Iron is a great material for making tools. But the oldest known iron artifacts were actually intended for (decoration): nine Egyptian beads that date back to 3200 BC. And now we know that this ancient jewelry has an even more impressive origin—the iron out of which it was crafted came from space.
The metal cylinders were discovered in Egypt in 1911. To analyze the (structure) and chemical composition of the beads, researchers bombarded them with neutrons and gamma rays. The tests revealed that the jewelry (contained) trace elements not present in Earthly ores—but that are found in iron-rich meteorites. The study is in the Journal of Archaeological Science. [Thilo Rehren et al, 5,000 years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron]
The meteoric metal was hammered flat and (rolled) into beads more than 5000 years ago. This date is some 1500 years before the invention of smelting. That technique made it possible for terrestrial iron to be shaped into tools, and to supplant copper and bronze as civilization's metal of choice. The new finding shows that long before (smelting) revolutionized tool use, some humans were already iron men.