The storied pharaoh of ancient Egypt Tutankhamun, commonly referred to as “King Tut,” was famous for owning a particularly-ornate iron dagger. This royal dagger, originally described by British archaeologist Howard Carter back in 1925, was previously studied back in 2016 and was found to be made of meteoritic iron, with guesses as to even what specific meteorite sample the dagger’s iron was extracted from. Now, some six (6) years later, more research into the dagger revealed what process was used to make it, as well as which area it was likely from.
The study that accompanied these remarkable findings was published in the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science, whose authors included Eissa Zidan from the Grand Egyptian Museum and Takafumi Matsui and Ryota Moriwaki, both from the Chiba Institute of Technology (CIT). Meanwhile, the study itself was headed by planetary scientist and primary author Tomoko Arai, who’s also from CIT.
“To understand the manufacture and origin of the dagger, we conducted on-site non-contact, non-destructive two-dimensional chemical analysis for the dagger,” said Arai in a statement to Gizmodo. “We noticed a cross-hatched texture present in places for […] both sides [of the dagger], suggesting Widmanstätten structure, typical of [an] octahedrite iron meteorite. That was our [wow] moment.”
Arai referred to a pattern identified on the dagger’s metal blade, which the authors say was indicative of “long nickel-iron crystals” found in octahedrite iron meteorites. According to ScienceAlert, retaining these patterns through the forging process required a relatively low-temperature forging technique; this places forging temperature estimates at around 950 °C (1,742 °F).
Backing this finding was the presence of black sulfur-rich “spots” along the length of the blade, which were said to be hallmark features of a heated iron sulfide mineral called troilite (FeS) that’s common in meteorites.
Additionally, further studies of a set of ancient Egyptian clay tablets called the Amarna letters may reveal crucial insights into the dagger’s geographical origins. These letters were written recordings of diplomatic correspondence and included writings of a particular dagger “with a gold hilt” gifted by the King of MItanni to the pharaoh Amenhotep III, who was King Tut’s grandfather. Mitanni was an ancient kingdom nestled in northern Syria and southeast Anatolia.
“[The study] provides evidence that ancient people had achieved the conditions that we predicted scientifically,” said National Museum of Japanese HIstory professor of cultural properties science Tsutomu Saito to the Asahi Shimbun. “This is an important finding that shows the starting point of mankind’s quest to develop iron manufacturing technology.”
READ FURTHER: A Crusader’s Sword Was Found Off the Coast of Israel
References
- Hrala, J. (2016, June 1). X-rays reveal that king tut was buried with a space dagger. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/x-rays-reveal-that-king-tut-was-buried-with-a-space-dagger
- Lorenzi, R. (2016, May 31). King tut’s blade made of meteorite. Seeker. https://www.seeker.com/king-tuts-space-blade-identified-1831900657.html
- Matsui, T., Moriwaki, R., Zidan, E., & Arai, T. (2022). The manufacture and origin of the Tutankhamen meteoritic iron dagger. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, maps.13787. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13787
- Nagai, Y. (2022, February 16). Research team unravels how dagger in Tut’s tomb was forged. The Asahi Shimbun. https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14550285
- Nield, D. (2022, February 23). The mysterious origins of king tutankhamen’s space rock dagger just got clearer. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-mysterious-origins-of-king-tutankhamen-s-space-rock-dagger-just-got-clearer
- Schultz, I. (2022, February 18). King tut’s meteorite dagger has a mystery origin story. Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/king-tuts-meteorite-dagger-has-a-mystery-origin-story-1848562565
- Tomkinson, T., Lee, M. R., Mark, D. F., Dobson, K. J., & Franchi, I. A. (2015). The Northwest Africa (Nwa) 5790 meteorite: A mesostasis-rich nakhlite with little or no Martian aqueous alteration. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 50(2), 287–304. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.12424
