This archaic arrowhead might be made from iron that fell from space

Date:
Thu, 03 Aug 2023 19:00:00 +0000

Description:
There are only 55 meteoric iron objects in all of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Thomas Schpbach Meteoric metals were used as nifty materials before smelting was commonplace. The post This archaic arrowhead might be made from iron that fell from space appeared first on Popular Science .

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There are only 55 meteoric iron objects in all of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Thomas Schpbach

In the Late Bronze Age, humans learned to smelt iron, and things havent been the same since. Between 1200 and 1000 BCE, the movement of information stemming possibly from ancient Anatolia on how to utilize the metal and turn it into tools both led to more permanent settlements and put sturdy weapons
in the hands of lots of people for the first time in history .

But even before the Iron Age, which ended around 600 BCE, iron could still be turned into tools since the material can be found naturallymostly off of the planet , however. One example of such extraterrestrial iron, which was typically found in meteorites in conjunction with nickel or silicate
minerals, in tools was recently rediscovered in the depths of Switzerlands Bern History Museum. There, a team of archaeologists spotted an arrowhead
made with what they believe to be iron from a meteor. They published their findings recently in the Journal of Archeological Sciences .

[Related: A meteorite-hunting AI will scout for space rocks buried in polar ice .]

The 1.5-inch long, 2.9 gram arrowhead was originally discovered in the 19th century in a late Bronze Age lake dwelling community called Mrigen on Lake Biel about an hour drive from Bern. Archeological finds made from meteoritic iron are quite rare, the Bern History Museum wrote in a release there are
only 55 objects in all of Europe, Asia, and Africa, including King Tuts space dagger , and these all come from 22 sites.

The settlement of Mrigen is located a mere five miles from the location where the Twannberg meteorite struck earth around 150,000 years ago . Strangely enough, the meteorite, which was discovered only in 1984, couldnt have been the original source for this particular tool. After some analysis, the
authors found that the arrowhead itself was made up of 8.3 percent nickel, twice as much as the Twannberg meteorite holds. The tiny tool also is made up of a high content of geranium and a low concentration of aluminum-26. This hints that the meteorite was likely a IAB type and originally had a mass of
at least two tons.

Three such meteorites have hit Europeone in the Czech Republic, one in Spain, and one in Estonia. The authors estimate that the meteorite that couldve sourced this rare find is the Kaalijarv meteorite , which formed a giant crater on the Estonian island of Saaremaa around 1,500 BCE. This impact site, a 864-mile-journey through modern day Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, also suggests a complex trade and transport system could have been in place during this era. Now, its just a matter of finding the rest of the ancient gadgets and tools that couldve been made from space rocks long before anyone knew
what they were.

The post This archaic arrowhead might be made from iron that fell from space appeared first on Popular Science . Articles may contain affiliate links
which enable us to share in the revenue of any purchases made.



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Link to news story:
https://www.popsci.com/science/meteor-iron-arrowhead/


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