Minerals and Metals in Ancient India v1.c24.s2.11

v1.c24.s2.11

Gold was not a regular item of trade with India but Pliny records that some gold from the Ganges in India reached the Roman Empire. This gold was most probably the alluvial washings from the Chota Nagpur plateau, the river Sone, Suvarnarekha etc. There was some ‘ant gold’ from the Dardistan and Tibet. Pliny mentioned the ‘horn of the gold-digging ant’ preserved in the temple of Hercules at Erythrae, which was a gold-miner’s pick-axe, made of a wild sheep’s horn mounted on a handle.