>A dagger entombed with King Tutankhamun was made with iron from a meteorite, a new analysis on the metal composition shows.
>In 1925, archaeologist Howard Carter found two daggers, one iron and one with a blade of gold, within the wrapping of the teenage king, who was mummified more than 3,300 years ago. The iron blade, which had a gold handle, rock crystal pommel and lily and jackal-decorated sheath, has puzzled researchers in the decades since Carter’s discovery: ironwork was rare in ancient Egypt, and the dagger’s metal had not rusted.
>Italian and Egyptian researchers analyzed the metal with an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer to determine its chemical composition, and found its high nickel content, along with its levels of cobalt, “strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin”. They compared the composition to known meteorites within 2,000km around the Red Sea coast of Egypt, and found similar levels in one meteorite.
>That meteorite, named Kharga, was found 150 miles west of Alexandria, at the seaport city of Mersa Matruh, which in the age of Alexander the Great – the fourth century BC – was known as Amunia.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/01/dagger-king-tut-tomb-iron-meteorite-egypt-mummy?CMP=fb_gu
Blades made of meteoric iron are far from unheard of
Neat
>>1225929
/thread
>>1225912
This.
It was the most common before people knew how to smelt the iron themselves.
pretty sure we already knew it was meteoric iron for decades
>>1225900
As others have said, this was how it had always been during that period. In fact, In Greece Iron was considered to be a heavenly metal because they actually knew that it had fallen from the sky, and when they found it it glowed from within the earth. It also barely rusted due to its high nickel content, giving further evidence to the idea that it was miraculous. Obviously, people who fought with iron also had a huge advantage against those who didn't.
>>1226719
Hephaestus may have actually been a mythologization of this event.
HALT, EARTHLINGS
ayy
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>>1225912
This
>>1225900
The practice continues.
http://cabotgun.com/oak-collection/the-big-bang-pistol-set/#1
>>1226862
American art piece firearms make me simultaneously think "cool" and "ugh"
>>1225900
Haven't they known that ever since they first found it?
>>1228291
Yes.
But they made a test.
>yfw you realize von Daniken was right all along
>>1226719
This is so fucking interesting
In Tutank's time (~1300BC) at the height of the BRONZE age, iron was a rare and jealously guarded commodity. Very few regions in the near east had deposits of iron AND the knowledge to smelt it but the ones that did were at a serious military advantage (see the Hittites). These iron pioneers were unwilling to trade it and for this reason iron did not freely circulate in trade until after the Bronze age collapse (<1200BC).
Egypt as it happens has no natural iron deposits, but they did have the vast uninhabited wasteland around the Nile. There is plenty of land for meteorites to accumulate and no vegetation hiding the secrets of the bare rock. It is no stretch to imagine they would exploit this - their only source of iron - and that it would be an occult substance reserved for priests and Pharaohs.
>>1228293
So in other words, it's fucking nothing.
>>1225900
I don't understand the amazement. We've known for decades that bronze age cultures would use iron from meteorites to make expensive weapons and objects. It was the only way to get iron before the iron age.
>>1226719
>It also barely rusted due to its high nickel content, giving further evidence to the idea that it was miraculous
Well thats bullshit, considering this was the bronze age, therefore they didn't have regular iron, and bronze doesn't rust, so they didn't know what rusting was.
>Obviously, people who fought with iron also had a huge advantage against those who didn't.
Nice meme
>>1228565
Finding a small clump of ion in a sea of sand is probably harder than digging it out of the ground..
>>1228612
Not really
>>1228612
Meoerites that land in desert tend to turn the surrounding sand into a type of glass. It's very specific, and so it wouldn't be too terribly hard to dig the meteor out once the "crater" is found.
>>1228612
Obviously, but Egypt has no natural iron deposits and that fact just adds to the luxury of the object. It is not as if every peasant was using this iron to plow their fields, it was the King's own specially crafted dagger.
Anyway we already now already know meteorites were used for iron in Egypt, and the process is hardly different from prospecting for jade or other precious minerals.
>check the BBC Africa article for this
>the top comments are all talking about how the Egyptians had contact with aliens and built spaceships
I thought it was just memes, /his/
