28 August 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Swiss Scientists Identify Arrowhead Made from a Meteoritic Iron

In a recent study of archaeological collections in the Lake Biel region in Switzerland, an arrowhead from the Bronze Age, which is currently housed in the Bern History Museum, has been revealed to be made from IAB meteoritic iron.

With a very specific goal in mind, a team of scientists recently completed a study of prehistoric metal artifacts collected in Switzerland over the previous couple of centuries. They were trying to determine if any of these ancient artifacts were possibly made of metal that had been recovered from meteorites that have been striking Earth for billions of years. To their great joy, the Swiss researchers were able to pinpoint one such artifact: a tiny, rusted Bronze Age iron arrowhead with a chemical and mineral makeup that was unquestionably extraterrestrial in origin.

The team of Swiss researchers focused their search on pre-Iron Age artifacts recovered from various locations nearby the Lake of Biel region of Switzerland, under the direction of geologist Beda Hofmann from the National History Museum of Bern.

The arrowhead was found during a 19th-century excavation of a stilt house settlement at Mörigen in the canton of Bern. The site was discovered in 1843 after water levels in Lake Biel dropped. The settlement dates from around 900 to 800 BC and was inhabited by people from the Urnfield culture, a late Bronze Age culture of Central Europe.

Unfortunately, amateur excavations took place, resulting in some artifacts being removed from their original positions and ending up in private collections. To preserve the site, the Bernese government intervened in 1873, prohibiting private excavations and conducting a thorough survey led by Edward Jenner and Edmund Fellberg. The team found evidence of buildings, bridges, and various Bronze Age artifacts across the settlement.

a–b: X-ray tomographic sections of the Mörigen arrowhead. Photo: Journal of Archaeological Science
a–b: X-ray tomographic sections of the Mörigen arrowhead. Photo: Journal of Archaeological Science

The heavily rusted arrowhead was tiny, measuring just 1.5 inches (39.3 millimeters) in length and only one-tenth of an ounce (2.9 grams) in weight.

In a study published in the journal Science Directs, researchers employed several analytical techniques including gamma spectrometry, X-ray fluorescence, and Muon Induced X-ray Emission (MIXE) analysis to examine the arrowhead.

The arrowhead was made largely from iron and nickel, in a mixture consistent with a meteoric origin. Also, analyses showed that the arrowhead contained a radioactive isotope called Aluminium-26 (26Al), which is only found naturally in extraterrestrial objects. The latter particle does not occur naturally on Earth, because it can only form in the zero-gravity vacuum of space.

The scientists had discovered what they hoped and expected to find. But they determined that the metal used to make the arrowhead had traveled a longer distance to reach prehistoric Switzerland than they’d initially suspected.

The chemical composition of the arrowhead suggests that its material came from the Kaalijarv meteorite, which had fragmented around 1,500 BC in Estonia. This Estonian site is located in Northern Europe on the coast of the Baltic Sea, nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) from the Bronze Age settlement at Mörigen.

Researchers have suggested that an iron meteorite trade network may have existed in Central Europe as early as 800 BC as a result of this discovery. They suggest that these meteorites, which came from the Baltic region, may have been traded along the same routes as amber.

Cover Photo: Journal of Archaeological Science

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2023.105827

Related Articles

The 7th-Century Lombard Kings’ Tombs Found in Pavia, Italy

24 December 2024

24 December 2024

The excavations, conducted between September and October by the Catholic University, uncovered numerous burials attributed, on the one hand, to...

Medieval double grave discovered with majestic objects inside the circular ditch

22 August 2022

22 August 2022

An early medieval double grave was discovered in Kirchheim am Neckar Friedrichstrasse, southern Germany, during excavations supervised by the State...

A 1700-year-old Roman water tunnel dug into the mountain was discovered in Adıyaman province in southeastern Türkiye

13 September 2023

13 September 2023

It was revealed that in the Besni district of Adıyaman province, located in the Southeastern Anatolia Region of Turkey, the...

The 2800-year-old Urartians Lake, which is an engineering masterpiece of its time, is drying

13 July 2023

13 July 2023

Keşiş Lake in Van, in eastern Turkey, which was built by the Urartu King Rusa 2,800 years ago, was negatively...

Archaeologists unearthed the ruins of an imposing stoa from the Greco-Roman era in Sicily

1 April 2024

1 April 2024

Archaeologists have unearthed the ruins of an imposing stoa from the Greco-Roman period in the small village of Tripi in...

5,500-Year-Old ‘Polish Pyramids’ Discovered by Archaeologists in Western Poland

11 July 2025

11 July 2025

Archaeologists in western Poland have uncovered two massive prehistoric structures dubbed the “Poland pyramids,” offering a remarkable glimpse into one...

2,000-Year-Old Unique Composite Fish Scaled Armor Found in Ancient Tomb

20 December 2024

20 December 2024

Chinese researchers have recently found fish-scaled armor in the tomb of Liu He, Marquis of Haihun from the Western Han...

Archaeologists discovered the first evidence of early administrative management in eastern Iran

21 June 2022

21 June 2022

Iranian archaeologists believe they have discovered the first evidence of early administrative management in an eastern Iranian province, which they...

New discoveries have been made at a 9,000-year-old Amida mound in Turkey

1 January 2022

1 January 2022

The most recent archeological investigations at the 9,000-year-old Amida Mound in southeastern Turkey’s Diyarbakir province have uncovered fresh finds that...

14,000 years old vessels made by Hunter-gatherers in Japan

1 May 2022

1 May 2022

The Late Pleistocene inhabitants of Tanegashima Island were making pottery about 14,000 years ago. In the Jomon period, people obtained...

300-Year-Old Sacred Mummified Mermaid From Japan’s Mystery Solved

20 February 2023

20 February 2023

A mummified mermaid has been worshiped in Japan for centuries because locals believe it has healing powers. However, upon closer...

Archaeologists find the earliest evidence Maya sacred calendar in the Guatemalan pyramid

14 April 2022

14 April 2022

Archaeologists identified two plaster fragments depicting a date that the Maya civilization called ‘7 deer’ and was part of the...

Thousand-Year-Old Christian Viking-era Graves Found in Sweden

28 June 2021

28 June 2021

Seven Christian tombs dating to the Viking Age have been found at Sigtuna. According to archaeologists, the tombs date to...

A Roman statue unearthed on the site of St Polyeuctus’ church, which once Constantinople’s largest church

5 April 2023

5 April 2023

At Saraçhane Archaeology Park, where the Church of St. Polyeuctus is situated, excavation work by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) teams...

A shipboard 14th-century cannon found off the Swedish coast may be the oldest in Europe

14 September 2023

14 September 2023

An international research team led by maritime archaeologist Staffan von Arbin of the University of Gothenburg has confirmed that a...