Vessels Unto Honor

“”But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” II Timothy 2:20, 21

Here the church, or the body of Christ, is depicted as a house or dwelling place with some furniture of great value; some of smaller value, and put to meager use or no use at all. Today, as well as in Biblical days vessels used around the house have their place of service. Expensive vessels are reserved for special purposes. The cheapest vessels are expendable and in some cases thrown or given away if rendered unuseful.

The materials used in the building (Church) may be interpreted in at least four ways:

(a) The gold, silver, costly stones refer to the enduring quality of the builder’s work; and the wood, hay, or straw suggest work that is temporary and valueless. This view is supported by “work” (v. 13) and “what he has built” (v. 14). (b

Silver and Gold

A few months ago a reader wrote to tell me how devastated she’d been by the breakup of her marriage. One day her husband simply told her he no longer loved her and wasn’t interested in working things out. The marriage was ended.

At times her pain was physical. She felt as though she were having a heart attack. But through the pain and chaos, she refused to doubt God, telling him she knew he was faithful and good. During the months that followed, this heartbroken woman kept seeking him, yielding her life again and again.
Now a year later, after living through what she describes as the darkest time of her life, she speaks about healing and a new freedom to love God that she never imagined possible. Her hope is palpable as she tells of her confidence that the best is yet to come.

The Beginning of Wisdom

Written by Suzanne Benner

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”(Proverbs 1:7)

Beyond the connection between fearing God and righteous living, the Bible presents a tight link between the fear of the Lord and wisdom.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding.” (Psalm 111:10)

“The fear of the Lord – that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.” (Job 28:28)

“A wise man fears the LORD and shuns evil.” (Proverbs 14:16)

“The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom.” (Proverbs 15:33)

Once we’ve accepted that we need to fear the Lord, we pursue the path of wisdom. At the same time, seeking wisdom helps us understand what it means to fear God.

Finding Treasures

Written by Gail Rodgers

Are your days filled with loneliness?  Do you dread getting up and facing another day? Come talk to a mentor. 

“[I]f you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.” (Proverbs 2:3-5)

Time just seems to stand still when I am with my two grandboys! All the cares I have simply vanish when I am playing pretend with an imaginative, delightful three year old, or getting warm cuddles and ready smiles from the sweetest little baby!

Yesterday they came over and I was a ready participant when Logan said, “Let’s have an adventure, Gramma!” We put on our warm hoodies and went outside to explore the back yard. We were hunting for treasures and treasures we found!

China Buys 47% of the World's Gold

1.3 Billion Inflation-Nervous Chinese Look to Gold for Protection

By Greg McCoach

China is panicking.

Rampant inflation is driving Chinese consumers to buy gold on a massive scale...

In fact China is already set to buy almost half of all the gold that'll be mined this year.

You read that right: The Chinese may buy nearly 50% of total world gold production in 2011.

This incredible demand will no doubt put significant strain on global supplies.

Today I want to talk about how this soaring demand may be the catalyst that pushes gold prices over the $1,500 level in as little as a few weeks.

Over 1.3 billion inflation-nervous Chinese eye gold

In January 2010, China recorded an inflation rate of 1.5%. But just 12 months later, the rate of Chinese inflation has climbed to 4.9%.

Rising inflation has sent food and property prices in China skyrocketing.

LOST GOLD: THE S.S. REPUBLIC

Posted on Sep 6, 2008 in Found Treasure

Estimated Value: $75,000,000 – $180,000,000 (75 – 180 Million Dollars)

SHIPWRECK

When the sidewheel steamer SS Republic left New York in October of 1865, she was carrying 62 passengers and a cargo of $400,000 (1865 face value) in gold and silver coins. She was headed for New Orleans where the money would be used to help pay for reconstruction of the South after the Civil War.

On the fifth day of her voyage, a hurricane off the coast of Georgia proved too strong for the ship. By evening, her hull was leaking so badly that the fire in the boiler was extinguished. She stalled in heavy seas, taking on water faster than her crew and passengers could bail. The Republic sank beneath the waves.

