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Iron In Egyptian Relics Came From Space

ananyo writes "Researchers have found that a 5,000-year-old Egyptian trinket is made from a meteorite (abstract). The result explains how ancient Egyptians obtained iron millennia before the earliest evidence of iron smelting in the region, solving an enduring mystery. It also hints that they regarded meteorites highly as they began to develop their religion. The tube-shaped bead is one of nine found in 1911 in a cemetery at Gerzeh, around 70 kilometers south of Cairo. The cache dates from about 3,300 BC, making the beads the oldest known iron artifacts from Egypt. But the first evidence for iron smelting in ancient Egypt only appears in the archaeological record in the sixth century BC. Using scanning electron microscopy and computed tomography to analyze one of the beads, researchers found that the nickel content of this original metal was high — as much as 30% — suggesting that it did indeed come from a meteorite. Backing up this result, the team observed that the metal had a distinctive crystalline structure called a Widmanstätten pattern. This structure is found only in iron meteorites that cooled extremely slowly inside their parent asteroids as the Solar System was forming."

119 comments

  1. lies! by Swampash · · Score: 2

    It was the lizard men!

    1. Re:lies! by RabidReindeer · · Score: 1

      It was the lizard men!

      The Tritonian Ring!

    2. Re:lies! by applematt84 · · Score: 2

      Lizard men who traveled through a Stargate!

  2. Wait for it... by chinton · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Next on Ancient Aliens..." in 3... 2... 1...

    1. Re:Wait for it... by synapse7 · · Score: 1

      Evidence shows the ancient Egyptians were able to observe the "big bang".

    2. Re:Wait for it... by tonyx12 · · Score: 1

      "But he points out that later on, during the time of the pharaohs, the gods were believed to have bones made of iron." Just like Wolverine!

    3. Re:Wait for it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wolverine's bones were fused with Adamantium, not made of iron.

    4. Re:Wait for it... by Spritzer · · Score: 1

      I'm not saying ancient Egyptians were aliens, but...

    5. Re:Wait for it... by Nyder · · Score: 1

      "But he points out that later on, during the time of the pharaohs, the gods were believed to have bones made of iron."

      Just like Wolverine!

      Please turn in your geek card.

      --
      Be seeing you...
    6. Re:Wait for it... by tonyx12 · · Score: 1

      Agreed, but this was before they were smelting metal.

    7. Re:Wait for it... by voidphoenix · · Score: 1

      "But he points out that later on, during the time of the pharaohs, the gods were believed to have bones made of iron."

      Just like Wolverine!

      Please turn in your geek card.

      Since Adamantium is a steel alloy, he's not incorrect.

  3. It is said... by Ashenkase · · Score: 5, Funny

    That only the Egyptian women would search for and collect meteorites for such jewellery.

    These "Iron Maidens" would run to the hills, locate a meteorite, perform a customary dance of death and return to their camps 2 minutes to midnight due to a widespread fear of the dark.

    1. Re:It is said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ROTFLWDAM

    2. Re:It is said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You forgot to mention the metorite fell from aces high ;).

    3. Re:It is said... by stiggle · · Score: 1

      Why did they have to become a Powerslave to the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son?

    4. Re:It is said... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      Hah, the next thing you'll try to make us believe is that they were walking like Egyptians while doing so.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    5. Re:It is said... by shadowofwind · · Score: 1

      Wasted years, but at least they were running free instead of wasting love back in the village.

    6. Re:It is said... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention that these "Iron Maidens" came out of the shadows to run to the hills.

    7. Re:It is said... by laejoh · · Score: 2

      No one knows who they were or what they were doing But their legacy remains Hewn into the living rock...

    8. Re:It is said... by tonyx12 · · Score: 1

      ...so that they can be back home for dinner with Iron Man (stark) who might be finally starting to be Afraid to shoot Strangers

  4. Yeah, but by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...where did they get all that naquadah?

    1. Re:Yeah, but by DrStrange66 · · Score: 1

      ...where did they get all that naquadah?

      Through the Chapa'Eye of course.

  5. Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The stone dropped from millions of miles away in the Solar System onto the land of a civilization that was relatively advanced for the time, so they developed it into jewelry that somehow survived 5,000 years before tourists arrived to deface it with grafitti.

    1. Re:Amazing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      somehow survived 5,000 years before tourists arrived to deface it with grafitti.

