Editing Gold mining (section)

===== Ancient Rome and Greece =====
During the Bronze Age, gold objects were also plentiful, especially in Ireland and Spain.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gold of Roman Empire - History of Roman Gold Jewellery {{!}} My Gold Guide |url=https://www.mygoldguide.in/significance-gold-roman-empire |access-date=2024-04-11 |website=www.mygoldguide.in}}</ref> [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] employed slave labour and used [[hydraulic mining]] methods, such as [[hushing]] and [[ground sluicing]] on a large scale to extract gold from extensive [[alluvial]] (loose sediment) deposits, such as those at [[Las Médulas|Las Medulas]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Peter L. |title=The power of gold: the history of an obsession |date=2012 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-0-471-25210-8 |location=Hoboken, N.J}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1157153560 |title=Debasement: manipulation of coin standards in pre-modern monetary systems |date=2020 |publisher=Oxbow Books |isbn=978-1-78925-398-6 |editor-last=Butcher |editor-first=Kevin |edition= |location=Oxford; Philadelphia |oclc=on1157153560}}</ref> Mining was under the control of the state, but the mines may have been leased to civilian contractors later. Gold served as the primary medium of exchange within the empire, and was an important motive in the [[Roman conquest of Britain]] by [[Claudius]] in the first century AD, although there is only one known Roman gold mine at [[Dolaucothi]] in west Wales. Gold was a prime motivation for the campaign in [[Dacia]] when the Romans invaded [[Transylvania]] in what is now modern [[Romania]] in the second century AD. The legions were led by the emperor Trajan, and their exploits are shown on [[Trajan's Column]] in Rome and the several reproductions of the column elsewhere (such as the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] in [[London]]).<ref>Dan Oancea, [http://www.infomine.com/publications/docs/Mining.com/Apr2008h.pdf A Tale of Gold] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303230636/http://www.infomine.com/publications/docs/Mining.com/Apr2008h.pdf|date=3 March 2016}}</ref> Under the Eastern Roman Empire Emperor Justinian's rule, gold was mined in the Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, Egypt, and Nubia.