[carenot]

"All this only shows that the dream of finding a lost city of gold is as strong for us today as it was for the Spaniards in the 17th century, " he said.

I never tried it, but I bet gold doesn't taste as good as hogs, cows, sheep or goats.

What was the fixiation, (is that a word?) with gold back then?

I thought wealth was how many cattle and tents you had. Maybe how many fields you had.

When did gold happen?

[lizma]

In Medievil times gold leaf was use on food and they thought it had some medicinal value. (Hard pressed it would taste better than a good BBQ sauce but when tomatoes first came to Europe, the acid in tomatoes would leach out the lead in the plates and pottery. Not a good era for anything tomatoe based.)

I've read that gold first became popular around 6000 B.C. A little later in this History of Gold.

Bottom line "keeping up with the Jones" probably started about 30,000 years ago. Till this day, anything rare and shiny enthalls us, especially if you are a human of the XX variety. Remember diamonds are a girl's best friend!