While most of the passengers were able to abandon ship, the precious cargo of Gold and Silver Coins plunged to the bottom of the Atlantic ocean where they remained until…

REDISCOVERY

In the summer of 2003 Odyssey Marine Exploration, a commercial treasure hunting company out of Tampa, Florida, discovered the wreck of the SS Republic 1700 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean approximately 100 miles off the Georgia coast.

Odyssey was awarded title and ownership to the shipwreck and it’s cargo, including the hull, artifacts and all the gold and silver coins that were on board when she sank.

SEARCH AND RECOVERY

A high-res side scan image of the SS Republic site.

The ship’s bell was recovered in October 2003.

The discovery of the SS Republic wasn’t just dumb luck, it took 12 years and thousands of man hours to finally pinpoint the wreck site.

Like a scene stolen from a Clive Cussler Novel, the search area was systematically narrowed down using information from old newspapers, survivors reports, ships’ logs and computer simulations.

The resulting data predicted potential locations for the ship’s sinking, based on combinations of surface current speed, effect of winds upon the ship’s movement after the engine failed, and effects of wind and current upon the movement of the ship’s boats and raft after they cast off.

All the research paid off; In July 2003, side scan sonar revealed a promising target, an initial video inspection was conducted which revealed a sidewheel partially buried by sediment, the ship’s rudder sheathed in copper, and a large field of artifacts and bottles, including preserved bottles of fruit or other food with corks still intact.

The ship’s bell was eventually located and recovered to positively identify the shipwreck as that of the SS Republic.

And there was much rejoicing!

COINS AND ARTIFACTS

Coins recovered from the SSRepublic shipwreck site. Each coin is picked up individually to avoid marring the surface.

To date more than 51,000 coins have been recovered from the wreck including $20.00 Double Eagles, $10.00 Eagles, Half Dollars and Quarter Dollars. The retail value of coins recovered so far is expected to exceed $75 million dollars.

The collection includes many of the finest examples of United States gold and silver coins from the period. To see samples check outfeatured coins from the SS Republic on Odyssey’s website.

In addition to the coins, approximately 14,000 artifacts have been recovered from the SS Republic, literally bringing the past to life. Many artifacts and rare items of cargo will be kept in Odyssey’s permanent collection for display and study.

The search and recovery effort was depicted in a National Geographic Society TV documentarycalled Civil War Gold. There is also a book about the search and recovery -  Lost Gold of the Republic.

Discovery Channel is making an 11-part series about Odyssey and their salvage operations that will air sometime in 2009 – think “Deadliest Catch” but with Gold instead of Crabs as the prize. You know I’ll be watching!

RESOURCES

View Pictures and Video Clips of the search for and the archaeological excavation of the SSRepublic on Odyssey’s official website (NOTE: You’ll be required to create an account before you can view the media).

As part of the pre-disturbance survey, the Odyssey team created a detailed photomosaic. Small areas of the shipwreck site were photographed and then the individual images were ‘stitched’ together. For a comprehensive view of the SS Republic photomosaic please click on the following link: “SS Republic Photomosaic“, courtesy of National Geographic 

Magazine.http://www.thelifeofadventure.com/lost-gold-the-ss-republic/#more-1386 

MONTEZUMA’S GOLD

Posted on Sep 15, 2008 in Lost Treasure

 

February 1519 a fleet of eleven Spanish ships landed on the coast of Mexico near the modern day port of Vera Cruz. Onboard was a force of nearly six hundred Conquistadors; led by the infamous Hernán Cortés, they had come to Mexico to conquer the land and convert its people to Christianity in the name of the Holy Roman Church… And if they all got filthy rich in the process — that was okay too!

Hernan Cortés

When news of the strange, white-skinned men reached the Aztec emperor, Montezuma, he must have been reminded of the prophecy of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec sun god, which stated that one day the god would return to the land of the Aztec to claim his throne – and he would be known by his shining hair and white skin.

