Georgia

In Georgia, sheepskins are used to catch gold from river sand, which may explain an ancient Greek myth.

In the mountains of western Georgia, tiny grains of gold lie in the river sand. Sheepskins are laid in the current there, today as thousands of years ago. Sand and lighter material wash away, and the heavy grains of gold catch in the wool. In the end, the fleece glitters with gold.

In the Greek myth, the hero Jason sails with his men to Colchis, a kingdom in what is now Georgia, to fetch a fleece of gold guarded by a dragon. Some 2,000 years ago, a Greek geographer wrote that the myth was probably based on the method of laying sheepskins in the rivers. Georgian geologists who have studied the rivers have reached the same conclusion.