A new discovery from Ancient Egypt! In Spain, archaeologists have found an impressive treasure of 59 objects and they called them the Villena Treasure. This is probably one of the most shocking treasures of early archaeometallurgy because the Egyptian civilization used meteorite iron in some of their objects. Can you imagine Tutankhamun’s dagger made of meteorite? Well, that’s what happened and what the material science and planetary science are studying as a result of this discovery, they want to know about their ancient technology and these materials origin.
From now and then, Egypt is on the news for some discoveries made here. This archaeological discovery has opened a new topic of study: the use of meteorite iron to make objects in Ancient Egypt. Let’s see what kind of objects they found and what archaeologists next step is.
Villena Treasure finding
In 1963, in a city called Villena in Alicante, Spain, some archaeologists found one of the most impressive discoveries in the Iberian Peninsula, the Villena Treasure.
What’s the importance of this Ancient Egypt treasure? They found 59 objects from the late Bronze Age (1,400-1,200 B.C.) but this was not the shocking part, among all the bracelets, bowls and decorations they found, they discovered an interesting material. Most of the objects were made of gold, but there was a bracelet and a semi-sphere decorated with gold which were made out of iron coming from outer space, meteorite iron.
Ancient Egypt objects
Okay, they found some objects made of an important material, but what did they use them for? The bracelet was used as a complement like today, whereas the semi-sphere is believed to be part of the hilt of a sword or maybe a scepter. The remarkable aspect about these two objects is the mix of meteorite iron and gold, which shows the importance and high status of their owners.
How is this possible?
When meteorites occur on Earth, they normally bring iron mixed with nickel. However, this iron is not the one we are used to using because the outer space one has more amounts of nickel than the iron on Earth.
So, to make sure the objects from Ancient Egypt were made of this meteorite iron, scientists had to study many samples using special tools in Spain and Germany. Thanks to this effort, they could conclude the iron found in the Egyptian objects come from outer space, like Tutankhamon’s dagger.
Importance of this discovery
Every discovery is relevant for further studies, but this one… is something else. The Egyptian objects are important for material and planetary sciences for three main reasons:
- This meteorite iron is way ancient than the average iron, the outer space material was being used from 1,400 to 1,200 B.C. whereas our Earth iron started in 850 B.C.
- Iron was a rare material in Ancient Egypt, so Egyptians in possession of a bracelet made out of meteorite iron was a sign of power and respect.
- This discovery shows how smart Egyptian civilization were, they were capable of working with this space material which can make us think they were very advanced in the metallurgy field.
What can you learn from this?
So many things! We now know the Egyptian civilization was very advanced in metallurgy, they were capable of manufacturing objects with unknown material at the time. Also, we have learnt how they showed their status and if people had to show their respect to someone wearing these objects.
If you think about it, it’s very similar to today’s code. Everytime we see someone wearing luxurious jewelry, we tend to think this person is wealthy or someone from the upper-class and high status.
We have to wait to see what scientists and archaeologists can further study due to this Ancient Egypt discovery, but one thing is clear, we will always learn something new from the past.