In the Bronze Age, prospecting for gold was a lucrative but perilous profession. Miners returned from catastrophes describing a creature the size of a lion with the head and cruel beak of a giant eagle. The beast, they said, stood watch over seams of gold.

 

In antiquity, these creatures became a symbol of wealth and power. Soon, the symbol became detached from its origin and later generations mocked their ancestors for their superstition. 

 

Now that we think, again, that we can read the bones trapped in rock, we find the bones of what we now call protoceratops locked in the rocks near to veins of gold.

 

The stories were true. The stories were golden.