A dagger buried with King Tutankhamun was so technologically advanced that it has baffled scientists for years, but now experts believe it may have come from space.
The teenage king was buried with a pair of blades, one of which has confused scientists since its discovery by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1925.
The dagger, unrusted and made of iron, was a strange and unexplained find, as the Egyptians are thought to have started working with that metal around 500 years after King Tut's death, as the Daily Star reports.
But scientists believe they have solved the mystery, as a study revealed that the material in the dagger could have come from a meteorite.
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Researchers at the Chiba Institute of Technology published their findings in the journal of Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
Daniela Comelli, the study's main author, wrote: "Meteoritic iron is clearly indicated by the presence of a high percentage of nickel."
The paper suggests that the high levels of cobalt also "strongly suggests an extraterrestrial origin".
They also conducted research into meteorites known to have hit the earth around that time and found one that landed 150 miles from Alexandria contained similar levels of nickel and cobalt.
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The report also reads: "They were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th [Century] BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia."
They described conducting an X-ray analysis of the golden handle, which revealed that it was created using an adhesive material known as lime plaster.
But this material also wasn't used by Egyptian craftsmen until much later.
The analysis also revealed that the handle was made using a foreign low-temperature technique, that possibly originated from Mitanni, Anatolia.
Records show that Tutankhamun’s grandfather Amenhotep III would receive gifts from the King of Mitanni.
However, experts also believe that it is possible that the Pharoah inherited the dagger from his father after it was passed down the generations.
The dagger, which "suggests a significant mastery of ironworking in Tutankhamun's time", is on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
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