Montezuma dispatched servants bearing rich gifts for the newly arrived gods in hopes that they would go away and leave him in charge. But Montezuma’s plan backfired – when Cortés saw the precious objects, crafted from gold and silver, he knew he’d come to the right place – he immediately set his sights on the Aztec’s capitol city of Tenochtitlán, (present day Mexico City).

On November 18, 1519, Cortés entered the Aztec capital and was received as a god at a lavish ceremony in Montezuma’s palace.

Montezuma was use to being at the top of the food-chain, so after the ceremony he once again tried to persuade Cortés and his men to leave the city by offering more gifts of gold and silver, but this just intensified the Spaniards lust for gold. Cortés placed Montezuma under house arrest and then, along with about 600 native Tlaxcalan allies, the Spaniards set up base in one of the Aztec’s many ceremonial temples.

Montezuma’s Treasure
Gathered through years of brutal conquests over other Mesoamerican civilizations, Montezuma’s treasury was vast. According to legend his horde included: two gold collars, a huge alligator’s head of gold, one hundred ounces of gold, birds and other sculptures studded with precious gems, wheels of gold and silver in different sizes and many other priceless objects.

With Montezuma imprisoned the conquistadors went about ransacking his palace where they found a secret vault so full of treasure that it took three days just to divide the spoils. It was enough to make every Spaniard rich beyond his wildest dreams – but still they wanted more…

In the following months Cortés began a bloody campaign of terror. His men terrorized the city, torturing and killing it’s inhabitants in an attempt to obtain even more treasure – including the location of the fabled city of El Dorado.

REBELLION

The Aztecs eventually grew weary of the Spaniard’s tyranny, and over time they began to question Cortés’ divinity as well, so when a group of conquistadors destroyed one of the cities main temples, and slaughtered it’s high priests, things turned against the Spaniards.

The Emperor Montezuma

On June 30, 1520, the Aztec people rose against the Spaniards. Cortés forced the imprisoned Montezuma to appear upon the piazza of his house in an attempt to pacify his subjects. But apparently, the people had had enough of Montezuma as well. The Emperor was stoned to death by his own people.

With their hostage dead, Cortés and his men were forced to flee the city. They retreated amid a full on uprising, attacked from all sides by Aztec spears and stones. As the conquistadors fled the city, they threw down their newly won fortunes, littering the cities’ network of concentric irrigation channels with the treasure they had stolen from Montezuma’s treasury.

Many of Cortés’ men died on that dark and rainy night. It’s said that the bodies of the dead were piled so high in the citie’s canals that one could walk across them, from one side to the next – a grisly bridge of corpses. The night came to be known as La Noche Triste (The Sad Night).

RETRIBUTION

Cortés rebuilt his army and a year later returned to Tenochtitlan. On August 13, 1521, with the help of his Tlaxcalan allies, Cortés took the city back. The new Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, was captured while fleeing the city and tortured to reveal the locations of the Aztec treasure. But even with his feet held in a fire, the doomed Emperor couldn’t produce more than a canoe full of trinkets. According to Cuauhtémoc, the treasure was forever lost.

In desperation Cortés allowed for the torturing of anybody who he thought might help him discover the location of the treasure, men, women or children.

As the story goes, the only information ever gleaned by torturing these poor people was that the treasure had been taken north and hidden at the bottom of a lake. Cortés would later search approximately 5,000 lakes in the surrounding regions in an effort to find Montezuma’s treasure…

He never did.

WHERE DID MONTEZUMA’S TREASURE GO?

There are many theories about what happened to Montezuma’s Treasure. Some historians believe that it remains right where it was dropped that fateful night when the Conquistadors fled from Tenochtitlan, buried for all time beneath layers of silt and cement of modern day Mexico city.

Others believe the treasure was retrieved from the irrigation channels by the Spaniards when they took the city back, sent to Spain, then lost at sea when the ship that carried it was sunk by a tropical storm. But surely the most interesting theory involves an incredible journey of Biblical proportion.

