Three thousand years ago, an ancient Iberian wore jewelry from space and wielded an interstellar sword, which is not a science fiction plot, but the research team recently studied a number of ancient treasures. Under an avenue in the Spanish city of Villena, buried a 3,000-year-old treasure, including gold and silver bowls, bracelets, bottles, and ornaments, as well as some iron objects, which is now known as the Treasure of Villena.
Archaeologist José María Soler discovered the treasure 50 years ago. Amazingly, some of the iron tools in this batch of treasures, including a bracelet and a hemispherical object that may have been the hilt of a sword, were actually forged from meteorite iron. Before the advent of the widely known ferrometallurgy, the ancients had already begun to make precious objects using this special material from the universe.
The research team analyzed the nickel content of the iron items in the treasure and found that the nickel content was much higher than that of Earth iron, which is typical of meteorite iron. In addition, through mass spectrometry detection, researchers also found cobalt and other elements common in meteorite iron, thus determining that the iron items of this treasure are likely to be the best in meteorites.
Before the spread of ferrometallurgy, humans used meteorites that fell from the sky to make precious items. The most famous example is the meteorite dagger of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, a knife that was found in the tomb of the "boy king". A 2022 analysis showed that Tutankhamun's blades were made by forging at low temperatures, but they were not made in Egypt. This may mean that the materials in the Treasure of Verena may also not have come from Spain.
Although the Egyptian pharaohs left an exhaustive record, their history is clearer than that of the group that made the treasures of Velena. The makers of the treasure of Verena and their access to meteorite iron remain a mystery. More analysis may reveal the origins of this extraordinary treasure trove and perhaps even discover who the owners of these ancient luxuries were.
This discovery not only gives us a new understanding of the wisdom and abilities of the ancients, but also amazes us with the mysterious connection between the universe and human history. In ancient times, an Iberian already possessed his own galactic treasure, and this story seems to tell us that the mysteries of the universe are far deeper than we think.