      Just wait another 1000 years and the graffiti will be a relic too. "Who knows Dr. Jones. In a thousand years even you may be worth something".

    2. Re:Amazing by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Funny

      a civilization that was relatively advanced for the time

      ...then they undertook a huge involvement into religion...

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    3. Re:Amazing by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Or perhaps you need to. One of the most disruptive periods socially and economically in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh Akhenaten's foray into monotheism (one of the first, if not the first) with Atenism. Hoards of resources were wasted on mammoth projects which were abandoned almost immediately after Akhenaten's death, and it would take generations to heal the damage of the schism which ultimately unseated the dynasty. Religion in Egypt has catalyzed both its greatest successes and failures, and it would behoove a wise student of history to study both and contrast them.

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      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    4. Re:Amazing by tyrione · · Score: 1

      Or perhaps you need to. One of the most disruptive periods socially and economically in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh Akhenaten's foray into monotheism (one of the first, if not the first) with Atenism. Hoards of resources were wasted on mammoth projects which were abandoned almost immediately after Akhenaten's death, and it would take generations to heal the damage of the schism which ultimately unseated the dynasty. Religion in Egypt has catalyzed both its greatest successes and failures, and it would behoove a wise student of history to study both and contrast them.

      Then your argument should be that when they diverted from Polytheism to ill-fated Monotheism the great civilization sealed its fate.

    5. Re:Amazing by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 2

      Civilization doesn't turn on one axis. Egypt had decent periods after Amarna, indeed the consequent 19th dynasty that followed included Ramesses the Great. Good periods neither negate nor exculpate bad periods, but it does not follow that negative events necessarily beget more of the same, or no civilization could or would exist. There is always room for reversal of fortune in either direction.

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      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    6. Re:Amazing by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      state driven monotheism is like dictatorship.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  6. Oh for crying out loud... by geminidomino · · Score: 1

    Dammit, O'Neill, we told you not to use that damn thing during Solar Flare activities. And tell Carter that the kitschy iron-bead jewelry is NOT part of her uniform!

  7. Obligatory Stargate Reference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    So, when do we get to see the Stargates?

    1. Re:Obligatory Stargate Reference by rossdee · · Score: 1

      Only one was in Egypt, the other one was in Antarctica

  8. Doesn't everything come from space? by schwit1 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The Egyptians already made use of glass from an impact:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHEbg2b5wYs

  9. In the grand scheme of things by mmcxii · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Everthing on Earth came from space.

    The idea that a civilization would use a rock that fell from space to make some trinkets doesn't seem too earth shaking to me.

    1. Re:In the grand scheme of things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Depending on the size of the rock, I would think it would actually be earth-shaking. Mostly at the time of landing.

    2. Re:In the grand scheme of things by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everthing on Earth came from space.
      The idea that a civilization would use a rock that fell from space to make some trinkets doesn't seem too earth shaking to me.

      It's not. The summary and the article are just being a bit overly sensational. It wasn't a "mystery", we just didn't have any really solid proof up 'till now.

    3. Re:In the grand scheme of things by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Of course it isn't. That they had some means of smelting iron ore so early would be though.

      Showing that these particular iron items aren't in fact evidence of that is useful information gathering.

  10. Man oh man... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The Ancient Alien guys are going to be insufferable now.

    1. Re:Man oh man... by stefpe · · Score: 1

      *Now*?

  11. Obligatory by Nidi62 · · Score: 2
    *crazy hair*

    "I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens"

    /crazy hair

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
    1. Re:Obligatory by www.sorehands.com · · Score: 1

      It was the giant aliens.

    2. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No,no, no. This is definitive proof that the Egyptians could travel in space. Now we just need to figure out how to start the damned pyramids so we can fly to other planets.

    3. Re:Obligatory by Canazza · · Score: 1

      Weren't they Peruvian?

      --
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
    4. Re:Obligatory by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1

      No, the pyramids are the landing platforms, not the ships.

    5. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You jest and I chuckle...

      But one can assume that if they new the gods came from space and they actively searched out rocks from space in veneration of these gods.

      Might they not have been visited by the gods or observed them. To create this kind of veneration?

      Then again, shiny lights from space is enough on its own. But how do they know that it was specifically meteorites they were looking for. That the shiny lights weren't something else...

      One would assume they had some measure of knowledge to put two and two together.

