Within a collection of brilliant golden artifacts from the Iberian Bronze Age, a pair of oxidized items may hold the utmost significance.
Researchers have determined that a tarnished bracelet and a rusted, hollow hemispherical object, both adorned with gold, were not crafted from terrestrial metals but rather from iron derived from celestial bodies that impacted Earth.
This groundbreaking revelation, spearheaded by Salvador Rovira-Llorens, the former head of conservation at the National Archaeological Museum of Spain, was disseminated in a 2024 publication. It indicates that metallurgical expertise and methodologies in Iberia surpassed previous assumptions, dating back over three millennia.
The assemblage, identified as the Treasure of Villena and comprising sixty-six predominantly gold pieces, was unearthed more than six decades ago, in 1963, in the region now known as Alicante, Spain. It has since been recognized as a paramount example of Bronze Age goldsmithing on the Iberian Peninsula and indeed, throughout Europe.
An explanatory video summarizing these findings is available below:
The precise dating of this collection has presented challenges, largely due to two specific items: a small, hollow hemisphere presumed to be an element of a scepter or sword hilt, and a solitary bracelet resembling a torc.
Both of these pieces exhibit what archaeologists have characterized as a “ferruginous” aspect, suggesting their composition includes iron.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the advent of the Iron Age, marked by the transition from bronze to smelted terrestrial iron, did not commence until approximately 850 BCE.
However, the metallic components of the gold artifacts have been dated to the period between 1500 and 1200 BCE. This temporal discrepancy has rendered the placement of the iron-like artifacts within the context of the Treasure of Villena a significant enigma.
It is important to note that terrestrial iron ore is not the sole origin of workable iron. Throughout history, numerous pre-Iron Age artifacts have been discovered globally that were expertly crafted from iron originating from meteorites.
Perhaps the most renowned example is the dagger made from meteoritic iron belonging to Pharaoh Tutankhamun, though other Bronze Age implements crafted from this extraterrestrial material also existed and were highly esteemed.
A key differentiator exists: iron from meteorites possesses a significantly elevated nickel concentration compared to iron extracted from terrestrial sources.
Consequently, researchers secured authorization from the Municipal Archaeological Museum of Villena, the custodian of this collection, to perform meticulous analyses on the two artifacts to ascertain their nickel content.
Minute samples were carefully extracted from both objects and subjected to mass spectrometry to determine their elemental composition.
Despite the substantial degree of oxidation present, which can affect the elemental signature of an artifact, the analytical results strongly indicate that both the hemisphere and the bracelet were fashioned from meteoritic iron.
This finding elegantly resolves the chronological puzzle, aligning these two artifacts with the main body of the collection, as they are now dated to the same period, approximately 1400 to 1200 BCE.
“The available data suggest that the cap and bracelet from the Treasure of Villena would currently represent the first instances of meteoritic iron attribution within the Iberian Peninsula,” the investigators articulate in their study, adding that “this aligns with a Late Bronze Age chronology, predating the widespread adoption of terrestrial iron production.”
It is acknowledged that the advanced state of corrosion on these objects inherently limits the conclusiveness of the current findings. Nevertheless, the research team proposes that the application of more contemporary, non-invasive analytical techniques could yield a more comprehensive dataset, thereby fortifying these deductions.
These significant revelations were formally published in the academic journal Trabajos de Prehistoria.
