........ published in NEWSLETTER # 53
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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 53
PREHISTORIC GOLD IN EUROPE
by Professor G. Morteani, Technical University Munich, Garching (Germany)
On the eve of European political union, interest in early European cultures is very strongly felt in throughout Europe. The Celtic culture was one of the most important ones and left important remains of gold and other metal objects. Gold was used for economic and ceremonial purposes and thus the gold objects are an important key to the understanding of the social as well as political structure and technological achievement of the societies of central Europe in the Bronze and Iron Ages.
The subjects treated at the meeting on `Prehistoric Gold in Europe: Mines, Metallurgy and Manufacture' by very reknown experts in the field, are the techniques of gold mining and of mining and metallurgy, the socio_economic role of gold as a coinage metal and as a symbol of wealth, social status and as an indicator for religious habits as well as the development of trade and cultural relations mirrored by the distribution and the different types of gold objects. The book (NATO ASI SERIES E280) is an important source of information for geologists, archaeologists, archeometallugists and historians working in the field of gold and on the history of the prehistoric societies in Early Europe.
Reference books: E280