We all know that gold has industrial uses. But those won't appear for thousands of years. Mentioning that you can use gold in integrated circuits does nothing to explain gold in the Stone Age.
The fact that gold doesn't corrode explains why it is used for money and decoration. You don't want your decorations to tarnish, and you don't want your currency to degrade over time. When it comes to resisting time, you just can't beat gold.
Hmm... I think if gold had been cheap enough, the ancients would have used it for some practical purposes. Cooking and drinking vessels that didn't corrode, for instance. Also plating on iron and steel items to keep them from corroding (non-electro gold plating has been known since ancient times).
