King Tut knife made from meteorite

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: UnBreakable
So the ancient Egyptians knew meteorites had iron properties that could be forged, a couple of thousand years before

I'd like to correct an impression here - Tutankamun lived during the end of the Bronze Age when iron smelting became more common in the Levant. If memory serves, India had smelting before this. The Egyptians smelted copper and bronze... there are actually Egyptian iron smelted artifacts from earlier than Tut.

Smelting iron? Yes. But the gist of this story says Egypt specifically knew that meteorites could be harvested for this purpose before other western cultures.

But what about Eastern cultures?
I would bet with all honesty the Sumerians and their precursors smelted meteorites. As well as the Ancient Chinese cultures.
Maybe Egypt knew due to their conquests or through trade or who knows?

I Love this stuff!
Thanks for the thread.

a reply to: strongfp

the part about the blade rusting is not entirely true. depending on the makeup of the alloy it could be rust resistant. checkout the iron pillar in india. its thousands of years old and doesnt rust do to a special makeup of the alloy from a mine that has been exhausted supposedly. theres also been other metal finds in the pyramids themselves. cant remember which explorer it was, but one guy blew a big hole in a pyramid to get in and some iron rods went flying out with the stone. whats interesting imo is ive watched videos of blacksmiths trying their hand at forging meteorites into blades or other tools and it is a very ttough process. they tend to just want to crumble and never forge together. so these were not some amatuers who were able to smelt a few pieces here and there, these were people who had to have had a lifetime of knowledge to work that metal. btw if i remember correctly, king tuts burial chamber was buried from many many floods. pretty much the entire valley of the kings was flooded many times washing rubble and debris into the chambers filling them from floor to ceiling with gravel and dirt.

Not a thousand years before anyone else. Just before western civilization...

Many cultures obtained iron from meteorites prior to the rise of the Egyptian empire.

a reply to: UnBreakable

a reply to: UnBreakable

This trickle of information from something so old is just a ploy to get tourism dollars to a failed state. It's the same thing every 6 months from them.

a reply to: UnBreakable

Very nice post

originally posted by: zinc12
a reply to: Wolfenz

They did not make that green glass though they found it in the desert and ground it into the scarab design. That green glass is made when a burning meteorite punches into sand making green glass under the high heat and pressure.

Where Did i Claim that that they made it ? ...

or Could they ! ??

Yes we know of the Story of Pieces of Green Glass,
like was produced from the Trinity Site
mostly in Libya... aka Libyan desert glass
Tektite to Trinitite..

IT Still is all over the Libyan Dessert..
and still can be found ...

there is a documentary about it ...

The Dagger is claimed to be made out of a meteorite right ?

Well Seems like the Egyptians like playing with things falling from the Sky
and make use out of them ..

Well Folks

I think you might find this Interesting to say the Least

Apparently Sumerians know of Forging Grades of Metal ..

and Apparently in the British Museum ..

Someone was Pissed in the city of Ur in 1750 BC, having the Wrong Grade of Copper ORE !!

Sumerian Clay Tablet Copper Grade Complaint !!
www.britishmuseum.org...

Clay tablet; letter from Nanni to Ea-nasir complaining that the wrong grade of copper ore has been delivered after a gulf voyage and about misdirection and delay of a further delivery; slightly damaged; 23 + 25 + 3 + 2 ll.

So the Egyptians could of forged this Dagger Right ? from the Meteorite..
and How Pure and High Grade is this Dagger ?

a reply to: Byrd

If by "correct" you mean, add further to the confusion, you succeeded.

Do you have any links that describe those "earlier" smelted iron objects?

The flag and star system really is worthless, isn't it?

a reply to: UnBreakable

Very interested post and it shows how the plot thickens for our old history. Something sure does not add up.

I am currently going through information about past history of Egypt and many other older civilisations, they seem to all follow suit.

Anyhow, this dagger is very cool looking and amazing that they knew it had those properties. Rather, did they know or was they told. They didn't exactly have a science lab in those days to test for Iron.

Interesting story. There is a video in the link that they found out how King Tut died. Malaria.

Which is interesting. Because it is transmitted by the mosquito Aedes Aegypti Aedes means Temple. Aegypti means pertaining to Egypt or its people.

= Temple of Egypt.

A temple is commanded by a king.

The mosquitos name is a precursor to what these scientists found out about what brought the downfall of the ruler of the temple in Egypt.

originally posted by: zinc12
You cant forge Iron meteorites because they are not steel but nickel Iron. If you heat it in a forge and strike it with a hammer it will shatter into hundreds of fragments. King tuts knife was not forged it was ground out of a solid iron meteorite.

Thank you very much. I was waiting for that. Why it didn't rust either, the nickel component.

Very special process for a rare object. Fit for a king.

a reply to: Miracula2

The Aedes Mosquito does not transmit Malaria. It transmits Yellow Fever. The mosquito that transmits Malaria is the Anopheles Genus.The Aedes Aegypti did not get it's name until the 1700's and has nothing to do with the Egyptian people beyond the name and the fact it was "discovered" in North Africa.

a reply to: Wolfenz

They could not have forged it. It was probably grinded into the blade using stones.

You can forge some meteorites other you cant. Either way ive heard they arent very strong and are used for ceremonial or decorative purposes. But you can forge many types of meteorites.

originally posted by: UnBreakable

originally posted by: Byrd

originally posted by: UnBreakable
So the ancient Egyptians knew meteorites had iron properties that could be forged, a couple of thousand years before

I'd like to correct an impression here - Tutankamun lived during the end of the Bronze Age when iron smelting became more common in the Levant. If memory serves, India had smelting before this. The Egyptians smelted copper and bronze... there are actually Egyptian iron smelted artifacts from earlier than Tut.

Smelting iron? Yes. But the gist of this story says Egypt specifically knew that meteorites could be harvested for this purpose before other western cultures.

I think that's debateable... but I don't have any strong material to support my belief.

originally posted by: Miracula2
Interesting story. There is a video in the link that they found out how King Tut died. Malaria.

That's been discounted by more recent evidence.

a reply to: TheScale

As I said, the Egyptians had times, lots of it to practice.
Take a look at this wiki link, it'll give some more insight in the process.

Enjoy.

en.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: Skywatcher2011
a reply to: UnBreakable

They had some pretty cool forging technology back then. But I wonder if their alien friends (who helped build the pyramids) brought this meteoritic metal from space as a gift to King Tut?..heheh

I think it's more likely that the Egyptians were inheritors of the pyramids from a much older civilization.

If it wasn't for Sultan Hassan we might actually know the truth.

Not really uncommon. Even for the age, iron was produced in small amounts from meteorites, Bog Iron and small deposits of surface ore.

The tech was there, just not the infrastructure to support an "Age of Iron" as it were.

I'll have to re-read the OP, bu tI read this factoid in a book on Damascus waaaay back in the late 90s when I worked in a forge/machine shop

a reply to: BASSPLYR

The Kris wavy dagger type from SE Asia were made in large part with meteorite iron.

Really not that uncommon world wide