Iron in Egyptian relics came from space

[Crisp]

Iron in Egyptian relics came from space

Meteorite impacts thousands of years ago may have helped to inspire ancient religion.

The 5,000-year-old iron bead might not look like much, but it hides a spectacular past: researchers have found that an ancient Egyptian trinket is made from a meteorite.

The result, published on 20 May in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, explains how ancient Egyptians obtained iron millennia before the earliest evidence of iron smelting in the region, solving an enduring mystery. It also hints that they regarded meteorites highly as they began to develop their religion.

?The sky was very important to the ancient Egyptians,? says Joyce Tyldesley, an Egyptologist at the University of Manchester, UK, and a co-author of the paper. ?Something that falls from the sky is going to be considered as a gift from the gods.?

The tube-shaped bead is one of nine found in 1911 in a cemetery at Gerzeh, around 70 kilometres south of Cairo. The cache dates from about 3,300 bc, making the beads the oldest known iron artefacts from Egypt.

The Gerzeh bead (top) has nickel-rich areas, coloured blue on a virtual model (bottom), that indicate a meteoritic origin.

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[medium_pimpin]

Pretty sure all iron came from space

[+therealDamien Subscriber¹]

Pretty sure all iron came from space

or Egyptians where from space.....

[Growled Member]

I always wondered they had iron that early in history. Now we know.

[DocM]

You know the Kaaba, the black stone building in Mecca that Muslims pray towards & circle during the Haj? An east cornerstone, the Black Stone, is a fragmented meteorite that has been venerated since pre-Muslim days. It supposedly dates back to Adam & Eve..

[Torolol]

iron poop.

[Phouchg]

Pretty sure all iron came from space

Pretty sure iron the last element that can possibly form in the core of every star, so yes.

[DocM]

Not exactly -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleosynthesis

[Phouchg]

I stand corrected.

[jakem1]

Can't wait for them to find naquadah ;)

[Growled Member]

You know the Kaaba, the black stone building in Mecca that Muslims pray towards & circle during the Haj? An east cornerstone, the Black Stone, is a fragmented meteorite that has been venerated since pre-Muslim days. It supposedly dates back to Adam & Eve..

I read this before and it has always intrigues me since it seems anti-Muslim to venerate a stone from space, at least from my limited knowledge of Islam.

[V9s]

I read this before and it has always intrigues me since it seems anti-Muslim to venerate a stone from space, at least from my limited knowledge of Islam.

It is.

You'll only find mention of the "black stone" in traditions. It's not mentioned anywhere in the Quran.