King Tut buried with dagger made from meteorite, say scientists

CTV News Channel: Tut's meteoric dagger Katja Goebs, an associate professor of Egyptology at the University of Toronto, explains how Tut's meteoric iron dagger was crafted.

Scientists have confirmed that an iron dagger buried next to the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun was crafted from a meteorite. The research even suggests that ancient Egyptians knew they were working with materials from beyond the Earth.

The dagger, which was found next to King Tut’s right thigh, is the most famous of the few surviving iron objects from ancient Egyptian culture. Archeologists and historians have long guessed that it has celestial origins.

Researchers from Italy and the Egyptian Museum used X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to analyze the materials used to craft Tutankhamun’s knife. They say its combination of iron, nickel, and cobalt “strongly supports its meteoritic origin.”

“We have always suspected that this blade was made from meteoric iron since the Egyptians only learned to smelt and cast iron about 600 years later. It had to have come from somewhere outside,” said Katja Goebs, an associate professor of Egyptology at the University of Toronto in an interview with CTV News Channel.

King Tutankhamun has fascinated scientists and the general public since the discovery of his lavish tomb in 1922 by archeologist Howard Carter. Tutankhamen ruled Egypt as pharaoh for 10 years until his death at age 19 around 1324 BCE. His tomb also included 16 miniature iron blades, a miniature head rest, and a bracelet with an Udjat eye made of iron.

The study’s authors say ancient Egyptians used iron for ornamental and ceremonials objects, and prized the material more than gold.

The quality of Tutankhamun’s dagger suggests “significant mastery of ironworking in Tutankhamun’s time,” according to findings published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.

“Iron has such a very high melting point. It would have been difficult for the Egyptians to achieve that kind of high temperature with the kilns that they had at their disposal.” said Goebs.

The long-awaited proof of the meteoric metal work may help explain the connection between the ancient Egyptian hieroglyph symbol for “iron” its references to the sky in Mesopotamian, Hittite, and Egyptian ancient texts.

"The ancient Egyptians, in the wake of other ancient people of the Mediterranean area, were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th C. BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia," said the authors.