Feast your eyes on the gold

The balance was made predominantly of gold. Using gold as material had several purposes. As you can see, the balance still looks very beautiful and is still in good shape after 3500 years. We humans won’t look half as good after only 70 years. The gold has not corroded, nor has it been tarnished.

Another reason for using gold was for the elite to display their wealth. Gold is a precious and expensive material, and it was beautiful to look at. People were dazzled by its glitter and shine.Whittaker, H. (2006). “Religious symbolism and the use of gold in burial contexts in the late Middle Helladic and Early Mycenaean periods”, _Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici _48: 283. Looking at the amount of gold grave goods found in the tomb, many people would have been astonished! (Fig. 10 and Fig.11)

All the parts of the balance were made of gold. Let’s take a look at the separate parts of this gold balance!