Ancient human artifacts were made with extraterrestrial material, scientists say

Wow.

space iron

Talk about out-of-this-world glamor!

Researchers in Spain have found two iron artifacts from a treasure trove dating back to the Late Bronze Age (before humans widely began smelting iron) from a meteorite estimated to be around 1 million years old. It was discovered that it contains iron.

Researchers’ findings detailed in a paper published in the journal prehistoric trabajos Last year, researchers detailed the chemical composition of half of a hollow iron ball covered in fine gold filigree, likely part of an iron bracelet or ring.

Scientists have retrieved two artifacts from a nearly 3,000-year-old cache known as the Treasure of Villena, discovered in 1963 outside Villena, Spain, by Spanish historian and archaeologist José María Soler García. .

These two pieces of iron have always intrigued researchers and caused confusion about their chronology, since craftsmen made them “before the production of terrestrial iron began.” , the researchers said in their paper.

To finally settle these questions, researchers analyzed the debris using spectrometers, first in Spain and then in Germany. The results strongly suggested that the iron came from space.

Surprisingly, the configurations of the two artifacts are very similar, and both objects may be [have] They came from the same meteorite,” said Ignacio Montero Ruiz, senior author and researcher at the Spanish Historical Institute. live science.

meteor metallurgy

The use of iron meteorites in the ancient world and prehistoric times is not unheard of.

For example, researchers discovered an iron arrowhead in Switzerland and determined it was made from an iron meteorite 3,000 years ago.

And scientists believe King Tut’s dagger, discovered by archaeologists inside Tutankhamun’s tomb in the early 1920s, may also have been made from an iron meteorite.

Either way, the latest discoveries could shed new light on Bronze Age metallurgical practices.

“Iron technology is completely different from copper-based metallurgy and precious metals (gold and silver),” Montero Ruiz said. live science. “Thus, a person who started working with meteoric iron and then went on to work with terrestrial iron; [have had to] Innovate and develop new technologies. ”

Scientists are currently trying to determine the origin of the extraterrestrial material found in the two artifacts. This is a long-standing archaeological puzzle.

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