NEW YORK POST
Ancient warriors were using asteroids to gain an edge in battle.
Aliens might not have built the ancient pyramids — but ancient humans apparently employed alien weaponry: Researchers have discovered that a 3,000-year-old arrowhead found in Switzerland was actually comprised of meteorite, proving that “extraterrestrial weapons” aren’t just relegated to science fiction flicks.
“A single object made of meteoritic iron has been identified,” authors wrote in the study, which is slated to be published in the September edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.
While tools comprised of space rocks have been discovered before, they are extremely rare. This is only the third ever meteor-based artifact to be discovered in Central and Western Europe, according to the archaeological researchers.
The extraterrestrial projectile, which dated back to the Bronze Age (800-900 BCE), was one of several arrowheads reportedly uncovered by archaeologists in the 19th century at the Mörigen archaeological site, situated at the Lake of Biel.
The weapon was subsequently put on display at the Bern historical museum in Switzerland, where its origins remained unknown until now.
The research team verified the missile’s meteorological makeup — an iron-nickel-aluminum alloy — by examining it via electron microscopes, X-rays and high-energy radiation.
They then cross-referenced the data with known space-rock samples, confirming that it was indeed intergalactic in origin.
Mörigen is famously home to the fragments of the Twannberg meteor — Switzerland’s largest — which scientists suspected provided the raw materials for the arrowhead until a chemical analysis revealed that wasn’t the case.
Instead, based on its chemical composition, scientists postulated that the iron belonged to the Kaalijarv meteorite which fell to Earth in modern day Estonia around 1500 BCE.
This had splintered into debris fragments, which were used to fashion weapons of war and other artifacts during the Bronze Age, before the art of iron smelting had been invented.
What better weaponry to use than the rock that may have wiped out the dinosaurs, right? Perhaps it gave them a literal “edge” in the ancient arms race.
In fact, before the advent of the Iron Age, meteoric iron was used by ancient peoples to craft jewelry, weaponry and figurines in nearly every corner of the world from Greenland to Canada and even China.
