Science News24%
Ancient Greek rings may have been forged with iron from meteorites 17%
By Tom Metcalfe18%
8/7/2026, 9:00:00 AM
Topics: Archaeology, Materials Science
BS Summary: This article contains 17 faulty reasoning types, including Unattributed Quote, Confirmation Bias, and Ambiguity (Equivocation), with Post Hoc (False Cause) as the most egregious example at 34.3% saturation with 125 hits. Analysis detected 655 faulty-reasoning hits from 364 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.9% and a BS Rank of 17% (25,597 of 30,584 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 83.70% of the article peer group.
Bronze Age Greek nobles may have sported space bling in their rings.
Chemical analysis of 91 ancient iron weapons and jewelry turned up traces of nickel in about a dozen signet rings — a sign the iron probably came from meteor1tes, researchers report in the August 2026 Journal of Archaeological Science.
The rings were excavated from the ruins of elite tombs, houses and a temple in southern Greece and Crete and the meteoric metal was often layered with gold and silver.
Meteoritic iron was prized throughout the ancient world, especially in Egypt, where arid deserts preserve meteorites.
A dagger of meteoric iron was even found in King Tut’s tomb.
But it was unclear whether the ancient Greeks also favored iron from meteorites; the space rocks are rare in a coastal region where the sea swallows most of them.
Mantzourani and Matthieu Gounelle, an astrophysicist and chemist at the French Natural History Museum in Paris, used X-ray fluorescence to study iron objects from 33 archaeological sites, all dating from 3,000 to 4,000 years ago.
Most contained no nickel, a sign the iron had been forged from ores with the rudimentary smelting technologies that preceded the Iron Age.
In contrast, the iron in meteorites typically contains a high proportion of nickel, sometimes up to 50 percent, the researchers wrote.
But 13 objects held traces of nickel.
All were rings or fragments ofrings, many attached to a large flat piece of engraved metal that suggested they were signet rings.
Of those 13 rings, the researchers think 10 were probably made with meteoric iron, while the other three need more study.
Given the scarcity of meteorites in Crete and Greece, the researchers suggest the valuable metal was imported from Egypt, a sign of ancient trade between these regions.
Meteorite iron rings from after the 12th century B.C. are not found in the region, which indicates this noble fashion disappeared around the time of the Late Bronze Age collapse, Mantzourani says.
The collapse ended the Mycenaean civilization in southern Greece, while the Minoan civilization on Crete had already fallen by this time, possibly because of a volcanic eruption.
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