EXODUS

There’s a persistent tale handed down by descendants of the Aztecs in Costa Rica – it goes a little something like this:

When Cortés and his soldiers were driven from Tenochtitlan on La Noche Triste, the Aztec high Priests knew it would only be a matter of time before the Spaniards returned. They realize that they could not defend against the conquistador’s superior weapons forever – their civilization was doomed.

The priests dug up the body of their fallen leader, Montezuma, then led a procession of more than 2,000 men on a mass exodus in search a new land to the north, a land that would be safe from the barbaric Spaniards.

The priests took with them the collected treasures of the Aztec empire, tons of gold and silver in the form of sacred religious objects they would need to reestablish their once great civilization.

According to the legend, the treasure-bearing slaves traveled in a northwesterly direction for many moons, and when they came to a mountain on the edge of a desert, the treasure was hidden and the slaves put to death.

There is much disagreement about just how far north the exodus traveled, but certainly the most interesting theory circulating among the treasure hunting community is that the treasure was carried over two thousand miles to southern Utah… Yep, that’s right… Aztec treasure in Utah.

THE STRANGE STORY OF FREDDY CRYSTAL

According to legend, In 1920 Freddy Crystal, a miner and amateur treasure hunter was in Mexico city searching through an old church that had been tagged for demolition when he found a treasure map tucked inside a long forgotten manuscript.

The manuscript, written by a Spanish Friar at the time of the conquest of Tenochtitlan, stated that the map had been drawn using information gained during the torture of one of the original Aztec porters of Montezuma’s treasure, and if followed would lead directly to the cache. According to the manuscript the Spaniards tried for many years to follow the map but were unfamiliar with the territories to the North and eventually gave up in frustration.

Crystal had spent time in Utah several years before trying to decipher Aztec petroglyphs on the canyon walls, so when he saw the old map he realized that some of the landmarks depicted on it were similar to the geography of Southern Utah… or rather, one place in particular that was on the outskirts of a little town by the name of Kanab.

THE TREASURE HUNT OF THE CENTURY

Crystal made a bee-line back to Southern Utah where the map lead him to Johnson Canyon. He immediately found signs that he was in the right place, Aztec petroglyphs littered the area and clues on the map eventually directed him to an ancient set of stairs cut directly into the side of White Mountain.

Crystal followed the steps up to a sealed entrance which he broke down revealing a long dark corridor. On both sides of the corridor were ancient statues. Crystal thought he’d hit the jackpot – now he just needed help excavating the plethora of tunnels in the surrounding area; so he headed into the town of Kanab to try and recruit diggers.

The Kanabites were well aware of the Aztec petroglyphs in the area and had heard stories of Montezuma’s Treasure since they were kids, so when Crystal presented his collection of clues it started a veritable gold rush.

Johnson Canyon Tunnels
Many of the tunnels in Johnson Canyon are still accessible, though the Department of Oil Gas and Mining (OGM) announced recently that they were going to begin back-filling the tunnels. A Utah group called Gold Rush Expeditions is spearheading the drive to keep these historic tunnels open for future generations to explore.

Hundreds of people volunteer for the chance to participate in the greatest treasure hunt of all time. A coalition was organized by the town council in which people could volunteer a certain number of hours per week to the excavation in exchange for a share of the treasure; at one point as many as 75% of the population of Kanab was involved in the treasure hunt.

The excavation went on for almost three years, clearing deadfall after deadfall, finding relics and ancient items, but never the gold. Finally, with the tunnels all reopened and no gold found the townspeople drifted back to their day to day lives and forget about the tunnels up in Johnson canyon.

Some believe the treasure was actually buried at the base of White Mountain, which unfortunately is now buried under tons of rock and dirt from the Crystal excavations.

OTHER THEORIES ON THE TREASURE’S LOCATION

There are many other theories about what happened to Montezuma’s Treasure, but none of them are half as fun as the Utah theory:

The Grand Canyon

There are similar legends of Aztec Treasure in the Grand Canyon which you can read all about in this article called The Aztec Treasure Cavern, originally published in Treasure Magazine.