    6. Re:Obligatory by poity · · Score: 1

      you can't stop crazy hair with close tags

      --
      your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
    7. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were visited by the Gods.

      Sometimes the Gods would reach out from the clouds to touch the ground. Later in history people called this "lightning".
      Sometimes the Gods would just wander across the sky and not directly interact with the Earth. Later in history people called this "comets".

      But sometimes the Gods would actually pay them a visit. They knew it was the gods because they would see the Glory of their Wonder manifest as brightly colored streaks of light in the sky, followed by blinding flashes of light and deafening sounds, which caused All Who Were Not Worthy and stood too close to fall to the ground, dead. After the Gods had left, the people would come close and often find strange rocks with Holy Metals in them, no doubt left behind by the Gods as a Gift for the Faithful. Later in history people called these "meteorites".

    8. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your over simplifying people who had government, written language, a priest class that was secretive. Conscripted military. An understanding of celestial phenomena.

      These were not simple cave dwelling neolithics.

    9. Re:Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you are an idiot, taking a theory that happens to fit your imaginative intrepretation of the facts and twisting those facts until it fits. Occam's Razor: it is much less likely to be some super intelligent race of alien beings, and much more likely to be people worshipping the forces of nature.

  12. This is just a confirmation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Archaeologists have been theorizing about this for ages. In 1989 for instance they were speculating on meteorites being the source of iron in this paper.

    Significantly the word ‘Bja’ meaning iron in ancient Egyptian also meant the ‘material of which heaven was made'.

    1. Re:This is just a confirmation by blane.bramble · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wouldn't that make the paper really heavy and inflexible?

  13. Ha ha by sunking2 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Who's the pyramidiots now.

  14. Pyramids by shione · · Score: 1

    How about that iron pick they found inside one of the blocked passageways inside the Pyramids. Did they ever solve where that came from?

    1. Re:Pyramids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That obviously also came from space. Because they couldn't smelt iron ore could they. Obviously this is just more evidence that aliens built the pyramids.

    2. Re:Pyramids by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

      If the aliens were using iron picks to build the pyramids, they must have kind of lame as space faring civilizations go. Just sayin.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    3. Re: Pyramids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hell all those egyptians must have freaked out when the seen one of us from the future getting off the ship since we built a time machine that actually worked in 2025

  15. this isn't news by stenvar · · Score: 1

    The fact that meteoric iron has been used for artifacts has been known for a while:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoric_iron

    1. Re:this isn't news by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      The funny thing is that it was in a book on Egyptology that I learned about the existence of meteoric iron as a child - in connection with Tutankhamun's iron dagger (18th dynasty, 14th century BCE).

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
  16. Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by jzarling · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Did all these rocks fall from the sky, maybe, but, could some have been brought by ancient astronauts, as gifts to the native population?

    --
    It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
    1. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Occam's Razor says hell to the no. Besides which I would wager if some extraterrestrial intelligence wanted to leave something behind it would be more than space gravel.

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      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    2. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by mveloso · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Occam's Razor is a cheap parlor trick used by the mentally lazy to dismiss, well, everything.

      If you said "billions and billions of random events occurred to create anti-entropic self-organizing entities" people would say "well, Occam's Razor says no." And yet here we are.

    3. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not saying it was aliens..

      But it was aliens.

    4. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by earlzdotnet · · Score: 1

      I believe in the Doctor Who theory. Obviously he got a few chunks of meteorites, brought them to the Egyptians for some crucial purpose, and left them. I mean really, how else do you think they found so many?

    5. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by dpidcoe · · Score: 1

      It wasn't aliens.

      The Egyptians were obviously an advanced spacefaring culture and flew up to harvest the meteorite metal themselves. Eventually they left the solar system and erased the obvious signs of their advanced technology in order to troll future generations.

    6. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      That's a misuse. In the first place, Occam's Razor is comparative. It postulates that out of a spectrum of possible explanations, the simplest is more likely to be correct. So unless you have a more simple explanation for the panoply of evidence in physical reality for life, then the consensus on its purported origins is not denied by Occam's Razor.

      (Though in truth I doubt you understand what underlies all that, since you characterize life as 'anti-entropic' which is wholly false because you probably have some half-baked philosophical interpretation of entropy that has nothing to do with the reality of entropy as principle in physics. Here's a hint: entropy != chaos and the opposite of entropy is not "order" or "organization". These are just philosophical conceits that human beings have arbitrarily invented to understand their sensory memories.)

