Ancient treasures from Spain revealed some artifacts that reportedly contained "alien metals." The gold-coated items were two objects -- a cap and a bracelet.
Ancient Treasures With Alien Metals
According to a new study, some artifacts in the ancient treasures unearthed in Spain were created 3,000 years ago using "alien metals." The scientists discovered two items in the Treasure of Villena, a collection of 59 gold-plated artifacts containing meteoric iron found in 1963.
Meteorites are composed of iron and nickel. Meteoric iron is a remnant of the early universe's protoplanetary disk.
The team estimated that the alien material came from a meteor that struck Earth one million years ago and was trapped in a gold-coated cap and bracelet.
The researchers noted that silicates, a salt consisting primarily of silicon and oxygen, are the major component of some forms of stony meteorites that include meteorite iron. They are made of an iron-nickel alloy with a changeable nickel composition greater than five percent by weight, which makes sense given that they are spacecraft.
Cobalt is one of the most important minor and trace elements they also include.
A comparable artifact was discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb, suggesting that the technique of crafting artifacts from fallen meteorites was widespread thousands of years ago.
The items were found by José Maria Soler, an archaeologist, and his colleagues in December 1963 while digging the "Rambla del Panadero," a dry river bed located seven miles from Villena.
Since then, the riches have been kept at the Museum of Archaeology in the city, which has made it possible for the latest analysis to reveal the alien metals.
The researchers measured the molecules in each piece, enabling them to search for signs of iron-nickel alloy. They discovered the bracelet contained 2.8 percent meteoric iron, and the cap had 5.5 percent.
"The iron technology is completely different to the copper-based metallurgy and to the noble metals (gold and silver)," said study senior author Ignacio Montero Ruiz, a researcher at Spain's Institute of History. "So, people who started to work with meteoritic iron and later with terrestrial iron must [have had to] innovate and develop new technology. However, the levels of nickel in terrestrial iron are generally low or very low and frequently not detectable in analysis."
Bronze Age Weapon Arrowhead Made From Iron Meteorites
In Switzerland, an antiquated weapon from the 1800s was discovered last year. It was constructed from components outside our planet -- iron that was collected from something that fell to Earth.
It wasn't even the closest meteorite to the settlement at the time. Rather, experts think it might have made it as far as Estonia.
Thus, the arrowhead provides evidence of both the usage of sky iron in the pre-ore smelting era and extensive trading networks that had to have existed thousands of years ago.
In Switzerland, geologist Beda Hofmann of the University of Bern and the Natural History Museum of Bern conducted a coordinated search for ancient meteoritic iron objects, and she could identify the item.
Since pure iron was hard to come by in the prehistoric past, our ancestors took advantage of the most accessible source: iron that fell from the sky like meteorites.
Iron meteorites are the most often found because they can withstand air entry pressure better than other types. They are primarily composed of iron, with trace amounts of nickel and other metals.
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