Tutankhamun's necklace - ancient glass gem - Tunguska?

In a BBC 2 Horizon programme broadcast tonight scientists attempt to understand how glass predating the ancient Egyptians came to be buried in the Sahara Desert.

Tut's gem hints at space impact

In 1996 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of one of Tutankhamun's necklaces.

The jewel was tested and found to be glass, but intriguingly it is older than the earliest Egyptian civilisation.

Working with Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat, they traced its origins to unexplained chunks of glass found scattered in the sand in a remote region of the Sahara Desert.

Continued at source...

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

The article above mentions the Tunguska event and write up of the programme states that:

...a strange theory involving a previously uknown phenomenon.

is uncovered.

The programme is broadcast on BBC 2 tonight at 21:00.

Jak

this is being discussed a few time's now, there is another thread on this same forum with almost , actually, is identical source.
here's a picture of the Gem:



I forgot to include the finding's of a meteor impact crater found in Egypt:

news.bbc.co.uk...

[edit on 20-7-2006 by Allred5923]

I highly doubt it's related to the Tunguska event, as that was in the early 20th century, and often attributed to a test firing of Tesla's "Death Ray" device into uninhabited territory.

Fact is, any volcanic eruption or meteor impact can generate the temperatures needed to turn raw materials into glass. There's any number of possibilities for the origin of this gem.

It's still interesting, though.

Originally posted by obsidian468
I highly doubt it's related to the Tunguska event, as that was in the early 20th century, and often attributed to a test firing of Tesla's "Death Ray" device into uninhabited territory.

Fact is, any volcanic eruption or meteor impact can generate the temperatures needed to turn raw materials into glass. There's any number of possibilities for the origin of this gem.

It's still interesting, though.

It's not directly related to the Tunguska event but the theory is like (supposedly) the meteorite which exploded over Tunguska. A similar event happened over the Sahara 30 million years ago creating the glass by melting the sand in the Desert. this theory is simply the most likely one anbody has come up with.

[edit on 20-7-2006 by Xeros]

Tektites are not that unusual and it’s no surprise that they would be used for gems. They are common enough that small specimens can be had for a small price at rock shows, rock shops etc.. I have some green ones that are gemmy and could be made into stones. Lightning also produces similar glass from sandy soils and sand. Glass is literally melted sand. The quality depends on the composition and purity of the sands used.
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Read about this on Yahoo yesterday. Pretty cool info.

anyone have any links so's i can research more of these explosions? i'm particularly interested in that one in southeast asia 800,000 years ago, and 30 million years ago, if you can link me to some information.

Can someone correct me but does lightning striking sand (or in the vicinity) produce glass-like material? Could it be from this occurance?

Just an idea, could be wrong

Peace,
- Naz

Unlikely to be lightning as it wa spread over 600,000 square miles or so.

The evidence for a meteorite/comet strike is nearly 100%, theres no crater evidence but there's no evidence for vulcanism.

They need to find detectable minerals that show signs that could only be impact related, so far diamonds and shocked quartz, but there are minerals that show evidence of pressures in the GPA's , these cannot be produced outside of impact events, find these and its 100% impact.

these fireball events, however, are not impacts. the meteor exploded before it landed, igniting the air for thousands of square miles.

Originally posted by nazgarn
Can someone correct me but does lightning striking sand (or in the vicinity) produce glass-like material? Could it be from this occurance?

Just an idea, could be wrong

Peace,
- Naz

Yes it will do if it strikes sand, often leaving a bored like structure down into the sand, leaving a 'skeleton' of glass from the strike. However this occurance was on a far more dense area, withhout these telltale signs. Basically unless someone had a nuclear bomb thousands of times more powerful than those we have today 30 million years ago, the most likely cause is an explosion from a meteorite before impact.