|
Subject:Re: Harihara bronze stature
Posted By: Jim W Mon, May 30, 2016
Iridium is one of the two rarest elements in the earths crust. The current market price is $500 per troy ounce, which is low because of the limited demand, fountain pen points, spark plug tips, electrical contacts, etc. There are three universal geological dark clay layers associated with the disappearance of flora and fauna and meteor strikes (Alvarez Hypothesis). These are called mass extinction layers and are much higher in iridium than the norm. Meteors and meteorites are known to contain relatively high percentages of iridium.
A piece of a meteor or a meteorite was likely added to the copper-zinc melt without any knowledge of the presence of iridium and also produced the iron content. I did a term search in the ‘American Anthropologist’ (Ethan’s reference) for iridium which returned ‘Phrase not found’. So, it would not be an indicator of the age of the statue, as iridium would not have been available as an alloying element except for it’s concentration in a meteorite. Consider this: You probably have a unique figure with ‘value-added’ worth due to it’s content of iridium at $500 per troy ounce. You can calculate this or if you provide the weight I can do it for you. Regards, Jim
|