Interest in the study of early European cultures is growing. These cultures have left us objects made of gold, other metals and ceramics. The advent of metal detectors, coupled with improved analytical techniques, has increased the number of findings of such objects enormously. Gold was used for economic and ceremonial purposes and thus the gold objects are an important key to our understanding of the social and political structures, as well as the technological achievements, of Bronze and Iron Age European societies. A correct interpretation of the information provided by gold and other metal objects requires the cooperation of experts in the fields of social, materials and natural science. Detailed investigation of gold deposits in Europe have revealed the composition and genesis of the deposits as sources of the metal. In Prehistoric Gold in Europe, a group of leading European geoscientists, metallurgists and archaeologists discuss the techniques of gold mining and metallurgy, the socioeconomic importance of gold as coinage and a symbol of wealth and status, and as an indicator of religious habits, as well as a mirror of trade and cultural relations mirrored by the distribution and types of gold objects in prehistoric times.

Documenting a joint Chinese-European study of mesothermal lode gold deposits from early Precambrian rocks of E. Hebei Province (NE China), introductory chapters on gold deposits, and the basement geology of the Sino-Korean Platform are followed by detailed descriptions of the individual gold desposits. These include descriptions of the lithology and structure of the host rocks, ore geochemistry and petrography, and wall-rock alteration. Radiometric ages, fluid inclusion data, and C-O-H-S-Pb isotopic compositions of ore and gangue minerals constrain the timing, physical conditions and the possible origin of mineralization. An important conclusion is that, in contrast to the Archean greenstone-hosted gold desposits in Canada, Australia and Africa, the Chinese examples occur in high-grade polymetamorphic rocks, and the main impetus for mineralization was tectonism and granitic magmatism of the late Mesozoic Yanshanian orogeny. This book will be of considerable value as a source of specific information and extensive references about gold deposits and Archean geology in NE China, and should be equally interesting to geologists working on Archean gold geology and those concerned with Mesozoic Circum-Pacific metallogeny.

Interest in the study of early European cultures is growing. These cultures have left us objects made of gold, other metals and ceramics. The advent of metal detectors, coupled with improved analytical techniques, has increased the number of findings of such objects enormously. Gold was used for economic and ceremonial purposes and thus the gold objects are an important key to our understanding of the social and political structures, as well as the technological achievements, of Bronze and Iron Age European societies. A correct interpretation of the information provided by gold and other metal objects requires the cooperation of experts in the fields of social, materials and natural science. Detailed investigation of gold deposits in Europe have revealed the composition and genesis of the deposits as sources of the metal. In Prehistoric Gold in Europe, a group of leading European geoscientists, metallurgists and archaeologists discuss the techniques of gold mining and metallurgy, the socioeconomic importance of gold as coinage and a symbol of wealth and status, and as an indicator of religious habits, as well as a mirror of trade and cultural relations mirrored by the distribution and types of gold objects in prehistoric times.