The detection of the cosmogenic isotope aluminum-26; the concentrations of nickel, cobalt, germanium and gallium; and the presence of two minerals called kamacite and taenite unambiguously demonstrate the meteoritic nature of the ancient arrowhead from the Bronze Age settlement of Mörigen, Switzerland.
“Metallic iron was available to humans in the form of rare meteoritic iron before the smelting of the metal from oxide ores started,” said lead author Dr. Beda Hofmann, a researcher at the Naturhistorisches Museum Bern and the University of Bern, and colleagues.
“The use of meteoritic iron for the fabrication of objects in pre-Iron Age times in Eurasia and northern Africa is known from find complexes in Turkey, Greece, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Iran, Siberia and China.”
“Finds of meteoritic iron artifacts in central and western Europe are very rare and up to now were restricted to two sites in Poland: the two Czestochowa-Rakowa bracelets and the Wietrzno axe.”
In their research, the archaeologists examined an unusual iron arrowhead from the collections of the Bern History Museum.
The artifact was found in the 19th century at the Late Bronze Age lake dwelling site of Mörigen in Switzerland.
“The Mörigen pile dwelling was known since 1843, first sampled by fishermen and excavated 1873-1874,” the researchers said.
“The site is located just 4-8 km southwest of the large Twannberg iron meteorite strewn field with more than 2,000 individual finds totaling 150 kg.”
The Mörigen arrowhead has a mass of 2.9 g and dimensions of 3.9 cm (length), 2.5 cm (width) and 0.3 cm (maximum thickness).
The object consists of rust-covered iron metal with a very pronounced laminated texture. In some areas, fine-grained sediment is attached.
“The arrowhead is a very flat object (aspect ratio 15.1, after correction for thickness increase due to oxidation 20),” the scientists said.
“Primary shapes of meteoritic iron are never as flat, even in case of…
Read the full article here