Book
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 *
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents from: The Lure of Gold Introduction I. The Bronze Age and Early Advanced Civilizations 1. The Discovery of the "Sun Metal" in Prehistoric and Early Historical Times 2. Egypt: The Gold of the Pharaohs and Gods 3. Self-presentation and Divine Rites: The Gold Cultures of the Ancient Near East 4. Minoan Joie de Vivre and the Mycenaean Cult of Rulers II. Europe in the First Millennium 5. Greece Influences an Age beyond Its Borders 6. The Mysterious Celts and Their Fascination with Gold 7. The Etruscans: Artists and Connoisseurs 8. Rome: From the Modesty of the Republic to the Splendor of the Empire III. Great Non-European Cultures 9. Gold in the Islamic World: Between Moderation and Opulence 10. Gold for Buddha, Kings, and Emperors: Temples, Pagodas, and Insignia of Asia 11. The Discovery of the New World: The Legend of Eldorado 12. The Gleam on the Gold Coast: The Wealth of African Rulers IV. The Western World from the Middle Ages to the Twentieth Century 13. Treasures of the Age of Migrations and the Early Middle Ages 14. Byzantium: The Gold-Glittering Bastion of Christianity 15. The Metaphysics of Light and the Demonstration of Power: Gold in the High and Late Middle Ages 16. The Metal of Artists, Alchemists, and Kings: The Renaissance, the Baroque, and Classicism 17. Gold in the Modern Age Bibliography Index
About the Author :
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.
Review :
Praise for The Lure of Gold: The Editor's Picks for Holiday Books (2006): "This book is full of treasures...it is likely the wealth of sumptuous, glimmering illustrations--crowns, small sculptures of hunters, animals and goddesses, coins, ceremonial armor, and all manner of exquisitely designed jewelry--that make this volume in invaluable. The text is eminently readable, yet dense with history." -- Art New England "With nearly 300 images of jewelry, coins, religious artifacts and more, the book zips through world history as seen in gold's reflected gleam. Mr. Bachmann begins in the Bronze Age but is at his most fascinating when the tour reaches Europe during the first millennium." -- The Wall Street Journal "Pizzaro might have slit your throat for The Lure of Gold (Abbeville). A savvy text relates mankind's venerably irrational mania for the gleaming stuff. The full-page photos bring on a Fred C. Dobbs mood: a gilt-clad temple in Kyoto, Mycenaean, masks, Egypt's Tut, gold-drunk Versailles, a lovable Colombian toy raft made entirely of the sunburst metal." -- San Diego Tribune "In The Lure of Gold (Abbeville) archaeometallurgist Hans-Gert Bachmann journeys through six glittering millennia of artistic and cultural history, from Egypt's gold-tipped obelisks to the Kremlin's gilded domes...this lavishly illustrated book examines the meanings of gold across civilizations, as well as techniques for working the radiant and durable metal. Find out how compositions on Celtic coins foreshadowed Art Deco motifs and how the same material that once legitimized powerful rulers has become Snoop Dogg's bling." -- Archaeology magazine
