Tutankhamen’s Dagger Made of Meteorite, Study Says

The young Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamen was uncovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. The magnificent royal tomb of the deceased ancient king housed numerous regal artifacts including ceremonial daggers. One of these daggers found on his right thigh was obviously of extraterrestrial origin- meteorite iron crafted into exquisite artwork.

As per Chemistry World, researchers from the Polytechnic University of Milan undertook a study of the dagger's chemical composition to identify the origins of the blade. The scientists discovered that King Tut's blade was made mostly of iron alongside nickel (10.8wt %) and cobalt (0.58wt %) with the aid of portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometer.

While iron has plentiful supplies on Earth, ancient Egypt during the Bronze Age was not particularly good at crafting iron-made tools and objects until 500 BCE. As per Independent, iron was considered rarer than gold in King Tutankhamen's time with no archaeological evidence of any iron working in the Nile Valley.

But why did ancient Egyptians use meteoritic iron to make King Tut's dagger?

"As the only two valuable iron artifacts from ancient Egypt so far accurately analyzed are of meteoritic origin...we suggest that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of fine ornamental or ceremonial objects," said the team as quoted in a report by the Guardian.

What was reasonably posited by some scientists seemed to have coincided with the recent findings. Many archaeologists think that ancient Egyptians put near-divine importance on rocks falling from the sky. The term 'iron' in ancient Egyptian texts actually means 'iron of the sky' adding weight to the so-called meteorite-made dagger of the famed young pharaoh.

"They were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th [Century] BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia," the scientists wrote in their findings as per BBC News.