Lake Tezcuco

Some believe that when the inhabitants of Tenochtitlán got wind of the Spaniards return, they buried the remains of the city’s treasure in and around Lake Tezcuco to prevent it from falling prey to the gold-crazed Conquistadors. Today, a vast treasure trove may still remain hidden beneath nearly five centuries of mud and sludge on the outskirts of Mexico City, the modern day incarnation of Tenochtitlán. Generations of treasure seekers have sought the lost hoard without success. A former president of Mexico even had the lake bed dredged, but no treasure was found.

Guatemala

According to information first discovered by an archaeologist named Thomas Gann, Montezuma’s treasure was not sent north, but south into the jungles of Guatemala to keep it from the Spanish.

The Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine – Arizona

Some believe there’s a link between the Legendary Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine and Montezuma’s Gold. Jacob Waltz, (the Dutchman) found a source of pure, raw gold in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, a location geologists say is devoid of gold deposits. It’s this apparently lack of mineral evidence which has led some researchers to speculate that the Dutchman may have actually stumbled over Montezuma’s fabled Lost Aztec Treasure.

http://www.thelifeofadventure.com/montezumas-gold/#more-1145

Old cell phones are a gold mine | Made in Germany

Uploaded by deutschewelleenglish on Dec 14, 2011

Just about all Germans have three of four old mobile telephones lying about in a drawer somewhere. That's more than 72 million cell phones country-wide. But simply throwing them away is what's really wasteful. The electronic elements of cell phones contain valuable materials such as copper, silver, gold and rare earth metals which can earn their owners good money!Germans can sell their old mobiles on the Internet portal"Wir kaufens". The company that runs it, asgoodas, from Frankfurt-Oder receives more than 6000 cell phones a month. In the US and Britain, such opportunities have existed for a long time. Now the business is gaining momentum in Germany.

How To Buy Gold Bullion

If you are currently considering the purchase of gold bullion, you need to research your options and invest some time into gaining the knowledge necessary to make an informed decision. To do otherwise is an open invitation to becoming the victim of costly errors and serious consequences at the hands of gold scammers and hucksters.

Bullion consists of a quantity of a precious metal, usually gold, silver, platinum or palladium, assessed by weight and purity, usually cast as ingots, bars, or coins and sold by major banks and gold and silver bullion dealers. Almost all bullion will have a purity of greater than 90%.

Bullion coins, as distinguished from numismatic coins, are minted from precious metal, usually gold, platinum or silver, and bought for investment purposes from major banks, coin dealers, brokerage firms, and precious metal dealers. Their primary value is based on the content of precious metal contained in each item. Prices fluctuate constantly as trades are made on the world’s metal markets. Numbering among the best-known bullion coins are the American Gold Eagle, the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Australian Kangaroo Coin, and the progenitor of the bullion coin, the South African Krugerrand.

Investing in bullion or bullion coins can be a big, expensive decision. Consider the following points:

