Kristine Larsen's imaginative and intriguing approach to teaching Tolkien in the Science of Middle-earth, a freshman learning community class paired with an English composition course, includes topics from "elven genetics to the metallurgy of
meteoric iron, from constellations to plate tectonics, and from solar eclipses to lunar calendars" (179).
As a result, the team used x-ray methods to determine whether the beads were actually
meteoric iron, and not magnetite, which can often be mistaken to be corroded iron due to similar properties.
Silver, copper, and tin were used, and
meteoric iron was known in ancient Egypt as "daggers from heaven." Bronze appeared in Europe in the third millennium BCE, the technique of smelting probably having been brought there from the Near East.
Gordon, Samuel G., 1931a 'The Grootfonnein, Southwest Africa,
Meteoric Iron', Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, vol.
Text 45 refers to trade in "
meteoric iron" (a-mu-tum) and "iron" (a-si-um).