Hello, I'm Neil McGregor, and in this series of podcasts, I'm looking at objects to see how shared beliefs have helped shape societies.

Now we're focusing on the theatre of faith, exploring the public ceremonies where whole communities come together to sacrifice and to celebrate.

In this episode, we're looking at giving to the gods,

or sometimes just lending to them.

This is the BBC.

Any good treasure hunt begins with a rumour

and a map of uncertain reliability.

And so it was for Sir Walter Raleigh in 1595. Hoping to curry favored with Elizabeth I, Rorye first, Rory set out to find the fabled

land of El Dorado. Somewhere in South America, Raleigh was sure, was a kingdom whose naked king was ritually covered in gold dust.

Boarding a raft heavy with gold and jewels, this king would then sail out into the middle of a lake,

and there would commit his treasures to the deep.

With the happy prospect of acquiring untold wealth and upsetting the Spaniards in the process,

Rawley set sail from Plymouth, first for the Azores

and then across the ocean for the Indies.

Rawley survived tropical heat,

Spanish spies and crocodile attacks,

only to return to England empty-handed.

It seemed that the legend of El Dorado, the golden man,

was just that, a legend. But astonishingly, the legend turned out to be true.

Eldorado did exist. Amongst the communities living in the land that later became Colombia,

lived the Moiska, a people whose leader, covered in gold dust, did indeed ritually plunge gold

and jewels into the waters of a lake, Lake Guatavita. In the 1580s, the Spaniards recovered and carried

...