1. Know the items melt value. The weight of precious metal in any bullion or collectible coin is widely available. Just multiply the weight times the current spot price, and you will have the melt value.
2. Find a reputable financial advisor you trust who has specialized precious metals investment knowledge. Try finding other investors, and ask about their experiences.
3. Shop around. Most banks offer gold bullion, sometimes with a lower markup than dealers. For coins, you can search for other dealers who sell them or you can look at recent sales of the coins on EBay.
4. Get an independent appraisal of the specific item or assets you’re considering. The seller’s appraisal could be inflated.
5. Consider any additional costs associated with a bullion investment. Insurance may need to be purchased or a safe deposit box rented, or you may need to arrange for offsite storage to safeguard your bullion. These costs will cut into your bullion’s potential returns. Homeowner’s insurance may have limits on the amount of gold they will insure, or you may need an additional rider – you will need to check with your insurer. Check about bullion or jewelry insurance as a separate policy. You may get a better price compared to a rider on your homeowner’s insurance.
6. Be wary of buying bullion that won’t be delivered to you, but rather sent to a secured facility by the seller. Without taking delivery, how do you know the metal even exists, is of the quality described, or is properly insured.
7. Beware of sales pitches that minimize risk or claim that any written risk disclosures are mere formalities required by the government, and therefore unnecessary. Reputable sales reps are upfront about the investment risks involved with your purchase.
8. Refuse to be goaded into an immediate decision, regardless of the consequences. Remember, bullion is a commodity item, there is plenty of it out there, available from a large number of sources.
9. Research the seller. Enter the company’s name in a major online search engine. See if other people have something to say about their experiences purchasing from the company. Try to communicate offline if possible to clarify any details. In addition, contact your state Attorney General and local consumer protection agency. Checking with these organizations in the communities where promoters are located is a good idea, but realize that it isn’t fool-proof: it just may be too soon for someone to realize they’ve been defrauded or to have lodged a complaint with the authorities.
10. Ask for a guarantee or certificate of authenticity for the bullion’s precious metal content. Research the company behind the guarantee or certificate because certificates of authenticity can be faked.

Avoiding Scams and Rip-offs

Gold and silver bullion scams often involve false claims about value, content or rarity:

False Claims – An unscrupulous seller may overprice their coins, lie as to the bullion content, or pass off ordinary bullion coins as rare numismatically valuable collectible coins. Some fraudulent dealers may even try to sell coins that aren’t bullion coins at all or are only plated with gold. Others may try to sell bullion pieces produced by private mints with the same design as coins from the U.S. Mint and the mints of other governments, but in different sizes. Your best defense is to research the market and choose your seller carefully.

Leveraged Investment Scams – Leveraged investments are high-risk investments that can result in the loss of even more money than you originally invested. The typical scam features a telemarketer or website stating the the price of gold is set to skyrocket and that heir special “insider” knowledge with guarantee you significant profits. You need only put down small payment for the metal, maybe as low as 20 percent. This allows you to control more precious metal, and reap greater profits.

You have, however, borrowed money – perhaps as much as 80 percent of the metal’s purchase price – from a financial institution that claims it will hold the metal for you, and charge you monthly storage fees and interest charges. Instead of billing you directly for these fees , your equity in the investment will be reduced an equal amount. If your equity falls below a certain level (for example, 15 percent of the current market price), the financial institution will issue an equity or margin call, requiring the payment of additional funds to bring your equity to their minimum requirement. Failure or refusal to pay results in the lender selling the metal to pay off your loan. If the loan is not fully covered by the sale proceeds, you will get an additional bill for the difference.

Leveraged investments are high-risk because you are subject to equity calls if the price of the metal fails to increase sufficiently to offset accruing storage and interest charges.

http://goldbullionpurchaser.com/how-to-buy-gold-bullion/

Queen Of Sheba And Ethiopian Gold

Ethiopia has been an independent state since ancient times, being one of the oldest countries in the world. A monarchical state for most of its history, the Ethiopian dynasty traces its roots to the 10th century BC. Besides being an ancient country, Ethiopia is one of the oldest sites of human existence known to scientists today, having yielded some of humanity’s oldest traces, it might be the place where Homo sapiens first set out for the Middle East and points beyond.

Ethiopia has close historical ties to all three of the world’s major Abrahamic religions. It was one of the very first Christian countries in the world, having officially adopted Christianity as the state religion in the 4th century and it still has a Christian majority.

The area now that is now the country named Ethiopia was once called the Empire of Axum. The Axumite (Aksumite) Empire at its height extended across most of present-day Eritrea, northern Ethiopia, Yemen, southern Saudi Arabia and northern Sudan. The capital city of the empire was Axum (Aksum), now in northern Ethiopia.

Axum was an important trading nation in northeastern Africa, growing from the proto-Aksumite period ca. 4th century BC to achieve prominence by the 1st century AD. It was a major player in the commerce between the Roman Empire and Ancient India and the Aksumite rulers facilitated trade by minting their own currency. The state established its hegemony over the declining Kingdom of Kush and regularly entered the politics of the kingdoms on the Arabian peninsula, and would eventually extend its rule over the region with the conquest of the Himyarite Kingdom.

