Jewelry made from metals of unearthly origin was found in a 3,000-year-old gold treasure

A 3,000-year-old golden treasure found in Spain contains jewelry made from metals of unearthly origin, scientists say. A new analysis of Villena’s treasure has revealed some features of “alien metals.” Researchers found two items, a headdress and a bracelet, containing such metals.

New analysis of ancient treasures discovered in Spain has revealed that some artifacts were made from “alien metals” 3,000 years ago.

According to the Daily Mail, scientists have conducted a new analysis of Villena’s treasure, consisting of 59 gold-plated objects found in 1963, and found that two of the objects contained meteorite iron.

Meteoric iron is the remnants of the protoplanetary disk of the early Universe, found in meteorites made of iron and nickel, explains the Daily Mail.

The gold-plated headdress and bracelet contained extraterrestrial material from a meteorite that the team estimates crashed into Earth a million years ago.

The study explained that meteoritic iron is found in certain types of rocky meteorites that are composed primarily of silicates—a salt made of silicon and oxygen.

“Because they came from space, they are composed of an iron-nickel alloy with a variable nickel content of more than five percent by weight,” the researchers write. “They also contain other minor and trace chemical elements, cobalt being one of the most important.”

Using fallen meteorites to make objects was a common practice thousands of years ago, as a similar artifact was found in Tutankhamun’s tomb.

The Villena treasure was discovered on the Iberian Peninsula, providing a glimpse into when humans made the transition from stone to bronze. However, the treasure most likely belonged to an entire community, and not just one royal family, writes the Daily Mail.

About 90 percent of the collection was made of 23.5 carat gold and includes eleven bowls, three bottles and 28 bracelets.

The artifacts were discovered by archaeologist José Maria Soler in December 1963, when he and his team were excavating a dry river bed called the Rambla del Panadero – about seven miles from Villena. The treasure has since been housed in the city’s archaeological museum, allowing new analysis to be carried out that revealed alien metals.

A team of scientists from Spain and Saudi Arabia measured the molecules in each of the fragments, allowing them to find traces of an iron-nickel alloy. Researchers discovered a headdress and bracelet that contained meteorite iron—the former made up 5.5 percent of the material, while the latter made up just 2.8 percent.

Senior study author Ignacio Montero Ruiz, a researcher at the Institute of Spanish History, told Live Science: “Iron technology is completely different from metallurgy based on copper and precious metals (gold and silver). So, the people who started working with meteoric iron and then with terrestrial iron have had to innovate and develop new technologies. However, nickel levels in terrestrial iron are typically low or very low and often undetectable in analysis.”

In 2016, researchers from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, the Politecnico di Milano and the University of Pisa unveiled a dagger intricately decorated and encased in a gold sheath, with a blade made from iron mined from a meteorite.

The team used a similar technique to study the composition of the metal, matching it to a meteorite called Kharga, which was found in 2000 on the Maras Matrouh plateau in Egypt, 150 miles west of Alexandria.

The dagger is considered one of the most outstanding objects that were recovered from the tomb of Tutankhamun, thanks to the fine workmanship of the metal. It was found in the sarcophagus of a young pharaoh. The hilt features fine gold embossing and a crystal pommel, while the scabbard features a floral motif, feather designs, and a jackal’s head.