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      I support the Slashcott and will not be reading or commenting from 2/10/14 to 2/17/14. Beta is steaming pile of dog shit
    7. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by femtobyte · · Score: 1

      If you said "billions and billions of random events occurred to create anti-entropic self-organizing entities" people would say "well, Occam's Razor says no."

      If you said that in a world where we have no evidence for such self-organizing principles to occur, then that would be a crazy leap to make. But, in our world, we have abundant data for self-organizing systems developing and increasing in complexity. Specifics in a few gaps are missing, but the overall framework is certainly there for explaining the generation of life from "chance interactions" between organic precursor molecules demonstrated to form "spontaneously" under early-earthlike conditions. "Occam's Razor" calls for explaining all the *known data* with a "minimalist" set of additional assumptions --- do you have a better "minimalist" explanation for our currently known data backing our understanding of chemistry, biology, evolution? Note, saying "the great invisible space lemur did it" isn't particularly "minimalist," since you've just required introducing a very complex and powerful entity with little empirical support.

    8. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by cyborg_zx · · Score: 1

      No.

      We know meteorites abundant with iron are out their floating about. We know they sometimes crash to Earth.

      We don't know if there are any alien life forms out there. We don't know if they've visited Earth. We don't know if they'd have any interest in leaving bits of iron about that look like iron from meteorites.

      Occam's razor - choose the simplest.

      The simplest explanation does not invoke things we've never seen before to explain the phenomena. Therefore aliens go home.

    9. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by Bengie · · Score: 1

      Some currently theorize that life increases the rate of entropy in system with very low entropy. You also have the whole "literally anything could happen in our universe because of quantum-randomness". Our life could be just a random occurrence with low probability.

    10. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by OneAhead · · Score: 1

      Second law of thermodynamics: anti-entropic processes don't exist.
      Also, you don't seem to understand Occam's razor; see the other replies. Now hand in your geek card, thank you very much.

    11. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Occam would never have come up with Special Relativity, Quantuum Theory, or well, anything really.

      Keep your dull razor.

    12. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 1

      If you said "billions and billions of random events occurred to create anti-entropic self-organizing entities" people would say "well, Occam's Razor says no." And yet here we are.

      Unless you have a simpler explanation, Occams Razor says Yes.

    13. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by ElectricTurtle · · Score: 1

      Occam is a place, not a person, after William of Ockham of which Occam is more 'Latin' variant spelling. And Occam's Razor is an integral component of the logical framework of empiricism that led the way to philosophical naturalism and the scientific method itself. It was people looking for elegant simplicity that came up with some of the most fundamental laws of nature like Newton and Boyle. Newton, indeed, was recorded restating Occam's Razor as one of his own personal axioms for intellectual investigations. So, vicariously, "Occam" came up with *a lot* really.

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    14. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      "billions and billions of random events occurred to create anti-entropic self-organizing entities" is the simpler explanation that "God did it". So no, Occam's Razor would side with your example out of those two reasonably commonly proposed explanation.

    15. Re:Giorgio Tsoukalos asks... by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Occam's razor isn't supposed to come up with anything. It's supposed to help choose between competing explanations.

      Special Relativity wins according to Occam's razor against all the alternative explanations I've heard (remember the competing explanations have to explain the observations equally well - if one better fits the data you have no need for the razor in the first place).

  17. Let's just get this out of the way... by Ixtl · · Score: 5, Informative

    ALIENS DID NOT BUILD THE FUCKING PYRAMIDS. Erich von Däniken is still an idiot. The Egyptians just made something out of this cool space rock they found. It does not mean that ancient astronauts killed JFK.

    1. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Then explain Dick Cheney... He has to be from out space.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    2. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      well of course ancient astronauts didnt kill JFK, it was the ancient astronauts great great great great......great great grandkids! The ancients died milenia ago!!

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    3. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

      No, he is totally a a sub-terrestrial from the darkest depths of the earths blackened heart.

    4. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      ALIENS DID NOT BUILD THE FUCKING PYRAMIDS.