Under Ezana Aksum became the first major empire to convert to Christianity and was named by Mani as one of the four great powers of his time along with Persia, Rome, and China. In the 7th century the Muslims who originally converged in Mecca, sought refuge from Quraysh persecution in by travelling to Aksum which is known in Islamic history as the First Hijra. Its ancient capital is found in northern Ethiopia. The Kingdom used the name “Ethiopia” as early as the 4th century. It is also the alleged resting place of the Ark of the Covenant and the purported home of the Queen of Sheba.

Aksum is mentioned in the 1st century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea for its importance in trade, which was exporting throughout the ancient world, and states that the ruler of Aksum in the 1st century AD was Zoskales, who, besides ruling in Aksum also controlled two harbours on the Red Sea: Adulis (near Massawa) and Avalites (Assab) located in Eritrea. He is also said to have been familiar with Greek literature.

Aksum was deeply involved in the trade network between India and the Mediterranean. It benefited from a major transformation of the maritime trading system that linked the Roman Empire and India. This change took place around the start of the Common Era. The older trading system involved coastal sailing and many intermediary ports. The Red Sea was of secondary importance to the Persian Gulf and overland connections to the Levant. Starting around 100 BC a route from Egypt to India was established, making use of the Red Sea and using monsoon winds to cross the Arabian Sea directly to southern India. By about 100 AD the volume of traffic being shipped on this route had eclipsed older routes. Roman demand for goods from southern India increased dramatically, resulting in greater number of large ships sailing down the Red Sea from Roman rule in Egypt to the Arabian Sea and India.

The Empire of Aksum was the first African polity economically and politically ambitious enough to issue its own coins, which bore legends in Ge’ez and Greek. From the reign of Endubis up to Armah (approximately 270 to 610), gold, silver and bronze coins were minted. Issuing coinage in ancient times was an act of great importance in itself, for it proclaimed that the Axumite Empire considered itself equal to its neighbors. Many of the coins are used as signposts about what was happening when they were minted. An example being the addition of the cross to the coin after the conversion of the empire to Christianity. Ethiopia was the first country to print the

The 1st coin to use the cross. Struck after King Ezanas' conversion to Christianity in 330 AD

Christian cross on its coin. The presence of coins also simplified trade, and was at once a useful instrument of propaganda and a source of profit to the empire.

According to the Hebrew Bible, the unnamed queen of the land of Sheba heard of the great wisdom of King Solomon of Israel and journeyed there with gifts of spices, gold, precious stones, and beautiful wood and to test him with questions, as recorded in First Kings 10:1-13 (largely copied in 2 Chronicles 9:1–12).

2 Chronicles 9:1 And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

9 And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices great abundance, and precious stones: neither was there any such spice as the queen of Sheba gave king Solomon.

It is related further that the queen was awed by Solomon’s great wisdom and wealth, and pronounced a blessing on Solomon’s God. Solomon reciprocated with gifts and “everything she desired,” whereupon the queen returned to her country. The queen apparently was quite rich, however, as she brought four and a half tons of gold with her to give to Solomon (1 Kings 10:10).

In the biblical passages which refer explicitly to the Queen of Sheba there is no hint of love or sexual attraction between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The two are depicted merely as fellow monarchs engaged in the affairs of state.

The biblical text, Song of Solomon (Song of Songs), contains some references, which at various times, have been interpreted as referring to love between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. The young woman of the Song of Songs, however, continues to deny the romantic advances of her suitor, whom many commentators identify as King Solomon. In any case, there is little to identify this speaker in the text with the rich and powerful foreign queen depicted in the Book of Kings. The woman of the text of the song clearly does regard “The Daughters of Jerusalem” as her peer group.

Today gold remains one of Ethiopia’s main exports.

http://ethiopiangold.com/history/