Scientists Uncovered Rings of Otherworldly Origin Hiding in Plain Sight

4 min readHere’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:Artifacts made of meteoritic iron have been found in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, but they’re rare in Greece because space rocks are often swallowed by the ocean.Researchers searched through multiple museum collections and found thirteen rings, all but one of which were determined to be made of meteoritic iron after chemical analysis.Objects that started out as meteorites were highly valuable, but for unknown reasons, they eventually fell out of fashion.Some of the most precious objects in the ancient world fell from the sky. Meteorites were prized for their iron, which ancient peoples hammered into jewelry and weapons long before humans learned to smelt iron ore. But not every civilization had equal access to this celestial metal. Regions like Egypt were ideal for catching falling space rocks, and their deserts yielded numerous meteorites over the centuries that were transformed into decorative objects. Other civilizations, with few meteorites of their own, had to covet iron from afar.Greece was one of these iron-poor regions. Much of the country lies near the sea, and most meteors that streak toward Greek soil end up plunging into the water instead, putting them forever out of reach.But, as it turns out, there are examples (albeit rare ones) of Grecian objects made from meteoric iron. Archaeologists Matthieu Gounelle (from the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle at Sorbonne Université in Paris, France) and Eleni Mantzourani (from the National & Kapodistrian University of Athens) searched through a trove of 91 Greek artifacts from various museum collections and found rings of meteoritic iron discovered in tholos tombs, chamber tombs, and the ruins of Anemospilia Temple in the mountains of Crete.Thought to have been worn by the Minoan and Mycenaean elite as status symbols, many of the rings were plated with gold and set with precious stones. Who first owned the material they’re made of, however, is unknown. They may have been forged from metal acquired through Egypt’s extensive trade network, which reached far beyond the Nile into other regions bordering the Mediterranean, including parts of Southern Europe, Anatolia, and the Levant. The rings probably didn’t start life as smelted iron, though, since smelting was rarely used during the Bronze Age and was often reserved for items of lesser value.During the Late Bronze Age, meteoritic iron was rarely found together with smelted iron, and the latter was “usually used for less refined objects, indicating that a distinction was made between the two types of iron,” Gounelle and Mantzourani said in a study recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science. “In a trajectory opposite to that of smelted iron, the use of [nickel]-bearing iron declined roughly at the time of the fall of the palaces,” or roughly 1200 to 1100 B.C.E.The absence of smelting during the Bronze Age period made iron from meteorites especially valuable. Because smelting uses intense heat to separate base metals from iron ore, metals with high levels of other materials (such as nickel) in their makeup are unlikely to have been smelted.Objects made of meteoric iron have been unearthed from Asia to Northern Europe, but until this discovery, no artifacts found in Greece had been confirmed as being madeof meteoritic iron. While 168 Middle and Late Bronze Age objects assumed to be made of iron have been recovered from Greece, none had previously been studied closely enough to determine if they were crafted from iron that originated in meteorites.Finding out whether the rings had an extraterrestrial origin involved using chemical analysis to distinguish meteoritic iron from smelted iron. Meteoritic iron tends to have a high nickel content because iron meteorites are often made (in large part) of kamacite, an iron-nickel alloy that begins its life in superhot planetary cores as another alloy known as taenite. The researchers observed and analyzed 13 bezel rings made between the 18th and 14th centuries B.C.E., and all but one were determined to be meteoritic.Mantzourani and Gounelle believe that most of these rings—whether signet rings or standalone statement pieces—were deliberately crafted as symbols of power for the upper echelon of society. Their creators incorporated other precious metals and gems in the rings to heighten their value as status symbols. Adding to their air of preciousness, many of the rings were buried alongside or inside other precious objects. At a tholos tomb in Dendra, two of the rings were hidden in a gold vase on which an octopus spreads its tentacles.Despite their estimated value and rarity, meteoritic iron rings were only en vogue for a few centuries. Why they fell out of fashion isn’t exactly clear, but like today, the trend may have simply faded from the spotlight.“The present study has also multiplied by more than [twice] the numbers of eastern Mediterranean archaeological sites hosting [nickel]-bearing iron artifacts,” the researchers said. “This high number demonstrates that the fashion of likely meteoritic rings was of some importance in Greece during the Late Helladic period when the Mycenaean civilization was at its peak.”Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared in Popular Mechanics, Ars Technica, SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Den of Geek, Forbidden Futures and Collective Tales. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she can be found drawing, playing the piano or shapeshifting.