      Technically, the Hebrew slaves built the pyramids. And as the Hebrews came from a far-away land, led there to escape famine by Joseph, who made them promise to take his bones with them when they returned to Canaan... you could say that the Hebrews were aliens in Egypt. As for the fucking part, there must have been quite a lot of that going on as well, because they went from being 12 brothers and their families to the 600,000 men, besides women and children, who left Egypt in the exodus. Therefore:

      Aliens Did Build the Pyramids
      Some Fucking Required to Generate Sufficient Numbers to Accomplish the Task

    5. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by cyborg_zx · · Score: 2

      Technically, the Hebrew slaves built the pyramids.

      Eh... probably not that either. There's no particular evidence for their existence in Egypt. Exodus using Egypt is like using the USA in the plot of your Evil Empire narrative - it works because everyone knows the players.

      And before you dismiss that as ridiculous just remember that there are people out there who seriously believe that native Americans are the lost tribe of Israel.

      And white.

    6. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by tmosley · · Score: 1

      But the people who built the pyramids weren't slaves (not to mention that the pyramids were built in a different era) http://news.discovery.com/history/ancient-egypt/pyramids-tombs-giza-egypt.htm

      Also, it is likely that the Hebrews were never slaves, rather they were kings, though they were expelled from Egypt after their dynasty failed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos

    7. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by MiniMike · · Score: 1

      Your statement is not sufficient to convince those who have built up an entire industry based on fleecing gullible morons.

      The people who actually believe that alien-pyramid tripe are generally not the type to be reading a website related to technology, unless it's something like transmuting pig crap into gold. Any argument which relies on elements such as "facts," "logic," or "evidence" is unlikely to sway them.

    8. Re:Let's just get this out of the way... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, he is totally a a sub-terrestrial from the darkest depths of the earths blackened heart.

      Oh my god, he's an underpants gnome! The missing link!

      1. Steal Underpants
      2. War in Iraq
      3. Profit!

  18. well duh by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

    everything on Earth came from space...

  19. I always thought this was common knowledge by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

    I always thought it was common knowledge that the iron used in various artifacts that predates iron smelting the the region came from meteorites. I don't know what culture I ran across that was doing it (Indian, Mesopotamian, Germanic, Egyptian, Chinese, etc.) but it doesn't seem like a stretch that if one culture figured out that a metallic rock could be heated and pounded into something that others cultures couldn't, especially since most of those cultures were already working with copper, gold "rocks" so why not try with this harder metal rock. From what I remember reading an iron sword in these bronze age or pre-bronze age (copper and gold as the primary metal used but past neolithic status) was a kingly gift as it was very rare, substantially more durable, had greater edge holding ability, and would go a significant way through a copper or bronze sword.

    --
    Time to offend someone
    1. Re:I always thought this was common knowledge by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      It should be, but some historians are incredibly arrogant or inflexible toward the introduction of new knowledge. Mention the water-based weathering around the Sphinx, suggesting the site is much older than originally thought, and watch the establishment cover their ears and ignore you.

    2. Re:I always thought this was common knowledge by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I thought that the exact nature of the weathering around the Sphinx is still contentious (as in, not completely conclusive)? Using the word "establishment", as far as I've been able to observe, is a shibboleth of conspiracy theorists.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re: I always thought this was common knowledge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read somewhere that the first Europeans exploring the north west passage encountered Inuit equipped with bits of ironware. Intrigued as to where they had obtained this, they were led to an iron meteor.

    4. Re:I always thought this was common knowledge by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      One of the arguments against the advanced age hypothesis is that there were no known civilizations with such grand structures. Since then, we've discovered GÃbekli Tepe, which is about 11,000 years old. Another argument is that the erosion is from the wind; however, wind erosion would be horizontal, whereas water erosion is vertical.

      It should be noted that Zahi Hawass was booted from his position due to his close ties to the Mubarak family. There is a very good chance that, once Egypt gets its act together with its new govt., there could be expanded research in the area.

      To me, it does not seem all that outrageous to suggest that at least the site of the Sphinx could have older origins (personally, I'm indifferent to the age of the Sphinx itself).

    5. Re:I always thought this was common knowledge by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      I'm not all that conversant with the details, but if the Sphinx is indeed supposed to be so old, where are the necessary living quarters and funeral places of the people who worked on it? You'd expect *something* to be associated with a significant population of workers...pottery shards, damaged tools thrown away, animal bones, remains of bakeries, garbage pits, *some* artifacts or traces of human activity in the landscape, datable back to the period in question using stratigraphy, artifact typology, or radiocarbon dating. Where are these finds? Or was it built by aliens?

