Decades after its discovery in Spain, experts have determined that a dazzling hoard of Bronze Age treasure contains material made from an extraterrestrial body.
Known as the Treasure of Villena, the collection of at least 59 pieces of jewelry, bowls, and bottles was initially believed to be crafted from silver, amber, gold, and iron, according to a report.
Yet, since its discovery in 1963 in a gravel pit in Alicante, a “dark leaden metal” has fascinated many who come into contact with the treasure.
That metal, used in at least two of the artifacts, is now believed to have originated as part of a meteorite that crashed into the Earth nearly 1 million years ago, according to the report, which cited a Dec. 30 study in the Trabajos de Prehistoria.
Two pieces of the hoard, a C-shaped bracelet and a hollow sphere with a gold topping, were both tested.
“The connection between gold and iron is important, as both elements have a great symbolic and social value,” study senior author Ignacio Montero Ruiz, a researcher at Spain’s Institute of History, said, according to the report.
“In this case, [the artifacts] were … probably hidden treasure that could have belonged to a whole community and not to a single person. There were no kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula at this historical period.”
Scientists used mass spectrometry, the measuring of the mass-to-charge ratio of molecules, to find traces of iron-nickel similar to that found in meteoric iron, the report noted.
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“Both objects could [have] come from the same meteorite,” Montero Ruiz said.
“The iron technology is completely different to the copper-based metallurgy and to the noble metals [gold and silver],” he added. “So, people who started to work with meteoritic iron and later with terrestrial iron must [have had to] innovate and develop new technology.”