Commodity market in Sumer between 4500 BC and 4000 BC. Sumerians first used clay tokens sealed in a clay vessel, then clay writing tablets to represent the amount—for example, the number of goats, to be delivered. These promises of time and date of delivery resemble futures contract. Early civilizations variously used pigs, rare seashells, or other items as commodity money. Since that time traders have sought ways to simplify and standardize trade contracts. Gold and silver markets evolved in classical civilizations. At first the precious metals were valued for their beauty and intrinsic worth and were associated with royalty. In time, they
Ordo Aurum Solis by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips, made itself evident in the frescos painted by Giotto (1270-1337) and was also incorporated into the construction of the Baptistery at Florence. The initiatory structure of Ordo Aurum Solis consists of three "Halls", preceded by a special training in the "Circle of the Pronaos". The three grades associated with the Halls of the Order are as follows: Various initiatic traditions existed in ancient Greece. These were called "Mysteries". In Greece the Mysteries of Eleusis, Samothrace, Orpheus, and Dionysus were among the most important, and in ancient Rome and across its empire, the Mithraic and