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    6. Re:I always thought this was common knowledge by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 1

      There are some areas that no one has been allowed to dig in. But yes, good question.

  20. regarded meteorites highly as religion developed by Trax3001BBS · · Score: 1

    The direct quote

    hints that they regarded meteorites highly as they began to develop their religion.

    The Black Stone; Although it has often been described as a meteorite, this hypothesis is now uncertain.

    The Black Stone is the eastern cornerstone of the Kaaba, the ancient stone building toward which Muslims pray, in the center of the Grand Mosque in Mecca,
    Saudi Arabia. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of Adam and Eve.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone

  21. Iron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Two item: 1) They were smelting iron in the Lake Region of Africa (Rwanda) thousands of years ago. So it is possible that the Egyptian either knew how or they could of traded for it if they needed iron. 2) The Egyptian used iron from Meteor for sacred purpose. It was important to them that this iron came from the stars/heaven. The item was made of Meteor iron not because the Egyptian couldn't smelted iron but because it was important that the object be sacred.

    1. Re:Iron by Guido+von+Guido+II · · Score: 3, Informative

      Two item: 1) They were smelting iron in the Lake Region of Africa (Rwanda) thousands of years ago. So it is possible that the Egyptian either knew how or they could of traded for it if they needed iron. 2) The Egyptian used iron from Meteor for sacred purpose. It was important to them that this iron came from the stars/heaven. The item was made of Meteor iron not because the Egyptian couldn't smelted iron but because it was important that the object be sacred.

      Iron smelting in Africa dates back to somewhere in the range of 1500-1750 BC (see Google books link and wikipedia link on the topic). However, per the Nature article the artifact in question dates back to about 3300 BC, over a thousand years earlier. So at the time point 1 is invalid (at least based on present evidence). Point 2 seems pretty likely, though.

  22. STARGATE !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Never seen but read the all the books !!

    1. Re:STARGATE !! by camperdave · · Score: 1

      There's books? I ain't even halfway through the fourth season of Stargate SG1 (let alone its spinoffs) and now you're telling me there's books I gotta read too?

      I suppose next you'll be telling me there's comic books and graphic novels as well. Will this never end?

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    2. Re:STARGATE !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The books are based on the originating movie, rather than the show.

  23. Semens of the gods... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Actually, I've heard Egyptologists mention in passing that the Egyptians referred to iron as "semen of the gods" because it came from the sky. It's good when the physics provides confirmation of the translations.

  24. Re:regarded meteorites highly as religion develope by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And you see what religion does to people. A single core drill would be able to resolve the issue. But no, it's supposed to be holy, not holey! We can't do that!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  25. Wait.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait... I thought the Egyptians created everything using the amazing occult powers of the Pythagorean Theorem that they could only get from space aliens...

    1. Re:Wait.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pythagoras was Greek and lived well after 3300 BC. The Egyptians knew about specific instances of Pythagoras' theorem (e.g., ropes cut in 3:4:5 proportions in order to square up, for example, pyramid corners) but they never developed the general theory.

  26. Nope by aepervius · · Score: 1

    beside the lack of evidence of alien, why would they use meteoritic iron with a high percentage of nickel, and not highly purified steel or something solid ? This is the same bullshit as with "ancient alien building pyramide". Why the heck would they use local stone material, using locally known method of transportation and cutting, instead of modern method of cutting and transprotation, or even modern material ?

    The simplest explanation is that "they" did not, there was no alien, jsut the locals using what they had available. And tehre is no evidence to the contrary.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:Nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      beside the lack of evidence of alien, why would they use meteoritic iron with a high percentage of nickel, and not highly purified steel or something solid ? This is the same bullshit as with "ancient alien building pyramide". Why the heck would they use local stone material, using locally known method of transportation and cutting, instead of modern method of cutting and transprotation, or even modern material ?

      Why did the European colonists use cheap beads, blankets, mirrors and similar trinkets to curry favour with the indigenous Americans? Why did those same colonists build primitive cabins using locally obtained materials rather than building massive stone edifices such as were prevalent in Europe at the time?

