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."
It was the lizard men!
"Next on Ancient Aliens..." in 3... 2... 1...
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.
...where did they get all that naquadah?
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.
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!
So, when do we get to see the Stargates?
The Egyptians already made use of glass from an impact:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHEbg2b5wYs
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.
The Ancient Alien guys are going to be insufferable now.
"I'm not saying it was aliens, but it was aliens"
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
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'.
Who's the pyramidiots now.
How about that iron pick they found inside one of the blocked passageways inside the Pyramids. Did they ever solve where that came from?
The fact that meteoric iron has been used for artifacts has been known for a while:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoric_iron
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.
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.
everything on Earth came from space...
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
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
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.
Never seen but read the all the books !!
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.
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
Wait... I thought the Egyptians created everything using the amazing occult powers of the Pythagorean Theorem that they could only get from space aliens...
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
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!
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.
Everything on earth came from space.
[monotheistic] God be praised to the House of Horus.
Anyone who has played Serious Sam already knows that Egyptian relics come from space.
- I stole your sig.
So you're saying they had televisions with time travel built in?
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
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
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
ObURL: http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=robert+howard+conan+meteoric+iron
~childo
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
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