Peruvian necklace identified as oldest gold artifact in the Americas
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 The oldest known gold artifact in the Americas is a necklace from Peru, according to University of Arizona anthropology professor Mark Aldenderfer. The necklace comes from a village in the Jiskairumoko range near Lake Titicaca and consists of gold that had been hammered and rolled into nine cylindrical beads, then strung with turquoise on a wool string. Radiocarbon dating places the manufacture of the necklace from 2155 to 1936 B.C., which…