http://clipmarks.com/clipper/kenstipe/clipcast/Anthropology/http://rss.clipmarks.com/clipper/kenstipe/clipcast/Anthropology/15Clip, tag and save information that's important to you. Bookmarks save entire pages...Clipmarks save the specific content that matters to you!en-ushttp://clipmarks.com/clipmark/0CA560A9-92ED-4009-A9BF-ACF9FA46F026/<b>clipped by:</b> <a href="http://clipmarks.com/clipper/kenstipe/">kenstipe</a><br><div border="2" style="margin-top: 10px; border:#000000 1px solid;" width="90%"><div style="background-color:"><div align="center" width="100%" style="padding:4px;margin-bottom:4px;background-color:#666666;overflow:hidden;"><span style="color:#FFFFFF;font-weight:bold;">Clip Source: <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080331/full/news.2008.716.html" title="http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080331/full/news.2008.716.html">www.nature.com</a></span></div><div style="padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align:left;"><P>A four-thousand-year-old burial site may change our notions about that most ubiquitous of status symbols: gold. The oldest-yet find of gold beads in the Americas shows that even people in small communities could show off a little bling.</P></div></div><hr size="2" color="#666666" /><div style="padding: 10px;"><img src="http://clipmarks.com/image_cache/kenstipe/512/87574D9C-8432-478C-B819-9A92BDF28211.jpg" alt="On the cusp of inequality: the oldest gold jewellery in the Americas." /><br /></div><hr size="2" color="#666666" /><div style="padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align:left;">Gold has always been a symbol of wealth. </div></div><hr size="2" color="#666666" /><div style="padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align:left;"><P>One theory is that complicated gold working is exclusive to stratified societies with elites rich enough to support it, says Mark Aldenderfer, an anthropologist at the University of Arizona, Tucson.</P></div></div><hr size="2" color="#666666" /><div style="padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align:left;"><P>So Aldenderfer was surprised to find the metal in a small grave at a site of hunter-gatherers in southern Peru. The hamlet, consisting of a handful of dwellings, was probably settled around 2300 BC by former nomads. Carbon dating of wood from the grave puts it sometime between 2155 and 1936 BC, at least 400 years earlier than the previous oldest example of worked gold in the Americas.</P></div></div><hr size="2" color="#666666" /><div style="padding: 10px;"><div style="text-align:left;"> it is a perfect status symbol. “It’s attractive and scarce,” he notes. “These are the two attributes you need for a status symbol.”</div></div></div></div><br><div style="margin-bottom: 40px;"></div>http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080331/full/news.2008.716.htmlTue, 01 Apr 2008 01:13:26 GMT