9 Dazzling Discoveries of Ancient Gold Treasure

Humans have had an admiration for beautiful gold objects for at least 8,000 years, according to archaeologists who excavated sites across the world where these glittering artifacts have been discovered.

(Read how underwater archaeologists stumbled across a hoard of gold.)

Finding any metal—much less precious gold—in archaeological sites is very rare, since metal objects were frequently melted down and recycled when they no longer served their purpose. This makes the discovery of large gold collections from the ancient world even more remarkable.