Archaeologists have made a surprising discovery about two strange-looking items from an ancient treasure found in Spain. These items might not be from Earth at all—they could be made from metal that came from space!
The treasure, called the Treasure of Villena, was found in 1963 in Alicante, Spain. It included 66 beautiful gold objects from around 1200 to 1500 BCE. But among all the shiny gold items, two stood out: a bracelet and a hollow cap made of iron.
This was strange because the Iron Age in Spain didn’t start until around 850 BCE—hundreds of years after this treasure was buried.
That’s when researchers, led by Salvador Rovira-Llorens, took a closer look. They wondered if the iron in these objects came from a meteorite—a rock from space that sometimes contains nickel-rich iron.
With permission from a museum, the scientists took small samples from the bracelet and cap and tested them using a special machine called a mass spectrometer. The results showed a high level of nickel, which is a strong sign the iron came from a meteorite.
If this is true, these would be the first known items made from meteoritic iron found in the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal).
Although the metal is a bit damaged by rust, the study still supports the exciting idea that people 3,000 years ago may have used space metal to make these items. The researchers also believe that better, non-damaging tests in the future could confirm this even more clearly.
