Extraterrestrial materials in Bronze Age treasures

Behind a simple glass display case (bulletproof, of course) and inside a small museum in the south-east of Spain Villena’s Treasure, one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries of the Bronze Age. An extraordinary collection of 59 objects, most of them made of gold, although there are also silver, iron and amber, bordering on 10 kg precious material…a very high value, both historical and economic, which makes it the most important treasure in Spain and the second in all of Europe, surpassed only by the royal tombs of Mycenae in Greece.

The memory of this discovery dates back to the 1960s, when, amid the tourist boom in the province of Alicante, a mason found the first piece by chance among the construction works being carried out in the city of Villena. It was a beautiful gold bracelet that soon attracted the attention of local archaeologist José María Soler who began archaeological excavations at the site. The objects they managed to uncover were spectacular: bowls, vessels, pieces of fine metal…

Now, a recent study published in the magazine Prehistory Works indicates that those Bronze Age craftsmen, about 3,000 years agoNot only did he use gold and silver for his creations… he also took advantage of an unconventional material to create his jewellery.

They may not be the brightest objects in the collection, but two artifacts used in this treasure Iron originated from a meteorite that fell on Earth about a million years ago, A hemisphere with laminated gold inlay, possibly used as a hilt for a sword, and a bracelet made of iron from space… Two finds of extraterrestrial material from more than 3,000 years ago (between 1400 and 1200 BC) Amazing example.

To reach this conclusion, the authors of the study used mass spectrometry techniques, with which they found traces of iron and nickel alloys comparable to those found in other meteorites scattered around the world. The iron composition in both objects is very similar, which indicates that the material came from the same meteorite.

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The finding of iron from meteorites in Bronze Age objects is indeed an interesting fact and in fact, These two objects are now the oldest iron meteorites found in the Iberian Peninsula, Ignacio Monteiro Ruiz, lead author of the study, explains, “Working with meteorite iron, and later with terrestrial iron, requires completely different metallurgical techniques than metallurgical techniques based on copper, gold or silver. ” “The people who started working with this iron material were innovators who developed a new technology. “It’s an interesting example of how experimentation and curiosity were part of these past societies.”

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Scientific references and further information:

Salvador Rovira-Llorensa, Martina Renzib and Ignacio Monteiro-Ruiz “Meteorite iron in the Villena treasure?” Works of Prehistory (2024) DOI:10.3989/tp.2023.12333

Jennifer Nalewicki “Bronze Age ‘treasure’ was crafted from extraterrestrial metal” Live Science