Study: Bronze Age ‘treasure’ was made with extraterrestrial metal

Researchers looking at a collection of necklaces, dinnerware and bottles from the Bronze Age have discovered that two of those artifacts were made in part using material that did not originate on Earth, according to Live Science

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The items, discovered in Spain decades ago, underwent analysis recently and researchers found that the items include meteoric iron.

The pieces “are the first objects found in the Iberian Peninsula that were made with material from beyond planet Earth,” NDTV reported.

The items, known as the Treasure of Villena and discovered by archaeologists in 1963, include 59 bottles, bowls and pieces of jewelry. The items are made of gold, silver, amber and iron.

When the items were discovered, researchers noted that some of the items were made with   “a dark leaden metal. It is shiny in some areas, and covered with a ferrous-looking oxide that is mostly cracked,” according to El País, a newspaper in Spain.

Scientists say that at least two of the items were made from material from a meteorite that hit Earth about 1 million years ago, according to a translated study published Dec. 30 in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria. The two items were made between 1400 and 1200 B.C.

Researchers have found a few artifacts that include meteoric iron from the first millennium B.C. including an arrowhead from 900 B.C. found in Mörigen, Switzerland, and a few objects from Poland from around 800 B.C., Live Science reported.

As for where the hoard’s artifacts came from, no one is quite sure. The items are part of the collection at the Archaeological Museum in Villena, Spain.

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