Jakarta –
King Tutankhamun of ancient Egypt had a dagger containing iron from a meteorite. The dagger, found in the Pharaoh’s Tomb, was examined via portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and found to have a composition very similar to meteoritic iron.
Further analysis of how the blade was forged, as well as possible references to the knife in a number of studies, suggests that the knife may have been a gift from King Mitanni to Amenhotep III, Tutankhamun’s grandfather, before it was passed down.
Interestingly, the Ancient Egyptians were revealed to have known that meteorites did not come from this world, but from outer space.
Recent analysis of hieroglyphic texts described by Egyptologist Victoria Almansa-Villatoro suggests that this may be the case. The clue is in the Ancient Egyptian word for iron.
“From the beginning of the 19th Dynasty (ca. 1295 BC) a new hieroglyphic word for iron emerged: ‘bi-An-pt’, which literally translates to ‘iron of the sky’,” said Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Physical Sciences at the Open University, Diane Johnson explains in an article for The Conversation.
“Why this new word appeared in this persistent form is currently unknown. But later the word was applied to all ferrous metals. A clear illustration of the sudden appearance of the word is a large impact event or a large meteorite shower,” as quoted from IFL Science.
The earliest references linking iron to the sky come from the Pyramid Texts on the walls of the pyramids of kings and queens who lived 4,100-4,400 years ago.
“The inscription shows the sky as an iron bowl filled with air, pieces of which can fall to Earth as meteorites or rain,” he explained in his writing.
He adds that iron and the sky are interchangeable in the text, which is why the passages describe the sky, and the king must break the iron barrier to reach the sky.
A more subtle indication that the Ancient Egyptians knew that meteorites came from the sky is that there is the same sign used for iron, used as a classifier for the words ‘womb’ and ‘water’.
The ancient Egyptians believed that after death, the king would be reborn in the waters of the womb of the Goddess Nut, where this qualification was found.
“What could initially be considered a random and irrelevant association of ‘unscientific’ minds depicting metal, women and water turns out to be a by-product of a scientifically correct interpretation of the iron origin of meteorites,” added Almansa-Villatoro.
“In Egypt, 4,400 years ago, the word iron could mean sky because the Egyptians knew iron was part of the sky,” he said.
This explanation has received some resistance, considering that meteorite impacts are still relatively rare today. However, it is still possible that the Ancient Egyptians did witness such an event. It is possible that the Gebel Kamil meteorite impact in Southern Egypt occurred within the last 5,000 years.
Watch the video “See the Orionid Meteor Shower, the best time is October 22 2023”
(rns/afr)
2023-10-24 03:45:20
#Ancient #Egyptians #knew #meteorites #outer #space
