The Egyptians knew that iron could come from space!

Long before modern scholars invented astronomical spectacles, or wrote treatises on astronomy and Greek philosophies, the Egyptians had already raised the level of interest. eyeseyes Skyward to understand how it works. During the first centuries of antiquity, Egyptians seem to have known that iron could come from meteorites, and that meteorites themselves come from space. In a long article published on October 17 on the party’s website SmithsonianEgyptologist Victoria Almansa-Villatoro details a study conducted on hieroglyphs to support this… surprising assertion.

In 1941, engineer Thomas Arthur Rickard He wrote a post Discuss the use of iron meteorites. He indicates from the first lines that the Sumerians called iron “iron.” tape “, literally ” Fire from the sky “. In the Middle East, the first civilizations of the Iron Age linked some rocks to their spatial origin. Dr. Almansa Villatoro points out in his study that the Egyptians, unlike the Greeks and Babylonians, did not base their astronomical observations on mathematical calculations. In order to understand the relationship of the people of Egypt with space, we do not It is necessary to observe their writings and interpret the symbols.

By looking at the ritual writings called Pyramid TextsVictoria Almansa-Vilatoro was able to establish a link between the iron used by the Egyptians and their knowledge of the planetarium. These hieroglyphs dating back to the Old Kingdom, which began in 2691 BC, display the same symbol meaning both. iron ” And ” sky “. Taking a hemispherical shape, it becomes clear that the hieroglyphs are interchangeable between the two terms. An event that is repeated in different writings and with other symbols.

By conclusion, the academic confirms that this link between the two words is evidence that the Egyptians knew the origin of iron meteorites. To do this, individuals had to witness the impact of an object on the Earth and exploit it to extract its metal. It is a rare fact, but not impossible, according to the researcher, who states that if no evidence comes to bear witness to such an event, science can “ Survive for centuries or even thousands of years even without scientific documentation “.

Victoria Almansa-Vilatoro’s hieroglyphic study supports work published in 2013 in natureScientists analyzed the composition of 5,000-year-old metal beads. After careful examination, it was found that it was composed of nickel extracted directly from an iron meteorite. The mineral is then recrystallized, forming Widmanstätten shapes, a type of characteristic line often observed in… MetalsMetals Contained in MeteorsMeteors.

Metallurgical techniques were not advanced at that time. The Iron Age officially began in Anatolia (present-day Turkey, Kurdistan, and Armenia) around 1000 BC, and the peoples of the Mediterranean rim gradually mastered metal by making weapons and tools. In Egypt, metals were used from the Naqada III era from 3200 to 3000 BC, but the manufacture of objects made of iron flourished from the sixth century.^H century BC, when people began to use extraction by calcination: that is, subjecting meteorites to strong forces heatheat To alleviate ThemeTheme Organic and isolated minerals. Once again, ancient societies demonstrated an amazing ability to understand and interact with their environment… more than 20 centuries ago Astronomy scientistsAstronomy scientists Don’t look concretely at the cosmic origins of meteorites.