It sounds like a mash-up of Indiana Jones' plots, but German
researchers say a heavy Buddha statue brought to Europe by the Nazis was carved
from a meteorite that likely fell 10,000 years ago along the Siberia-Mongolia
border.
This space Buddha, also known as "iron man" to the
researchers, is of unknown age, though the best estimates date the statue to
sometime between the eighth and 10th centuries. The carving depicts a man,
probably a Buddhist god, perched with his legs tucked in, holding something in
his left hand. On his chest is a Buddhist swastika, a symbol of luck that was
later co-opted by the Nazi party of Germany.
journal reference (only the abstract free): wiley >>