Ancient people made iron from meteorites

Bronze Age residents used rare precious meteorites to make weapons and jewelry.

New research shows that, in the Bronze Age, some tribes took iron from meteorites to Earth to make things like weapons or jewelry, Newsweek reported on December 4.

Ancient people produced objects from rare and precious iron meteorites.(Photo: Newsweek).

Archeologists named each period of history based on the popular materials used by humans at the time. Archaeologists found a lot of bronze artifacts in the Bronze Age. By the time of Iron Age, people switched to iron for metal objects.

However, there are a few iron-made objects that were born long before the Bronze Age ended. Archaeologists feel quite confused because iron is more difficult to handle than copper. They don't think Bronze Age civilizations have the skills needed to make iron.

Albert Jambon, a mineralogist at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, conducts research on these special iron.

To turn ordinary Earth iron into a useful material, one needs to melt it. This is very difficult to implement because it requires high temperature and many other meticulous stages. Previously, copper was a popular material because it was easier to produce.

Jambon studied iron objects that appeared in the Bronze Age, when iron was more precious than gold, including a Syrian ax from 1400 BC and several bracelets in Poland from 700 BC.

The blade in the Egyptian pharaoh's tomb Tutankhamun is made of meteorite.(Photo: Daniela Cornelli).

He also compared research results with previously tested items, for example. Last year, scientists identified this dagger from meteorite iron.

Jambon analyzes these items to see what kind of iron they use. He observed the proportions of iron, cobalt and nickel elements to find the source of iron and discovered, all the objects that appeared before 1200 BC seemed to have originated in meteorites. Iron meteorite is harder to obtain than ordinary iron on the ground but much easier to handle.

This proves that early iron formation was not due to what ancient metal cooking techniques were held by the ancients. However, meteorite iron is still an extremely rare material. Archaeologists also found a number of meteorite iron artifacts in many parts of the world, including Greenland, eastern North America and Tibet.