Iron from the Sky. The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun’s iron dagger

Since Howard Carter’s discovery in 1925 1, the meteoritic origin of the iron dagger blade from the sarcophagus of the ancient Egyptian King Tutankhamun (14th Century BC), part of the King’s funerary collection now at the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, has been the subject of debate. In this presentation, we report on the work carried out by the author in collaboration with Comelli et al. (2016). It is shown that the composition of Tutankhamun’s iron dagger blade (Fe plus 10.8 wt% Ni and 0.58 wt% Co), accurately determined through portable x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, strongly supports its meteoritic origin. This study confirms that ancient Egyptians attributed great value to precious objects made by meteoritic iron. However, it is as yet unclear if such dagger blade made of meteoritic iron was manufactured in Egypt or imported from Anatolia.