Ancient Egyptian Bead Was Composed Of Meteoritic Iron

Originally posted by LUXUS
According to legend it was tubalcain who first made use of meteorite iron:

Yes, that's a medieval legend. You can tell by the name.

Even if ancient people never seen a meteorite land near them they would have seen shooting stars and would have known objects fall from above. I'm sure they would have sent search party's out to see what the object was. When they would come across a rock buried in the middle of a crater they would have known it came from above.

The problem with this is that most meteoric iron comes in very small lumps and is not found in craters or in impact depressions. Watch a few episodes of "Meteor Hunters" and you'll see.

Originally posted by Byrd

Originally posted by EzekielsWheel
SOURCE
...and explains that all of our planet's gold, silver, and platinum may be extraterrestrial in origin.

I believe you may be interpreting that statement in ways it wasn't intended.

Ultimately, EVERYTHING on Earth (and Earth itself) is "extraterrestrial in origin." The atoms were forged in the hearts of billions of ancient stars which turned hydrogen into iron and other elements. Supernovas distributed the atoms across space, and gravity formed and reformed stars and planets.

But the gold that's found on Earth is strictly from terrestrial sources. Meteoric iron does exist, but it's in very small amounts.

....true, but I guess what I meant was that the precious metals that we base all of our economies on
is (though incredibly ancient) more recent, and from meteorites:

Originally posted by Jukiodone
The latest isotope study showed that metals were present during the Earths formation 4.5 billion ya however most of the terrestrial "precious metals" are buried too deep for us to access.

Most of the precious metals we access were deposited during the meteorite "terminal bombardment" which apparently happened 3.9 billion years ago meaning that most gold mined to date is extraterrestrial in origin.

I gotta get better at this thread makin'

reply to post by Byrd


No the legends of tubalcain being the first to use Iron go back as far as the bronze age. Iron meteorites come in all sizes and I have a 800g nickle iron meteorite sitting on the shelf in front of me as I type this. Most of these early objects made from meteorite were not forged from meteorite iron but carved out of solid lumps of meteorite iron. King tut was found with a dagger carved from an iron meteorite!

reply to post by LUXUS

Well, it's in Genesis. One sentence about a guy who forged metal things.

Most cultures have a myth about the origins of metallurgy, often a smith god such as Haphaistos/Vulcan, but also sometimes a smith, like Tubal-Cain. Doesn't mean these people really existed.

Genesis is full of these little potted myths. Like Cain and Abel – the conflict between hunter-gatherers and primitive agriculturists turned into a fatal quarrel between brothers.

Originally posted by EzekielsWheel
SOURCE

In 1911, archaeologists dug up strings of iron beads at the Gerzeh cemetery, about 43 miles south of Cairo. The Gerzeh bead is the earliest discovered use of iron by the Egyptians, dating back from 3350 to 3600 BC. The bead was originally thought to be from a meteorite based on its composition of nickel-rich iron, but scientists challenged this theory back in the 1980s. However, the latest research places this theory back on top. The scientists used a combination of electron microscope and X-ray CT scanner analyses to demonstrate that the nickel-rich chemical composition of the bead confirms its meteorite origins. Philip Withers, a professor of materials science at University of Manchester, said meteorites have a unique microstructural and chemical fingerprint because they cooled incredibly slowly as they traveled through space. He said it was interesting to find that fingerprint in the Gerzeh bead.

I find it fascinating - you don't get those metals beyond Iron (as atomic numbers) formed from nuclear fusion except from super-nova explosions. It actually takes energy to fuse Iron atom nucleii as opposed to fusing together hydrogen, helium or oxygen nucleii.

Imagine what they would have seen back then, perhaps at night without street lighting. Sitting in their homes chatting to friends at a party or asleep, when the entire outside world lights up. Going out they see this massive light travelling across the sky and falling somewhere in the desert, marked by a glowing cloud. Next day, everyone goes out to have a look, and Shiny metal rocks and small metal beads are strewn all over the place.
Surely, this must be a gift from the gods meant for them.

reply to post by Astyanax


Its in the book of Enoch also, Tubal-cain was the only descendent of Cain to survive the flood, he had a child with Hams wife and their descendents went into Egypt.