Prehistoric Greenland Had a ‘Meteorite Age’
Prehistoric hunters in Greenland lived through a ‘Meteorite Age’ where they mined metal from fallen space rocks to make weapons, according to archaeologists.
Danish researchers have found evidence that suggests ancient cultures in Greenland were making tools from a meteorite they found on the ice more than 1,200 years ago.
This was nearly 300 years before Norse settlers from Iceland arrived in Greenland and are thought to have brought iron with them made from ore on Earth.
With no metal naturally accessible in Greenland, the discovery suggests that the meteorite was responsible for kickstarting the Iron Age in the country and allowing the native hunters to develop new metal technology.
The meteorite is thought to have crashed into the Greenland ice sheet around the Cape York Peninsula in north west Greenland, around 10,000 years ago and split into at least eight large pieces.
