Odd Metal From Outside Earth Discovered in Golden Treasure Stash

In a cache containing shiny golden treasures that date back to the Iberian Bronze Age, some corroded objects could be the most valuable.

Treasure of Villena

The Treasure of Villena is a cache that consists of 66 objects that are mostly gold. It was found over 60 years ago, in 1963, in present-day Alicante, Spain. Since then, it has been regarded as a crucial example of goldsmithing in the Bronze Age in the Iberian Peninsula and throughout Europe.

However, it has been hard to determine the collection's age thanks to two odd objects. These are a hollow and small hemisphere that is believed to be part of a sword hilt or scepter as well as a torc-like bracelet. Archaeologists have described both of them as having a ferrous appearance, which means that they appear to consist of iron.

The Iron Age in the Iberian Peninsula only started around BCE 850. However, the issue lies with how the gold materials date to around BCE 1200 to 1500. Hence, finding out how the ferrous-looking findings fit into the story has been puzzling.

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Iron From Outside Earth

However, iron ore from the crust of the Earth is not the only place to source malleable iron. All over the world, there are several iron artifacts that date before the Iron Age. These were forged from meteorite stuff.

The most famous one might be Pharaoh Tutankhamun's meteorite iron dagger. However, there are also other weapons from the Bronze Age that consist of this material, making them highly prized.

These types of iron can be differentiated. Iron that comes from meteorites contains a higher nickel content compared to iron that is dug out of the ground on Earth. With this, researchers sought permission from the Municipal Archaeology Museum of Villena, which keeps the collection, to examine the artifacts and look into their nickel content.

The researchers carefully gathered samples and conducted mass spectrometry on the material to look into its composition. Despite being highly corroded, the results strongly posit that the bracelet and the hemisphere were made from iron from meteorites.

This solves the puzzle regarding how the artifacts match the treasure stash. They were made around the same era, dating back to roughly BCE 1200 to 1400.

The researchers note that the data available suggests that the two odd pieces from the Treasure of Villena could currently be the first two artifacts in the Iberian Peninsula that are attributed to meteoritic iron. This matches the Late Bronze chronology before the widespread start of terrestrial iron production.

The findings suggest that metalworking techniques and technology in Iberia over 3,000 years ago were remarkably more advanced than thought.

Due to the bad corrosion of the objects, the results remain inconclusive. Nevertheless, there are more non-invasive and recent methods that can be used on the objects to have a more detailed data set that could help in cementing the findings.