Overview

• The Treasure of Villena, discovered in Spain in 1963, includes 59 items crafted from gold, silver, amber, and iron.
• New analysis confirms two artifacts were made using iron from a meteorite that fell to Earth around one million years ago.
• The meteoritic iron objects, a sword pommel and a bracelet, are the first and oldest of their kind found in the Iberian Peninsula.
• Researchers used mass spectrometry to identify the iron-nickel alloy in the artifacts, similar to that found in meteoric iron.
• The discovery sheds light on Late Bronze Age metallurgy practices and the symbolic value of gold and iron in ancient societies.