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A new origin story for King Tut’s meteorite dagger
Astronomy ^ | Thursday, May 19, 2022 | Marisa Sloan

Posted on 05/20/2022 8:14:12 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Takafumi Matsui, director of the Chiba Institute of Technology’s Planetary Exploration Research Center in Japan, and his colleagues visited the weapon at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo in 2020 to find out... their chemical analyses of the dagger's blade and gold hilt, combined with historical knowledge of ancient manufacturing techniques, now cast doubt on whether it was crafted in ancient Egypt at all...

Four years later, aided by the Grand Egyptian Museum’s conservation center, Matsui and his colleagues used a portable scanning X-ray fluorescence instrument to map out the elements on the surface of the blade; not just iron, nickel and cobalt, but also chlorine and manganese, among others. They found that the bumpy, black spots along its edges and center, for example, likely originated from troilite — a mineral commonly found in iron meteorites — but had lost a large amount of sulfur after being heated around 1,300 degrees F...

And just as informative as the abundance of these elements is their... three-dimensional, cross-hatched texture, known as a Widmanstätten pattern, occurs in some meteorites if their iron-nickel mixtures separate into bands upon cooling. The pattern is only visible after the rock has been cut, polished and acid-etched, but its near-hidden and lasting presence on King Tut’s dagger reveals that the blade was never heated above 1,700° F (927° C)...

Amarna letters, hundreds of clay tablets considered to be the oldest documents of diplomacy ever found, consist of correspondences written between Egyptian pharaohs and nearby kings. One such letter mentions a list of gifts made of iron — including an iron dagger with “an inlay of genuine lapis lazuli” and a gold sheath — that the king of Mitanni sent to King Tut’s grandfather, Amenhotep III, when the pharaoh married a princess from the region.

(Excerpt) Read more at astronomy.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: 18thdynasty; amarna; astronomy; catastrophism; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; kingtut; matiene; medes; meteoriticglass; meteoriticiron; mitanni; newkingdom; science
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To: telescope115
Sounds great, and hey, I'm a little jealous. :^) A friend of mine of that time went to see that exhibition, with his classmate and a teacher who was probably trying to groom them. They also saw a giraffe give birth at the Chicago zoo, an experience he valued more.

21 posted on 05/21/2022 6:39:55 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs.)
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To: Berosus

Talk about a market crash!
🤣


22 posted on 05/21/2022 10:26:35 AM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: SunkenCiv
Authentic, but not made in Egypt.

Made in China

23 posted on 05/21/2022 12:00:39 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (I'm Jimmy Crack Corn and I don't care)
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To: SunkenCiv

Background on the Mittani:

http://www.touregypt.net/support/mitanni.htm


24 posted on 05/21/2022 2:40:23 PM PDT by ameribbean expat (Don't blame others for the road you're on. That's your own asphalt.)
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To: SunkenCiv

The Goa’uld gave him this dagger.


25 posted on 05/21/2022 8:19:35 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: SunkenCiv

It might be even more valuable if the provenance could be confirmed. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty good barn find.


26 posted on 05/21/2022 9:00:19 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
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To: smokingfrog

LOL


27 posted on 05/22/2022 6:37:37 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs.)
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To: minnesota_bound

That’s what she said.


28 posted on 05/22/2022 6:38:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs.)
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To: ameribbean expat

Thanks a.e.


29 posted on 05/22/2022 6:42:31 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs.)
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https://www.varchive.org/ce/theses.htm (189, 190)

http://www.varchive.org/tac/hararch.htm

http://www.varchive.org/dag/trowar.htm

http://www.varchive.org/tac/dakhamun.htm

http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/carchemish.htm

http://www.varchive.org/ce/baalbek/baw.htm


30 posted on 05/22/2022 7:44:59 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (The Demagogic Party is a collection of violent, rival street gangs.)
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