Illustrative model — an approximation, not a scan of the original object.
c. 3300 – 3200 BCE
Gerzeh Meteoritic Iron Bead
Naqada II.
- Material
- Hammered meteoritic iron
- Findspot
- Gerzeh cemetery near the Fayum — grave 67
- Discovery
- Excavated in 1911–12 under Gerald Wainwright. Of the nine original iron beads, four survive: three in the Petrie Museum (UC10738–UC10740) and one in the Manchester Museum.
- Held by
- UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, London
- Inventory number
- UC10738
A small tubular bead made by hammering iron into a thin sheet and rolling it. It was found strung with beads of gold and semi-precious stones.
A 2013 study using CT scanning and chemical analysis showed the iron is meteoritic — about two thousand years before iron smelting was known in Egypt.
Certainty: Established
The Gerzeh beads are among the oldest known iron objects from Egypt, made of hammered — not smelted — meteoritic iron.
- Thilo Rehren, et al. (2013) “5,000 years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron” Journal of Archaeological Science 40 (12): 4785–4792 doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.06.002
- UCL Petrie Museum of Egyptian and Sudanese Archaeology, London “Meteoritic iron bead from Gerzeh, UC10738”