Ancient Egyptians Crafted Jewelry From Meteorites

[Skywizard]

An ancient Egyptian iron bead found inside a 5,000-year-old tomb was crafted from a meteorite, new research shows.

The tube-shaped piece of jewelry was first discovered in 1911 at the Gerzeh cemetery, roughly 40 miles (70 kilometers) south of Cairo. Dating between 3350 B.C. and 3600 B.C., beads found at the burial site represent the first known examples of iron use in ancient Egypt, thousands of years before Egypt's Iron Age. And their cosmic origins were suspected from the start.
Soon after the beads were discovered, researchers showed that the metal jewelry was rich in nickel, a signature of iron meteorites. But in the 1980s, academics cast doubt on the beads' celestial source, arguing that the high nickel content could have been the result of smelting. [Fallen Stars: A Gallery of Famous Meteorites]

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Scientists from the Open University and the University of Manchester recently analyzed one of the beads with an electron microscope and an X-ray CT scanner. They say the nickel-rich chemical composition of the bead's original metal confirms its meteorite origins.
What's more, the researchers say the bead had a Widmanstätten pattern, a distinctive crystal structure found only in meteorites that cooled at an extremely slow rate inside asteroids when the solar system was forming, according to Nature. Further investigation also showed that the bead was not molded under heat, but rather hammered into shape by cold-working.

Read More: http://www.livescience.com/36981-ancient-egyptian-jewelry-made-from-meteorite.html

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skywizard

[Atlas]

Analysis of a prehistoric Egyptian iron bead with implications for the use and perception of meteorite iron in ancient Egypt. (Diane JOHNSON, Joyce TYLDESLEY, Tristan LOWE, Philip J. WITHERS and Monica M. GRADY)


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Tube-shaped beads excavated from grave pits at the prehistoric Gerzeh cemetery, approximately 3300 BCE, represent the earliest known use of iron in Egypt. Using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and micro X-ray microcomputer tomography, we show that microstructural and chemical analysis of a Gerzeh iron bead is consistent with a cold-worked iron meteorite.

Thin fragments of parallel bands of taenite within a meteoritic Widmanstatten pattern are present, with structural distortion caused by cold-working. The metal fragments retain their original chemistry of approximately 30 wt% nickel. The bulk of the bead is highly oxidized, with only approximately 2.4% of the total bead volume remaining as metal.

Our results show that the first known example of the use of iron in Egypt was produced from a meteorite, its celestial origin having implications for both the perception of meteorite iron by ancient Egyptians and the development of metallurgical knowledge in the Nile Valley.

Full article: Meteoritics & Planetary Science, Volume 48, Issue 6, pages 997–1006, June 2013 (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/maps.12120/pdf) (PDF, 481K)

[Atlas]

Beads discovered on a necklace that was first excavated in 1911 have finally been confirmed as being made from space rock.

Researchers from the University College London's Petrie Museum conducted detailed analysis of the necklace using gamma rays and have been able to prove that the beads, originally believed to be made from iron, were in fact created using fragments of meteorites.

The analysis is also the first time scientists have been able to assess how the beads were formed and it is thought that the Egyptians used the technique of smithing and rolling, which involved hammering the rock several times until it could be flattened and then rolled to form the bead-shaped tubes.

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Egyptologists from the Open University first scanned beads found in a pre-dynastic cemetery near the village of el-Gerzeh, in Lower Egypt in May, using scanning electron microscopy and computed tomography. The nickel content of this original metal was found to be high, suggesting that it could have come from a meteorite.

The researcher also observed that the metal had a distinctive crystalline structure called a Widmanstätten pattern. This structure is found only in iron meteorites that cooled extremely slowly inside their parent asteroids as the solar system was forming. They found areas where the weathered surface had fallen away, providing what has been described as 'little windows' to the preserved metal beneath.

Researchers from UCL's Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums/petrie) then used non-invasive neutrons and gamma rays to detect the exact level of nickel and phosphorous in these Egyptian beads.

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Lead author of the Journal of Archaeological Science study, Professor Thilo Rehren said that the beads were created by 'multiple cycles of hammering' and not by the traditional carving or drilling stone techniques that were used on other beads found in the same tomb. He told Culture24:
'The really exciting outcome of this research is that we were for the first time able to demonstrate conclusively that there are typical trace elements such as cobalt and germanium present in these beads, at levels that only occur in meteoritic iron.'It is also the first time researchers have been able to study the internal structure of the beads to reveal how they were created - showing an advanced knowledge and skill of metal work.

Philip Withers, Professor of Materials Science at The University of Manchester:
'Meteorites have a unique microstructural and chemical fingerprint because they cooled incredibly slowly as they travelled through space. It was really interesting to find that fingerprint turn up in Egyptian artefacts.'Read full article (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2397818/New-pictures-reveal-necklace-created-Ancient-Egyptians-gold-gems-5-000-year-old-meteorites.html)