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King Tut’s space dagger

Top two: the two sides of Tutankhamun’s dagger. Bottom: the dagger as it was photographed in 1925.
Top two: the two sides of Tutankhamun’s dagger. Bottom: the dagger as it was photographed in 1925. Image: T. Matsui et al./Meteorit. Planet. Sci.

X-ray scans of an ornate dagger from Tutankhamun’s tomb revealed that the iron weapon was made from meteoritic metal. The researchers did chemical analyses on the dagger and also turned to ancient Egyptian literature, where they found references to a special dagger gifted to King Tut’s grandfather by a foreign ruler.