Among the many artifacts recovered from King Tut’s tomb was a dagger made of iron, a material rarely used during Egypt’s 18th dynasty. That iron likely came from a meteorite, and a recent paper published in the journal Meteorites and Planetary Science sheds more light on exactly how that iron dagger was forged and how it came into Tut’s possession.
Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and ascended the throne when he was only 8 or 9 years old. He was not considered a particularly important pharaoh in the grand scheme of things, but the treasures recovered from his tomb in the 1920s led to his fame. Those treasures include the famous gold funeral mask (pictured above), a solid gold casket, thrones, archery bows, trumpets, a lotus chalice, and various furnishings.
These became part of a worldwide traveling exhibition, which received worldwide press coverage, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. The mummy even inspired a few songs: Steve Martin’s hit “King Tut” (which debuted on Saturday Night Live in 1978) and the lesser-known “Dead Egyptian Blues,” by the late folk rock singer Michael Peter Smith (with the immortal line: “Your sarcophagus glows, but your esophagus is visible”).
Harry Burton
CT scans of Tut’s mummified remains in 2005 revealed that the young king had a deformed left foot and was likely using a walking stick (several walking sticks were found in the grave). He also had a partial cleft palate and perhaps a mild case of scoliosis. Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and National Geographic commissioned a facial reconstruction of the boy king, which was eventually cast in silicone. How he died remains a mystery: Malaria infection, a nasty fall and sickle cell anemia have all been suggested as possible causes of death. (Murder by blunt force to the head was ruled out by the CT scan.)
Among the more than 5,000 artifacts recovered from Tut’s tomb were 19 artifacts made of iron, including the dagger with its gold hilt, a miniature headrest, an amulet, and a set of knives that may have been used for the “opening of the mouth.” ceremony (performed so that the deceased could eat and drink in the afterlife).
There were also metal beads and other gemstones strung across the mummy’s waist and neck. Scientists analyzed one of the beads in 2013 and found that its microstructure and composition closely resembled that of an iron meteorite. The iron was probably made into small thin sheets before being formed into beads. Archaeologists believe that the use of iron was a means of indicating high status in Egypt during this period.
As for the dagger, its high nickel content led scientists to believe that the iron for its blade likely came from a meteorite. This was confirmed in 2016 when the blade was subjected to X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (a non-destructive test method) to analyze the composition. The blade appears to be largely iron, with 11 percent nickel and 0.6 percent cobalt — a composition indeed comparable to that of iron meteorites. In contrast, the nickel content of artifacts made from terrestrial iron ore never exceeds 4 percent.
D. Comelli et al., 2016
That 2016 study, however, didn’t elaborate on the type of meteorite that provided the iron or how the dagger might have been made. There is no archaeological evidence of the smelting of iron in Egypt until the 6th century BCE, and the earliest known example of Egyptian use of metallic iron dates from around 3400 BCE – before Egypt became a single state that was conquered by a pharaoh around 3000 BCE. ruled. Options for making the dagger include cold working, which involves cutting and polishing an iron meteorite; hot working, in which the iron is melted at a high temperature and then cast; or low temperature heating and subsequent forging.
The origin of the dagger is also an open question. Unlike the other iron artifacts found in Tut’s tomb, which were crudely crafted, the dagger was skillfully crafted. There is written evidence of foreign origin in diplomatic correspondence written in Akkadian from the Egyptian royal archives known as the Amarna letters (in the form of tablets). The letters mention a list of gifts sent by the king of Mitanni to Amenhotep III (the grandfather of Tut) on the occasion of the former’s marriage to a princess of Mitanni. The frame includes a dagger with an iron blade and a gold hilt with lapis lazuli inlay.
