Giving gifts is one of the ways we show our care for one another, especially at this time of year. However, perhaps more important than the material wealth of the presents we give, is the thought and meaning behind the gifts.

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Gold is famous as being among the gifts said to have been given to the baby Jesus by the three ‘kings’ or ‘wise men’ – and gold-coloured decorations are now synonymous with both Christian and secular celebrations of Christmas. Yet it is easy to forget that gold, frankincense and myrrh were an important part of the ritual practice in the ancient Levant. And of any culture in the ancient world, gold is perhaps most associated in the popular imagination with Pharaonic Egypt.

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In addition to being a sign of wealth and a preserve of the elite, gold had important religious connotations. Ancient Egyptian deities were visualised as having flesh of gold, hair of lapis lazuli (a bright blue semi-precious stone) and bones made of silver or iron. These are the impervious materials of divinity, the stuff of immortality. Where they are known, these are the materials most commonly used for divine cult statues in temple ritual. And they also provided a means, for those few who could afford it, to prepare most ostentatiously for the afterlife.

Gold does not merely symbolise divinity in ancient Egypt but actively effects it; divine power is inherent in precious metals. The application of gold leaf onto a mummy mask or coffin, or even directly onto the mummified flesh in the Graeco-Roman Period (c. 300 BCE – CE 200), was a way of assuring and asserting the divine status of the deceased. Frankincense and myrrh were also important ingredients in the deifying intention of the mummification process; and not simply as preservatives, as often assumed. Gold, then, was a means by which non-royal Egyptians might aspire to such divinity after death.

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It is in this sense that gold should be seen in the Christmas story – as a material appropriate for the birth and anointment of a divine king.

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Campbell Price

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Title image: Detail from ancient Egyptian gold pendant in the shape of a shell, with a cartouche of King Senwosret III and a uraeus on each side soldered in gold wire

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Additional image: The mask of a Graeco-Roman Period mummy from Hawara in Egypt, bearing the name Demetria. The mask covering the head and chest is made of linen and plaster, and is covered in gold leaf.