King Tut’s glass beetle came from outer space

Not seen this anywhere so soz if its already been posted


www.timesonline.co.uk...

SCIENTISTS believe they have solved the mystery surrounding a piece of rare natural glass at the centre of an elaborate necklace found among the treasures of Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh.

They think a fragile meteorite broke up as it entered the atmosphere, producing a fireball with temperatures over 1,800C that turned the desert sand and rock into molten lava which became glass when it cooled.


Experts have puzzled over the origin of the yellow-green glass — carved into the shape of a scarab beetle — since it was excavated in 1922 from the tomb of the teenage king, who died about 1323BC. It is generally agreed that it came from an area called the Great Sand Sea but there has been uncertainty over how it was formed because there is no crater to back up the idea of a meteorite strike.

Now it is thought that the meteorite responsible was not intact but made up of loose rubble.

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[edit on 4/7/2006 by Umbrax]

Originally posted by The Director
Experts have puzzled over the origin of the yellow-green glass — carved into the shape of a scarab beetle — since it was excavated in 1922 from the tomb of the teenage king, who died about 1323BC. It is generally agreed that it came from an area called the Great Sand Sea but there has been uncertainty over how it was formed because there is no crater to back up the idea of a meteorite strike.

Kebira's shape is reminiscent of the many double-ringed craters on the Moon, which Dr. El-Baz remembers from his years of work with the Apollo program. Because of this, he believes the crater will figure prominently in future research in comparative planetology. And, since its shape points to an origin of extraterrestrial impact, it will likely prove to be the event responsible for the extensive field of “Desert Glass” – yellow-green silica glass fragments found on the desert surface between the giant dunes of the Great Sand Sea in southwestern Egypt.

Crater Discovered in the Sahara
This is a pretty interesting article. The crater seems to have gone unnoticed for so long due to its size and age. Modern satellite technology is actually responsible for the find, and the crater would seem to explain the glass.

They really did have help then.

Seriously though, they must have thought it was a sign from the gods, giving them precious materials.

Must have been quite a specttical to watch!

The discovery of this crater has been discussed before here at ATS. Even to the inclusion of Tut's scarab beetle, in fact. But not exclusively in terms of Tut's jewelry.

The subject came up refuting the silly "Ancient Nuclear Wars" ideas of David Hatcher Childress. The Libyan glass is one of the examples he (and others) used to claim that what's been mistranslated out of the Mahabarata as nuclear war actually occured and caused the desert sands to be melted into glass. These claims for the Libyan glass were made specifically because no crater had been found associated with this material, a fact Childress gleefully repeats continually and with melodramatic overtones, not to mention exclamation points.

Don't look for Childress to now pop up with a "My Bad!!!" or anything. Not his style.

Harte

This is a very beautiful piece of cut jewelry, managed to find a pic. of the Tutenkahman relic, here it is:

About this time Michele di Vincenzo and Giancarlo Negro made the surprising discovery that the scarab in the famous pectoral of King Tutankhamun was made of a carved piece of Libyan Desert Glass.

i74.photobucket.com...

Originally posted by Allred5923

i74.photobucket.com...

Amazing, so intricately designed, it must have taken them weeks, maybe even months to make it.

Also, such a small piece of glass, I wonder how big it wwas before it was cut?

Originally posted by Zanzibar

Originally posted by Allred5923

i74.photobucket.com...

Amazing, so intricately designed, it must have taken them weeks, maybe even months to make it.

Also, such a small piece of glass, I wonder how big it wwas before it was cut?

Looks as if they come in variuos sizes, some are prettty good sized chunks of the LDG (Libian Desert Glass).
Here's a comparison pic of a large pic compared to the human hand:

www.africaland.it...\ldg.htm

Sounds like disinformation to me, go read underground!

Pretty impressive to see it. It must've carried great weight if any of them knew that it was the result of a bolt from the sky.

The Kabba, the cuboidal temple in mecca, has a peice of rock that is beleived to have been a meteorite, and might've been revered because of the fact that it came, literally, from the heavens.

