King Tutankhamun was buried with a dagger forged from meteorite iron, a material ancient Egyptians prized more than gold.

In 1925, archaeologist Howard Carter discovered two daggers within the wrappings of Tutankhamun's mummy, but the iron blade puzzled researchers because Egypt's Iron Age didn't begin until roughly 100 years after Tut's death in the 14th century BCE. In 2016, a team from the Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Pisa, and the Egyptian Museum applied X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to analyze the metal's composition without damage.The analysis revealed that the blade contains 10.8% nickel and 0.58% cobalt—ratios characteristic of iron meteorites. Terrestrial iron ore typically contains less than 4% nickel, making this composition unmistakably extraterrestrial in origin. Researchers even identified the meteorite Kharga, discovered 240 kilometers west of Alexandria, whose chemical profile closely matches the dagger's metal.This discovery confirms that ancient Egyptians possessed sophisticated metallurgical skills and were working with meteorite iron as early as the 14th century BCE. Hieroglyphic texts from the 19th Dynasty later used the term "bi-n-pt," which literally translates to "iron from the sky." Because the material was so rare and difficult to forge, it was reserved exclusively for royalty and high-status ceremonial objects, often considered more precious than gold or silver.