Researchers found a 3,000-year-old arrowhead in Switzerland that was composed of a meteorite. This discovery is providing “extraterrestrial weapons” that are not limited to science fiction movies.
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A 3,000-year-old arrowhead is made out of a meteorite. It was found at an ancient Bronze Age site called Mörigen in Switzerland.
It underwent geologists' testing, revealing its composition, including aluminum-26, a short-lived isotope that was abundant in the early solar system but is not naturally present on Earth.
However, there were only three meteorites with the same metal combination known to have fallen to Earth in Europe during that time: one in the Czech Republic, another in Spain, and the third in Estonia.
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The researchers speculate that the Estonian meteorite was the likely candidate, even though it was over 1,400 miles away from Switzerland.
The arrowhead is 1.5 inches in length and weighs a mere 0.102 ounces.
According to the team of researchers, they employed multiple techniques to test the composition, including electron microscopy pictures, X-rays, and high-energy radiation analyses.
The arrowhead, a pointed piece, was crafted from an iron meteorite containing primarily kamacite and taenite minerals, only found on Earth because they fell from space.
Iron meteorites are original sources from the cores of ancient planets that formed around 4.5 billion years ago through catastrophic impacts during the early stages of our solar system's creation.
The team shared in the study: 'The style of the iron arrowhead strongly resembles that of bronze arrowheads from the same find complex, even though the fabrication process was very different,' the team shared in the study.
'The attached carbon-rich organic material likely represents remnants of tar, probably wood (birch?) tar, indicating that it was fastened to an arrow at some point.'
The arrowhead, which was initially discovered at Lake of Biel in the 19th century, remained stored at the Bern History Museum until rediscovered and tested.
Initially, researchers thought that the meteorite used to create the weapon might have originated from the Twannberg meteorite, which crashed into Switzerland approximately 160,000 years ago.
However, a more in-depth analysis of meteorites with similar composition disproved this hypothesis.
The story claimed: 'The Mörigen arrowhead must be derived from a large (minimum 2 tons pre-atmospheric mass) IAB iron meteorite based on gamma spectrometry and elemental composition.'
'Among large IAB meteorites from Europe, three have a chemical composition consistent with the Mörigen arrowhead: Bohumilitz (Czech Republic), Retuerte de Bullaque (Spain), and Kaalijarv (Estonia). They added.
'Kaalijarv is a large meteorite that produced a series of impact craters (the largest, called Kaalijärv, is 110 m [360 feet] in diameter, note different spelling for meteorite and crater) on the island of Saarema in Estonia.'
The team's belief is that the arrowhead's origin can be traced back to Estonia, indicating that people likely traded these weapons over the same routes from the Baltic area as amber.
