King Tut's Cosmic Blade

 

Figure 1: King Tut's cosmic blade (Image Source: New York Post)

 

It should come to no surprise to many that humans have had a long history with attempting to understand what is above them in the skies and in the heavens.  On this blog there have been various posts about this topic, from a discussion of solar eclipses and what they meant to past populations; the Aztec’s dedication to their primary deity, the Sun God; to modern religious conceptions centering on celestial events.  Today’s blog post continues in that same vein, albeit in a different way.  Today’s blog post will address the cosmic creation of King Tutankham’s blade (Figure 1).

 

King Tutankham, or simply known as King Tut, ruled over Egypt from 1361-1352 B.C., proceeding his father’s reign.  Tut’s reign coincides with the Bronze Age, a period characterized by the widespread use of bronze for metal artifacts.  There were some iron artifacts manufactured and used during this period, but the production of iron was in its infancy and therefore iron artifacts were reserved for ritual, ceremonial, or ornamental purposes.  Typically, iron artifacts were found with high status individuals, such as King Tut, who happened to be buried with several iron artifacts. 

 

One such artifact, an iron blade with an ornamental gold hilt, has been widely studied over the years, particularly because of its rarity but more because of the origins of the iron blade itself.  The iron used to create the blade was not of Earthly origins but instead believe to have been from a meteorite.  Early studies of the blade did not disclose the specific methods used to assess the origins of the blade, leading scholars to be skeptical of the results.  It was not until 2006 in a study conducted by Comelli et al. that the origins of the blade were finally identified.  Using X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), a nondestructive analysis, the components of the iron ore in the blade were exhaustively analyzed, and the scholars reached a number of important conclusions about the blade.  First, they realized that the blade was fashioned from a meteorite.  Subsequent study expanded on this conclusion to add that the smelting process required low level heat to appropriately work the metal.  Comelli et al. also concluded that the blade was manufactured outside of Egypt, most likely in Anatolia where the earliest iron smelting occurred.  This conclusion was supported by archaeological records, specifically the Armarna Letters, which detailed the receipt of gifts from outside kingdoms to the Egyptian pharaohs.  It seems that the blade buried with King Tut was originally gifted to his grandfather.  How and why it was interred with him as part of his burial shroud remains unknown.

 

The discovery of the cosmic origins of King Tut’s blade provides greater insights into early life throughout the Old World, but it also clarifies early records found throughout ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia.  Scholars noted that these civilizations recorded events, such as meteor showers, and connected iron with coming from the sky.  Initially, there were and continue to be debates about the meaning of this phrasing, specifically in referencing meteorites that were collected and smelted in the early iron smelting process or if ancient peoples believed all iron came from the heavens.  While this remains under debate the identification of King Tut’s blade as being derived from a meteor demonstrates that ancient peoples were collecting meteorites and manipulating them for high value items.  This is in line with discoveries across the globe wherein meteorites were used to create a variety of objects, often associated with sacred or ritual contexts.

 

References

Comelli, D., D'Orazio, M., Folco, L., El-Halwagy, M., Frizzi, T., Alberti, R., . . . Valentini, G. (2016). The meteoritic origin of Tutankhamun’s iron dagger blade. Meteoritics & Planetary Science 1–9 (2016), 1-9.

Johnson, D., Tyldesley, J., Lowe, T., Withers, P. J., & Grady, M. M. (2013). Analysis of a prehistoric Egyptian iron bead with implications for the use and perception of meteorite iron in ancient Egypt. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 997–1006.

Matsui, T., Moriwaki, R., Zidan, E., & Arai, T. (2022). The manufacture and origin of the Tutankhamen meteoritic iron dagger. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 1-12.