The ancients were apparently well aware of these sorts of sites, very ancient iron objects are thought to have been made from 'pure' iron meteorites, rather then smelted from ore.

I object to the title of this series. The glass that Tut's Scarab is made from is referred to as Libian Glass now and does not have it's origin in space and has never been into space. The best it could have been was a Tektite but research has proven that it is really what should be called a "Melt."

Tektites are caused by Volcanoes and Meteor strikes and actually eject material 100 miles, or so up. All of this material is from Earth (with maybe a little from the Meteor) and when it cools quickly it forms glass. This glass falls back through the atmosphere and friction causes an ablated surface like a meteorite. We find this exact material all over the planet that has never had the pleasure of a round trip into high-orbit and we call it Obsidian.

The event that caused this material was a rather large meteorite that exploded some 20 miles up and splashed the desert with temperatures greater than the surface of the Sun. This melted a Gazillion (technically speaking) square miles of desert in what is now South West Egygt and South East Libia, hence Libian Glass.

This also occurred approximately 20 Million years ago so the likelihood that anyone saw it happen is non-existent. Humans have only been around for 1 million years or so, civilization only about 12 Thousand years and written language only 5 Thousand. I know these are VERY broad numbers so don't get all excited and jump down my throat. Besides, anyone that may have been there to see it would have been melted down to become part of it so they couldn't have recorded the event.

There never was a crater because it never hit us. An event that occurred in historical times and was recorded is the meteor that hit Tunguska in Russia in 1908. It was only a few 10's of meters in diameter and exploded about 5 miles up but it created a 10-15 Mega Ton explosion and leveled about 80 Million trees over 830 square miles. The Libian meteor is estimated at about 1 mile in diameter.

This glass is actually quite attractive and I, and others, use it in jewelry. I facet it into gemstones for rings and pendants and it turns out quite good looking. Some is very opaque but it goes to transparent in some pieces.

It is available in pieces that range from a few grams to multi-kilo pieces. It is an absolute "Bear" to collect though because it's a multiple day trip into a desert that gets so hot that it might be still creating glass. In reality it is being eroded by blown sand and devitrifying (structurally dissolving) so in a few thousands of years it will no longer exist in the wild.

I have a brick-and-mortar store in Santa Rosa, California as well as web stores and deal in mineral and gemstone specimens, jewelry and Grateful Dead memorabilia. Strange combo maybe but my partner is one of the worlds biggest Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead fans. He followed them back and forth across the country for 20 years and is in the movie "Dread Heads."

Originally posted by Zanzibar
They really did have help then.

Seriously though, they must have thought it was a sign from the gods, giving them precious materials.

Must have been quite a specttical to watch!

Time has distorted the details, but there has been talk in the past about how Egyptians view meteors to begin with. They believed meteors to be the semen of the gods, and this was supported by the massive iron pieces that were left when the meteor impacted. This iron was sacred to them, and used in many of the mummification rituals, as the seed of the gods would be used to provide the afterlife to the pharoh (or whoever was being mummified).

Interestingly, there was a docco on natgeo this very night about the unusual glass in the dessert.

It should be worth noting that the glass did not come from space, the thread's title is misleading. It was a result of the ground being glassed in the fireball.

The impact was also said to be over a million years ago meaning no one would have been around to see it. That also puts the fireball before the Sahara desert came to be, when the area was instead forest with lakes and rivers etc.

On a side note, I always thought that the scarab piece in the jewellery looked out of place for it's green-foggy appearance, where the other pieces where crystal clear or polished to a mirror finish.

[edit on 9/13/2008 by Good Wolf]

reply to post by Good Wolf


On Oct 21st the King Tut exhibit will be in Dallas, and I am taking my kids. I hope to have a very good time. And possibly get a feel for what this pharoh surrounded himself with.

The information about what the region looked like during the impact is interesting. Perhaps this is what lends the strange color properties to the area. Any idea where it is on GoogleEarth?

[edit on 13-9-2008 by bigfatfurrytexan]

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I can only say that it's southwestern egypt, near the boarder of Libya

[edit on 9/13/2008 by Good Wolf]