[SunkenCiv]

This Phoenician sculpture made of ivory was once gilded. Credit: Courtesy of Musée du Louvre/R. Chipault

[Moonman62]

IIRC, Greek statues were also painted.

[Inyo-Mono]

During a cultural anthropology class in college in the early 1970s, I learned that primitive people, and peasants worldwide, like bright painted colors which is why you see houses in Mexico painted bright yellows, blues, etc. As that view is not politically correct, it is likely no longer taught in college.

[kitchen]

Seeing that slab raises a question: have you come across any advances in determining the procedures the Greeks used to soften and peel ivory into large sheets which were then formed into pieces to clad monolithic statuary, viz. Zeus at Olympia?

[Bellflower]

Can gold be analyzed and determined where it originated from? Does all gold break down the same, or is it slightly different at a molecular level from location to location? It would be interesting to know where their gold came from. It would be fun to find out if some of it may have come from the Americas.