      If you are going to speculate on the behaviour of aliens without evidence of their existence, at least do the speculation reasonably. It would be perfectly reasonable that they might have used meteoric iron and locally quarried stone. It would be very likely that, as colonists or explorers, they did not bring all of the infrastructure to support the production and use of their more advanced materials and methods. That is, after all, the way we humans approached our exploration and colonisation. We took a very small subset of our infrastructure with us and slowly, over generations, bootstrapped a local infrastructure to very nearly match what had developed over centuries. But it had to start with use of comparatively primitive tools, materials and methods.

      The simplest explanation is that "they" did not, there was no alien, jsut the locals using what they had available. And tehre is no evidence to the contrary.

      This is the most relevant part of your post.

  27. Really old story by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I saw this in a documentary maybe 10 years ago. I couldn't tell enough from the article to know what was new besides being a study on one specific trinket.

    Slightly OT, but one of the theories posited in Carl Sagan's Comet was that magic swords were historically crafted from meteorites composed of a higher grade of iron than could be smelted/mine/whatever at the time. The magic came from how much better they performed in battle and having been dropped to earth from the heavens.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
    1. Re:Really old story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As far as I'm aware, the iron used in a sword would be heated and beaten with a hammer, until it was the desired shape, then it'd be sharpened and used. Heating and quenching is directly related to the strength of the blade itself, although I don't know why.

  28. Siderurgy by Docasman · · Score: 2

    Doesn't the greek word for iron mean something like "came from the sky"? I've once thought about why the modern iron industry is often called siderurgy, and came across a few references for the use of iron from meteorites, as early technology wasn't sufficient to extract it from the ore.

    1. Re:Siderurgy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A few posts up it's listed as "semen of the gods". So depending on your definition of "came", you're correct.

  29. Mr. Obvious reminds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Everything on earth came from space.

  30. Horus by Pharoah_69 · · Score: 0

    [monotheistic] God be praised to the House of Horus.

  31. Not news by Eddy_D · · Score: 1

    Anyone who has played Serious Sam already knows that Egyptian relics come from space.

    --
    - I stole your sig.
  32. Just a theory... by billstewart · · Score: 1

    So you're saying they had televisions with time travel built in?

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  33. Other cultures used meteoric iron by billstewart · · Score: 1

    The Inuit's primary source of iron was meteors (which are relatively findable in snowy low-vegetation areas), and researchers in the Antarctic have also found them.

    --

    Bill Stewart
    New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
  34. The sixth centure BCE? Really? by whitroth · · Score: 2

    Then the Egyptians must have been *real* hicks....

    Excerpt:
    The Hittites appear to be the first to understand the production of iron from its ores and regard it highly in their society. They began to smelt iron between 1500 and 1200 BC and the practice spread to the rest of the Near East after their empire fell in 1180 BC.[37] The subsequent period is called the Iron Age. Iron smelting, and thus the Iron Age, reached Europe two hundred years later and arrived in Zimbabwe, Africa by the 8th century.
    --- end excerpt ---
    - wikipedia, iron, history

  35. So Robert Howard had it right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ObURL: http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=robert+howard+conan+meteoric+iron

    ~childo

  36. Re:regarded meteorites highly as religion develope by hawkfish · · Score: 1

    And you see what religion does to people. A single core drill would be able to resolve the issue. But no, it's supposed to be holy, not holey! We can't do that!

    Um, the same thing that art does to them? Or do you think it is OK to drill holes in the Mona Lisa?

    And before you start going on about how "religions are different, scientists get to take small samples of artworks, etc" go look into how the Vatican reacted to requests to take samples for dating the Shroud of Turin. Surprise! - they allowed it as long as it wasn't destructive.

    --
    You will not drink with us, but you would taste our steel? - Walter Matthau, The Pirates
  37. Re:regarded meteorites highly as religion develope by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

    Even keeping the stuff is destructive. The only thing that would ensure no further destruction would be destroying it completely right now. Or did I miss something and they put Mona Lisa into a dark freezer to eliminate all the chemical and photochemical processes acting on its surface? Can't tourists see it anymore?

    Also, it's a piece of rock, not a fine painting. Even if you completely ignore the touching, the licking, and the occasional feces smearing (if Burckhardt's story about the vengeful infidel is true), nothing prevents anyone from drilling a hole in a place that won't be visible. You see, it's a three-dimensional piece of rock, and unless it levitates (which I doubt), it has to stand on its base. And even if you take a sample, you can fix it cosmetically. It's not exactly the equivalent of punching a hole through Mona Lisa's eye.

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20