Everybody love ( or should do , at least ) that ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamun had a dagger containing Fe from a meteorite . Thedagger , found in the Pharaoh of Egypt ’s tomb , was see through portable x - ray fluorescence spectrographic analysis and find to have a composition thatclosely matchesiron meteorite .
Further analysis of how the blade was forged , as well as possible references to the knife in letters , suggests that it may have beengiftedfrom the king of Mitanni to Amenhotep III , the grandfather of Tutankhamun , before being passed down . But were Ancient Egyptians aware that meteorites descend from out of this world ?
Analysis of hieroglyphical texts , recently explained by Egyptologist Victoria Almansa - Villatoro forSapiens , suggests that they might have . The hint is in the Ancient Egyptian word for iron .
" From the beginning of the 19th Dynasty ( approximately 1295 [ BCE ] ) a new hieroglyphical Logos for iron appeared : ' bi - A - n - pt ' , which literally translates as ' iron from the sky ' , " Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Physical Sciences at The Open University , Diane Johnson excuse in a piece forThe Conversation . " Why this raw word of honor appears in this exact form at this clip is nameless but it was later applied to all metallic iron . An obvious explanation for the sudden egression of the word would be a major wallop case or large shower of meteorites . "
The other references that link up iron with the sky arrive from thePyramid school text , according to Almansa - Villatoro , texts on the walls of pyramids of male monarch and queens living 4,100 - 4,400 years ago .
" The inscriptions stage the sky as an Fe stadium containing water system , pieces of which can descend to Earth as meteorites or rain , " she explained in her piece , adding that " smoothing iron and sky are similar in the texts , which is why passages describe the beat sailing the iron and the Billie Jean King involve to break an atomic number 26 barrier to reach the sky . "
More insidious foretoken that Ancient Egyptians were aware that meteorites come from the sky is that the same mark used for iron was used as a classifier for the dustup " womb " and " body of water " . Ancient Egyptians conceive that after decease , mogul would be reborn in the waters of goddess Nut ’s womb , where this modifier was found .
" What could at first be dismissed as random , irrelevant association of ' unscientific ' minds describing alloy , women and water turns out to be a byproduct of a scientifically correct interpretation of the cradle of meteoritic branding iron , " Almansa - Villatoro added . " In Egypt , 4,400 long time ago , the word for iron could simply mean sky because the Egyptians knew iron was part of the sky . "
This explanation has meet some pushback , reach that witnessing meteorite impacts is still comparatively uncommon today . However , it ’s still possible that Ancient Egyptians did see such an event , perhaps theGebel Kamil meteorite impactin Southern Egypt which took place within the past5,000 years .
