Ancient Egyptian meteoric iron beads. Three meteoric iron beads crafted by prehistoric Egyptians around 3400 BC. The beads were discovered in 1911 in a pre-dynastic cemetery near the village of el-Gerzeh in Lower Egypt. They were made by metalworking of meteoritic (or meteoric) iron, an iron-nickel alloy obtained from meteors that fell to Earth from space. The beads were examined in 2013, with the analysis carried out with neutrons and gamma rays. These objects are part of the collections at the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology at University College London (UCL).