In a new research it is found the dagger buried alongside King Tutankhamun was not made out of any other iron found on Earth, but it was made with iron from a meteorite.
Details of the finding are published in the Meteorites and Planetary Science journal. It writes Daniela Comelli led team of researchers from Polytechnic University of Milan used X-ray fluorescence to analyze the blade of the dagger.
The team found in their research the dagger, which was discovered in 1925, has a similar composition to metallic meteorites.
The dagger has a gold sheath and handle. The researchers studied one of the two that was found by the right thigh of King Tut.
For years the iron of the dagger had been debated and the earlier analysis had controversial results.
The study claims the dagger was reserved for ceremonial tools and items as iron works were rarely found in ancient Egypt then and people found it hard to work.
According to the researchers, the new study provides further insight into ancient Egyptian descriptions of iron.
In Egypt a particular mineral is said to be iron of the sky.
The researchers added, “The introduction of the new composite term suggests that 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.”
