Archaeologists from the University of Pisa and the Egyptian Museum have confirmed that King Tut’s dagger found in 1925 is made of steel belonging to a meteor that landed on earth thousands of years ago.
King Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh in the ancient Egypt period called the “New Kingdom.” His name has been replaced by scientists and archeologists to “TUT” so it can be pronounced more fluently.
The ancient pharaoh belongs to the 18th dynasty of the ancient Egypt kingdom. His intact tomb was discovered in 1922 by English researchers Howard Carter and George Herbert, receiving worldwide attention.
Investigation on the pharaoh’s DNA has confirmed he is the son of Akhenaten and ascended to the throne in 1333 BC when he was only ten years old. He was married to his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten and had to daughters that died as newborns.
DNA testing on the king’s mummy found that King Tut had mosquito-borne parasites such as malaria, this being the oldest proof of the disease and that the Pharaoh had multiple infections caused by malaria, which caused the king to die in its teenage years.
Since its discovery the world has been fascinated by the meanings and history behind the late king’s tomb, researchers have been investigating DNA from the mummified king and testing the artifacts found with him.
A recent investigation held by an Italian and Egyptian team has confirmed the rumors of the “outer space” dagger the deceased pharaoh had with him. The knife was found in 1922 in the folds of the mummified king’s wrapping fabric causing world fascination for its beauty ever since.
A meteor made dagger
From 1970 to the late 1990s, researchers tried to understand if the knife was made from a meteorite, but the technology at the moment didn’t allow them to reach any conclusions. But the recent investigation has confirmed the long-lasting rumors.
With the help of X-ray fluorescent spectrometry, researchers have determined the dagger is made from iron, nickel, and cobalt belonging to a meteorite that arrived at the northern Egypt a thousand years ago.
The dagger has gold and crystal handle along with an ornate sheath, and researchers compared the composition of the metal with meteorites remains found in a 1,250 miles radius and when compared with a similar meteor found 140 miles of West Alexandria.
“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, ” Said the paper published at the Wiley Online Library.
According to the research tea, the finding of the dagger explains why ancient Egyptians referred in their hieroglyphs to an “iron that fell from the sky” and give a wider explanation to the amount of development this civilization had thousands of years ago.
Source: Wiley Online Library