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Many mysteries surround the ancient Egyptians. How did they build the pyramids? Is there a maze buried under the Sphinx? How did King Tut die? Well one long-standing question might have been answered recently, but the answer has lead to more questions. That's because it has to do with something extraterrestrial.
Along with jewels, weapons and gold, there was a strange item found in King Tutankhamun's tomb - a dagger. It wouldn't have been such a perplexing find except the knife boasted technology that wasn't actually seen in Egypt until 500 years after Tut died. The dagger had no rust on it and it was made from iron, which Egyptians didn't discover until centuries later. So where did the dagger come from? Well scientists now think the metal in it came from space.
Photo: onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The Journal of Meteoritics and Planetary Science features an article from researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology that asserts the dagger's metal originated in a meteorite. They explained that the iron shows high percentages of nickel and cobalt, which "strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin."
It turns out a meteorite did hit the planet a little before Tut's time, landing about 150 miles away from Alexandria and containing similar levels of cobalt and nickel.
The scientists also might have solved another dagger mystery. After taking an x-ray of the golden handle, they noticed it was created with an adhesive material called lime plaster, but once again, Egyptians weren't aware of lime plaster until much later. However, based on how the handle was made, using a foreign low-temperature technique, they think it might have been created in Mitanni, Anatolia, what is now Türkiye. There are records that show Tut's grandfather, Amenhotep III, would receive gifts from the King of Mitanni, and those gifts might have eventually been passed down to Tut, meaning that the dagger actually came from Anatolia years before Tut was even born.
You can see the dagger on display at Cairo's Egyptian Museum.