The iron weapon forged from meteorite appears not to have been made in Egypt at all, but in modern-day Syria.

At the beginning of the last century, Egyptologist Howard Carter came across the virtually intact tomb and sarcophagus of the now famous pharaoh Tutankhamun. The Egyptian pharaoh had been laid to rest with an enigmatic iron-bladed dagger that caused quite a stir in the years following his discovery. How did the ancient Egyptians get this iron, well before the start of the Iron Age? Meanwhile, scientists are starting to make more and more ends. And a new study yields surprising new insights: the dagger turns out not to have been made in Egypt at all.

Tutankhamun’s dagger. Image: Howard Carter, Daniela Comelli1, Massimo D’orazio, Luigi Folco, et al. (via Wikimedia Commons†

Over the years, the mysterious dagger of Pharaoh Tutankhamun has been studied by several researchers who wanted to learn more about its origin. A big question mark was, among other things, the iron blade mentioned earlier and pictured above.

Meteorite

“Tutankhamun lived about 1300 BC, during the late Bronze Age,” researcher Tomoko Arai told Scientias.nl† “It is generally believed that the subsequent Iron Age began about 1200 BC.” The question therefore arose as to how the blacksmith who made the dagger in the Bronze Age obtained iron. Did he know how to melt earthly iron? In 2016, a research group made a surprising discovery. Their study found that the iron blade of the dagger contains the same concentrations of nickel and cobalt as a meteorite. The conclusion was therefore clear: the iron from which this blade was made came from outer space.

Not very unique
Incidentally, researchers found out a year later that making tools from meteorites was not very unusual at that time. In the study, the team examined multiple iron objects made during the Bronze Age to determine once and for all whether iron was already being smelted during this period. It leads to a surprising discovery. For the few iron objects which, strictly speaking, date from the Bronze Age and could be analysed, turn out to be absolutely made of iron from meteorites. So it seems that thousands of years before the start of the Iron Age people already made many tools from iron from meteorites, which made the dagger in Tutankhamun’s tomb a little less special.

According to Arai, tracing the origin of Tutankhamun’s dagger is very important. “This directly affects the generally accepted history of human civilization from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age,” she says. And so she continues the search in a new study. For example, from what kind of meteorite is the dagger forged? And how exactly did that forging process work?

Widmanstättenstructure

Arai studied the dagger through thorough chemical analysis. In doing so, she discovered that the blade consisted of expected metals, such as iron, manganese and nickel. The researchers also found sulfur zinc and chlorine. More interesting, however, was the find on the blade of widmanstätten structures. These are conspicuous, triangular structures found on the inside of some meteorites.

Cross section of a meteorite, showing widmanstätten structures. Image: Aram Dulyan (via Wikimedia Commons†

“This was a real wow moment for us,” Arai recalls. For thanks to the discovery we now know that the meteorite from which the blade is made belongs to the octahedrites; the most common iron meteorite. “The presence of widmanstätten structures also means that the dagger was manufactured at fairly low (or moderate) temperatures,” Arai continues. “We suspect that the dagger was made at temperatures below 950 degrees Celsius. Otherwise, the structures would have disappeared during the forging process. This means that the dagger was made by heating meteorite iron at a low temperature.”

Not from Egypt

Although the analysis of the blade’s composition cannot reveal exactly where the meteorite landed, Arai suspects it may not have been in Egypt. “While the Iron Age is believed to have begun about 1200 BC, it is known that the Hittites, an ancient people from ancient Anatolia, already possessed the technique of working iron,” she says. “We are therefore reconsidering the possible origin of the dagger.” According to the researchers, the meteorite from which the dagger is made may well have fallen to the ground outside Egypt, in modern-day Syria, and been processed somewhere in that region. “This hypothesis is consistent with what is written in the Amarna letters,” Arai says.

amarna letters

The Amarna Letters is a collection of letters, mostly diplomatic in nature. The letters were written some 3,400 years ago; a century before King Tutankhamun was buried. When the researchers examined the diplomatic correspondence, they discovered that the iron dagger was also mentioned. “It is recorded in the letters that ‘an iron dagger with a golden hilt’ was given to Amenhotep III by the king of Mitanni; Tutankhamun’s grandfather,” Arai says. “So the dagger may have come from Mitanni in Mesopotamia.”

It would mean that Tutankhamun’s mysterious dagger originated in a Hurrian kingdom in northern Syria. “This is our best suggestion right now, based on the evidence currently available,” Arai said. “But there is no definitive conclusion yet.” And so, even though their study has taken the researchers one step further in unraveling the origins of Tutankhamun’s dagger, not all secrets have yet been revealed. Follow-up research will therefore have to show whether the dagger made from meteorite is indeed a family heirloom that has been passed on from generation to generation.