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Did they necessarily know that it was made from a meteorite? The dagger was a gift, and the Mitanni who made it might not have seen it land or made the connecti

Did they necessarily know that it was made from a meteorite? The dagger was a gift, and the Mitanni who made it might not have seen it land or made the connection; the meteorite could have already been there for some time before its iron was exploited.

belter 5y ago
It seems could be one that landed 240km (150 miles) west of Alexandria. "Tutankhamun's knife was made from meteorite iron" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36432635 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36432635
- mannerheim 5y ago
  The article from OP (which is from this year, rather than 2016 as the BBC article) says that they believe it came from the Mitanni, but that their conclusion isn't a definitive one: > The origin is another mystery around Tutankhamen’s blade. In the Amarna Letters, a diplomatic correspondence written on clay tablets and discovered in a royal archive in the south of Egypt, there is a list of gifts sent by King Tushratta of Mitanni in Anatolia, to Pharaoh Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather of Ancient Egypt when he married Princess Tadukhipa, the daughter of Tushratta. Among the gifts mentioned in the list is a dagger with an iron-made blade. > The research of Arai’s team states that this is very likely to be the same dagger for two main reasons. The first being that iron-processing technology was already common practice at the time in the Mitanni regions. And second, because the dagger’s gold hilt shows a low percentage of calcium with no sulfur. This feature indicates the use of lime plaster as an adhesive material for the decoration of this part of the object, a frequently used material in Mitanni, which was used in Egypt until several centuries later, during the Ptolemaic period. (I assume they meant 'which was [not] used in Egypt until several centuries later', otherwise that sentence doesn't quite make sense)
- jupp0r 5y ago
  There are 44 tons of meteorites landing on earth every day, so just finding one that closely matches isn't more than a rough guess.
sebow 5y ago
I'm pretty sure even back then people were aware of celestial bodies like planets & stars. However meteorites, comets, things that came close to Earth's atmosphere were probably regarded differently depending on culture, social class/status(which vastly indicated level of education),etc. Also more likely than not those events were used politically to much success. I find it hard to believe that the 'brightest' people of any ancient period weren't aware that some of these 'small' objects might hit and thus remain on earth.
- mannerheim 5y ago
  This is certainly true for some cases: > Meteorite falls may have been the source of cultish worship. The cult in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, possibly originated with the observation and recovery of a meteorite that was understood by contemporaries to have fallen to the earth from Jupiter, the principal Roman deity.[68] There are reports that a sacred stone was enshrined at the temple that may have been a meteorite. However, that doesn't mean that the particular knife of Tutankhamun was necessarily known by the Egyptians to have been made from meteoric iron.
  - selimthegrim 5y ago
    And of course, the most famous meteorite made into a religious cornerstone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      The Kaaba is pretty famous; the meteorite inside is much less famous than that. I would argue that the most famous meteorite would be the one that caused the Chixculub impact. We may not actually have pieces of it, but we know about it.
      - mannerheim 5y ago
        Note GP didn't say the most famous meteorite, but the most famous one made into a religious cornerstone.
zionic 5y ago
As an Eve player I appreciated your comment

belter 5y ago

It seems could be one that landed 240km (150 miles) west of Alexandria. "Tutankhamun's knife was made from meteorite iron" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36432635 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-36432635

mannerheim 5y ago
The article from OP (which is from this year, rather than 2016 as the BBC article) says that they believe it came from the Mitanni, but that their conclusion isn't a definitive one: > The origin is another mystery around Tutankhamen’s blade. In the Amarna Letters, a diplomatic correspondence written on clay tablets and discovered in a royal archive in the south of Egypt, there is a list of gifts sent by King Tushratta of Mitanni in Anatolia, to Pharaoh Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather of Ancient Egypt when he married Princess Tadukhipa, the daughter of Tushratta. Among the gifts mentioned in the list is a dagger with an iron-made blade. > The research of Arai’s team states that this is very likely to be the same dagger for two main reasons. The first being that iron-processing technology was already common practice at the time in the Mitanni regions. And second, because the dagger’s gold hilt shows a low percentage of calcium with no sulfur. This feature indicates the use of lime plaster as an adhesive material for the decoration of this part of the object, a frequently used material in Mitanni, which was used in Egypt until several centuries later, during the Ptolemaic period. (I assume they meant 'which was [not] used in Egypt until several centuries later', otherwise that sentence doesn't quite make sense)
jupp0r 5y ago
There are 44 tons of meteorites landing on earth every day, so just finding one that closely matches isn't more than a rough guess.

sebow 5y ago

I'm pretty sure even back then people were aware of celestial bodies like planets & stars. However meteorites, comets, things that came close to Earth's atmosphere were probably regarded differently depending on culture, social class/status(which vastly indicated level of education),etc. Also more likely than not those events were used politically to much success. I find it hard to believe that the 'brightest' people of any ancient period weren't aware that some of these 'small' objects might hit and thus remain on earth.

mannerheim 5y ago
This is certainly true for some cases: > Meteorite falls may have been the source of cultish worship. The cult in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, possibly originated with the observation and recovery of a meteorite that was understood by contemporaries to have fallen to the earth from Jupiter, the principal Roman deity.[68] There are reports that a sacred stone was enshrined at the temple that may have been a meteorite. However, that doesn't mean that the particular knife of Tutankhamun was necessarily known by the Egyptians to have been made from meteoric iron.
- selimthegrim 5y ago
  And of course, the most famous meteorite made into a religious cornerstone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    The Kaaba is pretty famous; the meteorite inside is much less famous than that. I would argue that the most famous meteorite would be the one that caused the Chixculub impact. We may not actually have pieces of it, but we know about it.
    - mannerheim 5y ago
      Note GP didn't say the most famous meteorite, but the most famous one made into a religious cornerstone.

zionic 5y ago

As an Eve player I appreciated your comment