3000-year-old ‘treasure’ made with extraterrestrial material, finds study

An ancient treasure was discovered in the Iberian Peninsula in 1963. Now, it seems like some of it is made with material that did not come from Earth.

The Treasure of Villena is one of the most important archaeological finds in Europe. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Treasure of Villena is called that because it is one of the greatest hoards of gold from the European Bronze Age ever discovered. It contains 59 objects made of gold, silver, iron, and amber. Now, a new analysis has revealed that this treasure contains metal that came from out of Earth.

New research published in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria says that two of the artefacts were made using metal that came from a meteorite that crashed onto our planet one million years ago. The analysis looked at two iron pieces — a hollow C-shaped bracelet covered in a sheet of gold and an open bracelet, according to Spanish newspaper El País. Both of them were dated to between 1,400 and 1,200 BC. Remember, that was before the Iron Age started in the region.

“The connection between gold and iron is important, as both elements have a great symbolic and social value. In this case, [the artefacts] were … probably hidden treasure that could have belonged to a whole community and not to a single person. There were no kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula at this historical period,” said study senior author Ignacio Montero Ruiz to LiveScience.

The researchers used mass spectrometry on the metal and found that traces of iron-nickel alloy were comparable to those found in meteoric iron. According to Ruiz, ironworking used a completely different technology compared to copper-based metallurgy, which was used for noble metals like gold and silver at the time. This implies that people that worked with meteoric iron had to innovate and develop new technology.

The researchers in the study claim that these are both the first and oldest meteor iron objects found in the Iberian Peninsula. But they cannot yet confirm who created the objects and where they came from.