Life-imitating-art news on the boffinry wires today, as it has emerged that a 1938 Nazi expedition to Tibet brought back a mysterious statue or idol which has now been confirmed to be of extra-terrestrial origin.

It seems that the strange artifact was brought to Germany following an expedition to the remote Asian interior led by famous German researcher Ernst Schäfer on the eve of World War II. The venture was personally sponsored by the infamous Nazi Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler, one of Hitler's inner circle, and every member of it was said to be a member of the feared SS. It's believed that Himmler backed the expedition due to the Nazi interest in the prehistoric origins of the Aryan race.

As it turned out the Nazis found something more important than they knew. A 10kg iron figure, thought to be Buddhist in origin (possibly taken by the expedition due to its having a prominent swastika carved upon it*), became part of a private collection on reaching Germany and has remained largely unknown ever since. However it came up for auction in 2007, which brought it to the attention of antiquities experts and through them, scientists.

It now turns out that the "Iron man" idol or figure is made of extraterrestrial ataxite, a rare class of iron with a high nickel content, and investigating boffins are sure it comes from beyond planet Earth.

"The statue was chiseled from a fragment of the Chinga meteorite which crashed into the border areas between Mongolia and Siberia about 15,000 years ago," says Doktor Elmar Buchner of Stuttgart Uni. Dr Buchner's team believe the Iron Man originated from the pre-Buddhist Bon culture of the 11th Century.

The good doktor notes that it was common practice among many prehistoric peoples to venerate meteor fragments or artifacts crafted from them. He and his colleagues write:

The sculpture possibly portrays the Buddhist god Vaiśravana ... However, the ethnological and art historical details of the “iron man” sculpture, as well as the timing of the sculpturing, currently remain speculative.

Full academic detail is published here (for subscribers) in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science. ®

Bootnote

*For previous acrimonious debate on swastikas and related symbols, the Nazis' use of them etc, look here. Or just get stuck into each other in the comments as usual. Regarding the movie references for this article, obvious ones include various aspects of the Indiana Jones flicks (Nazis, artifacts and - separately - aliens) and of course the 2003 offering Bulletproof Monk.