Three-thousand-year-old ‘Villena Treasure’ contains two items made from iron ‘outside of planet Earth’ | Culture

The Treasures of Villena is one of the most important sets of goldsmiths from the Bronze Age (2200–750 BC) on the Iberian Peninsula. It consists of 59 gold objects (including 27 bracelets and 11 bowls) and several silver and iron objects. It was identified in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler García after workers found various debris in a gravel quarry in Villena (Alicante). Its discovery has caused a huge scientific debate because it has no connection…

The Treasures of Villena is one of the most important sets of goldsmiths from the Bronze Age (2200–750 BC) on the Iberian Peninsula. It consists of 59 gold objects (including 27 bracelets and 11 bowls) and several silver and iron objects. It was identified in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler García after workers found various debris in a gravel quarry in Villena (Alicante). Its discovery has caused enormous scientific debate, since it has no relation to any of the archaeological sites in its vicinity, with the sole exception of the so-called Tesorillo de Cabezo Redondo (35 objects), found in 1963 also in Villena and including several similar ones gold coins.

Given its enormous value, the “Treasure of Villena” is kept in the city’s archaeological museum in an armored display case. Experts have always doubted whether it belonged to the post-Argaric period (1500-1300 BC) or to the last stages of the Late Bronze Age (8th century BC). Now research Meteoric iron in the Villena Treasure? Salvador Rovira-Llorens, Martina Renzi and Ignacio Montero-Ruiz, researchers respectively from the National Archaeological Museum, the Diriyah Gate Development Authority (Saudi Arabia) and the CSIC Institute of History, add impressive information thanks to the analysis of their metals: it was made in the Late Bronze Age ( 1400-1200 BC) from iron from a meteorite.

The key that leads some researchers to place the chronology of the complex in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age is the presence of two iron parts: a small hollow hemisphere covered with a sheet of gold, presumably interpreted as the finishing of a sword. handle and open bracelet. “These are the first objects found on the Iberian Peninsula made from this material from outside planet Earth,” experts say.

The handle is decorated with three stripes intersected by four parallel stripes forming four sectors and forming a four-pointed star. The bracelet is an open ring with rounded and somewhat flattened ends. Its discoverer described it as “a dark lead metal, shiny in some places, coated with iron oxide and mostly cracked.”

Only their analysis made it possible to determine that these were not products made from terrestrial iron, obtained as a result of the reduction of minerals existing in the mantle of planet Earth, “but extraterrestrial and made during the Late Bronze Age.” To obtain these data, two tiny extracts were made under the supervision of technical staff at the Alicante Museum and taken to the laboratory of the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid.

“Meteoritic iron is found in some types of aerolites coming from space and consisting of an iron-nickel alloy with a variable nickel composition of more than 5% by mass. They also contain other minor and trace elements, of which cobalt is one of the most important. In contrast, in terrestrial iron, nickel levels are typically low or very low and often undetectable analytically,” the study explains.

Iron is a material that oxidizes briefly in the presence of oxygen and water, forming oxides and hydroxides, giving it its characteristic brown rust. “Meteorite iron is no stranger to this phenomenon, so most objects made from it are in a very delicate state of preservation,” the study authors note.

Tutankhamun’s tomb

But every rule has its exception, and in this case it was discovered in one of the items from Tutankhamun’s tomb, in particular, in a recently re-analyzed gold-handled dagger, the blade of which barely shows signs of oxidation due to extreme dryness, which may have contributed to its excellent safety. However, the surface of other iron objects (16 miniature chisels) from the same tomb showed changes.

The first analyzes of the pen and bracelet at the National Archaeological Museum “clearly indicated the presence of iron and nickel, with very high peaks in the content of this latter chemical element. The cobalt peak was more questionable.” Therefore, the test was repeated again using the mass spectrometry method at the Curt-Engelhorn-Zentrum Archäometrie (CEZA, Mannheim, Germany). This technology is more sensitive than that used in Madrid, and as a result, “the cap may have been made of meteoric iron with a nickel content of 5.5%.” On the other hand, the bracelet contained only 2.8%, which is “a bit like meteorite iron.” For this reason, technicians Ernst Pernicka and Michael Brauns from the German laboratory offer new tests.

In any case, the conclusions obtained in Spain and Germany are unequivocal: “The results of analyzes carried out on pieces of iron from the Villena hoard indicate with a high probability that these are objects made of meteorite iron.” And they detail: “Evidence suggests that the cap and bracelet from the Villena Treasure would currently be the first two objects associated with meteoric iron in the Iberian Peninsula, consistent with a Late Bronze Age (1400-1200) chronology.” . BC)..c), before the widespread production of terrestrial iron began. The chronology of the abandonment of Cabezo Redondo (another treasure related to the Villena treasure) dates back to 1200 BC. C., and the relations established between them seem to be the best arguments for establishing a chronology.”

Ignacio Montero Ruiz of the CSIC Institute of History and one of the experts who signed the report concludes: “These two pieces of iron were of enormous value. For this reason, they were considered worthy to be part of this spectacular ensemble with numerous and elegant gold objects. Iron and gold are together, but iron is very special. “Who made them and where the material was obtained are questions that have yet to be resolved.”