Bronze Age meteorite arrowhead shows extensive European trade

[guy]

 

Before people learned to extract iron from ore during the Iron Age, meteorites were the only source of the metal. This iron Bronze-age arrowhead found in Mörigen, Switzerland was not surprisingly crafted from a meteorite. It dates to 900-800 BCE.

After closer analysis, however, the meteorite iron source was determined to be most likely from a meteorite that fell in distant Estonia. This distance of 1600 km (almost 1000 miles) from the Baltic area may reflect the extensive trade in Bronze Age Europe.

In 2021, a team of scientists from the institution began studying the relic using noninvasive methods—including electron microscopy, X-ray tomography, and gamma spectrometry—to prevent any damage.

While the researchers initially suspected the material to have come from the Twannberg meteorite, which hit a barley field in [nearby] Twann about 170,000 years ago, the arrowhead’s metal content led them instead to the Kaalijarv meteorite.  

The Kaalijarv meteorite, also known as Kaali, landed in the region of Estonia during the Nordic Bronze Age (c. 1700–500 B.C.E.). 

 

 

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/bronze-age-arrowhead-made-from-meteorite-2345756/amp-page

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440323001073?via%3Dihub#sec4

Edited January 28 by guy

[guidoLaMoto]

You gotta wonder how they fashioned the  arrowhead from the ferrous raw material-- their bronze tools were too soft. They must have figured out how to melt it and cast it in a mold...Why would they think ahead of time that that would work? (I also wonder what the first guy to figure it would be a good idea to jump on the back of wild horse was thinking?)

Speaking of rare materials and trade routes-- It has been suggested that there wasn't enough copper in the known mines of Europe/Near East to account for all the bronze put to use in The Bronze Age...Meanwhile, there are known copper mines dating back 8000 yrs in Michigan & Wisconsin, yet the Native Americans had little use for it after an initial "Copper Culture abruptly stopped ~3000 y/a...???  https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-native-americans-were-among-world-s-first-coppersmiths