Ancient Egyptians Made Iron Jewelry From Pieces of Meteorite, Archaeologists Say

fangmcgee writes "Researchers at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London have found that a collection of ancient jewelry is out of this world. The 5,000-year-old Egyptian beads, previously thought to be made from iron from Earth have been found to be made from hammered pieces of meteorite. Strung together with gold, gemstones, and other minerals, the beads pre-date iron smelting, showcasing the metalworking mastery of fourth millennium B.C. Egyptians."

Comments

Inuit also used iron meteorites

[Anonymous Coward]

"The meteorite collided with Earth nearly 10,000 years ago. The iron masses were known to Inuit as Ahnighito (the Tent), weighing 31 metric tons (31 long tons; 34 short tons); the Woman, weighing 3 metric tons (3.0 long tons; 3.3 short tons); and the Dog, weighing 400 kilograms (880 lb). For centuries, Inuit living near the meteorites used them as a source of metal for tools and harpoons. The Inuit would work the metal using cold forging--that is by stamping and hammering it."

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

Re:Inuit also used iron meteorites

[VortexCortex]

What did they make of the baby and his shuttle that came along with the meteorite?

Dinner.

So, you're saying he was sealed inside?

Bling from the heavens

[Anonymous Coward]

This reminds me of a story from some time ago- some colored glass in Tutankhamun's jewelry may have been from meteor strikes. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5196362.stm

Re:Bling from the heavens

[MichaelSmith]

I have read elsewhere that some ancient cultures knew of iron primarily from meteorites.

Re:Bling from the heavens

[lxs]

What they are not telling you is that it was a meteor strike on Mars and that the meteor pieces were a bribe by alien builders to get the pyramid contract.

The age-old competition

[K. S. Kyosuke]

I bet that the Sumerian fanboys are fuming now. Suck it up, boys! Egypt forever!

Many also used iron meteorites

[Arker]

Meteoric iron has been used by 'stone age' peoples all around the world. Identifying these Egyptian beads is neat but hardly a surprise.

Stone age-bronze age-iron age was never intended to imply exclusivity, only what the dominant method of getting the work done was in a given time and place. The iron age is taken to arrive when the technology for extracting telluric iron is well understood and used, the former may have happened long before the latter in areas where a high bronze age culture had developed, and of course meteoric iron doesnt rely on that technology at all so it's completely independent of it. It wouldnt really be a surprise to see meteoric iron objects MUCH earlier than this, except that it's unlikely to be preserved for so long outside of quite rare contexts.

Re:Many also used iron meteorites

[wonkey_monkey]

Stone age-bronze age-iron age was never intended to imply exclusivity

Are you sure?.

I told you so!

[Traiano]

For years I have been telling everyone that aliens built the pyramids. Now we have proof from the extraterrestrial pieces they left behind. Who's the crazy one now?!

Re:I told you so!

[camperdave]

You didn't hear? They recently translated a heiroglyph that reads: "Ahepmoset's Limestone - You need blocks? We've got them." Turns out the pyramids were nothing more than Ahepmoset's warehouse.

Metal working mastery ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

The metal working mastery consisted of basically heating the damn thing and beating the hell out of it with a hammer. Finding iron ore, smelting it down and extracting the metal are the difficult thing to do. Once you have the metal, beating it into shape is no big deal. For example the legendary Viking swords +Ulfberht were made by the Vikings by importing high carbon steel from the Middle East via the Volga trade routes. (Of course, the Viking might have discovered and then lost the technology to produce high carbon steel, but the facts Viking were trading with Middle East via Volga, and the Middle East was making high carbon Wootz steels by that time lends credence to this theory).

Making the metal from ore require mastery, making non load bearing artifacts out of metal requires just muscle.

Re:Metal working mastery ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

For an individual, yes, smithing is very hard. I think we had smithy in my third semester, I think and probably made a C. For a society? Smithy does not require great flights of imagination or crucial insight. People have been making stone tools for 2 million years, fire for half a million years, constantly looking to harden stone/wood/bone tools by charring them in fire etc. So they would have noticed, unlike flint, the meteorite rock bends, but it could be beaten into a sharp edge repeatedly.

On the other hand, it boggles my mind how they discovered smelting. Definitely by poking around the remnants of campfires serendipitously started on ore rich ground would have been the starting point. But still that is the difficult part, identifying ore deposits and coming up with a process to make the metal without fully understanding the chemistry, purely by trial and error. That was incredible.

hmmmm

[slashmydots]

So does anyone know what the stat bonus was on one of those necklaces? I'm thinking it would have a defensive buff but it could also be added damage as radiation to all weapon strikes.

Re:So far and yet....

[cmarkn]

This "fascist military junta" is the closest thing to democracy there is in the Arab world. The democratically-elected government they replaced had no intention of allowing anyone else to be elected under their new constitution.