The Meteoritic Origin of Morocco Iron Dagger Blades

Abstract

Up until now, a few artifacts made of meteoritic iron have been discovered worldwide, though none in Morocco. The number of these objects has rarely been verified, as museums generally do not allow artifacts to be tested, and they are often confused with common smelted objects of the Iron Age. In this work, portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) and scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) have been used to analyze three iron dagger blades recovered in two localities near Imilchil and Missour in Morocco. The composition of one blade (7.2 wt% Ni and 1.1 wt% Co) strongly supports its meteoritic origin, whereas it was not so for the other two ones. The results of this work provide the first case of the exploitation of meteoritic iron as a metal source in Morocco.

Keywords

• iron artifacts
• meteoritic iron
• portable X-ray fluorescence
• scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy