The iron dagger of Tutankhamun with its gold sheath.Daniela Comelli/Egyptian Museum in Cairo
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 ...
The iron dagger of Tutankhamun with its gold sheath.Daniela Comelli/Egyptian Museum in Cairo
Tbey don’t make ‘em like that any more.
Maybe I’m dense, but are they saying it’s a fake, or a gift to him from somewhere else?
The gift would still be impressive, I would think. Meteorite would be an amazingly strong metal, and fitting gift for royalty.
Authentic, but not made in Egypt. :^)
EGON SPENGLER: The structure of this roof cap is exactly like the kind of telemetry tracker that NASA uses to identify dead pulsars in deep space.
Ray pulled out the blueprints out of his flight suit and laid it over the one Egon was examining.
RAY STANTZ: Cold riveted girders with cores of pure selenium.
Peter Venkman surprised the other inmates curious about Ray and Egon’s conversation.
PETER VENKMAN: Everybody getting this so far? So what? I guess they just don’t make them like they used to, huh?
Ray slapped the side of Peter’s head.
RAY STANTZ: No! Nobody ever made them like this! I mean, the architect was either a certified genius or an aesthetic wacko.
They are saying it may have been a wedding gift to his grandfather.
Amazing...
I have been suggesting for years that the iron dagger was a gift from the Hittites, inasmuch as Egypt does not have iron ore. In a pinch, Mitanni will do.
Very interesting.
The other GGG topics added since the previous digest ping:
I think the Hittites were conquered by the Kickites. Boxing is the sweet science, danged MMA crap.
The craftsmanship is remarkable, and of course, it's in great shape because it was likely never used in anger.
When I saw the Tut exhibit in Chicago in the ‘70s, I remember seeing the gold dagger and another one that looked unimpressive next to the gold one, so I just gave it a passing glance. That must’ve been the meteorite dagger.
How I wish I could see it all again…
How did the one who picked out the rock to begin with recognize it’s worth to make a better blade from?
They make better fighting knifes today.
Another late nite purchase from HSN...
For a while, the only source for iron was meteorites. I hear it was worth 40 times as much as gold until somebody discovered that you can get iron from iron ore.
Probably tried to cut it with bronze. :^)
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