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Could Museum's Gold Be From Ancient Troy?
from the Philadelphia Inquirer
The scientist had traveled from Germany to examine the ancient items that lay before him on the University of Pennsylvania laboratory table, and he was dazzled. Earrings with cascades of golden leaves. Brooches adorned with tightly coiled spirals. A necklace strung with hundreds of gold ringlets and beads.
The jewelry bore a striking resemblance to objects from one of the world's great collections--a controversial treasure unearthed long ago from the fabled city of Troy. Were the objects on the lab table also from the city that inspired Homer's epic poem of war?
Ernst Pernicka suspected they were, but he could not be sure. ... Pernicka, one of the world's foremost experts on ancient metals, had come to Penn's archaeology museum last February to rub off microscopic samples from the purported Trojan gold. He would then take them back to Germany for a high-tech analysis.
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