Scientists discover extraterrestrial metal inside ancient human artifact

A team of researchers located two ancient human artifacts within a treasure hoard, and after analysis, the team concluded the metal used to create the artifacts wasn't from Earth.

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A new paper detailing the findings was published in the journal Trabajos de Prehistoria last year and concentrated on two artifacts that were pulled from the 3,000-year-old cache called the Villena Treasure. The paper focuses on two objects: what seems to be a portion of an iron bracelet or ring and a hollow iron sphere that's covered in gold. The paper states that these objects were of particular interest to researchers since they were made at a time before it was believed that iron-based craftmanship was possible.

Researchers from Spain and Germany took the objects and analyzed them using a spectrometer to determine their composition. The results proved extremely interesting as both objects appeared to be made out of the same stuff; a meteorite that fell from space. The similarities between the objects were so close that senior author and researcher at Spain's Institute of History Ignacio Montero Ruiz said to Live Science it's possible "both objects could [have] come from the same meteorite."

"The iron technology is completely different to the copper-based metallurgy and to the noble metals (gold and silver). So, people who started to work with meteoritic iron and later with terrestrial iron must [have had to] innovate and develop new technology," said Montero Ruiz told Live Science