Does no one else find it fascinating that gold has been put to some kind of use for so long? In this case, 4,000 years ago.
Not really. Gold lasts forever and before currency gold was mostly used for tombs and burial sites for influential people of their time. There are lots of gold artifacts out there and more and more are being discovered yearly.
The reason is that gold is not very reactive with other elements. it does not tarnish. It essentially lasts forever. That's why Gold was known as the metal of the gods. So lets say you are an ancient mayan ruler and you want to memorialized forever. You decide to have a 40 foot statue in your city because you know that the statue will last forever(unless it was broken by force or melted down). Had you chosen copper it would tarnish and turn green and then fall apart over time. Basically the chemical and physical properties of gold is the reason why it is so valueable from a wealth standpoint and a status symbol (if you have a 40ft gold statue of yourself people know who runs the place) Gold is not a rare metal. it is actually one of the most common metals on the planet. Most of which is in seawater and deep in the earth's crust. So that is why it is common for archaeologists to find gold artifacts in ancient tombs and such. it is what the rulers of their time had used to memorialize themselves for all eternity. These Gold statues will be around another 10,000 and another 10,000 after that so long as nobody damages or melts them down.
Clay breaks apart fairly easily over time into many small peices. if you look around in your backyard you may find some ancient Native American pottery made from clay. But it would be in millions of peices. Rocks can be used as well but the rocks that are high quality are more often used for infrastructure and weapons. Iron was used to make spears. While Limestone was used to make the pyramids of giza.
But Gold is far from unique in that aspect, many things have been put to use for at least that long or longer. Just for an example, common salt has been in use for over 8000 years.
interesting fact: Roman soldiers were paid in salt at one point. This is where the word salary comes from.
