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King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

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Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#11

Post by xufi »

unimpressive wrote: post #4
xufi wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting I didnt know that at all. Your "proper iron was more valuable" comment reminds me of about a little different period from a documentary that I watched that talked about the time around 700BC where Umayyad empires used silver coins while gold and copper coins were used in Egypt/Syria.

Not to mention that aluminum used to be more valuable than silver. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument#Aluminum_a...

Correct, I believe this was also what I read about how it being more valuable allowed these ancient civilizations who had access to it, to have some more monetary value to their coins and also showed their political influence (Ex: a picture of their leader ) when they traded with other civilizations overseas

Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#12

Post by Aelinsaar »

benbreen wrote: post #8
Aelinsaar wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they didn't even need to have a clue as to its origin for it to be precious, that's interesting. Can you recommend any good reading to become acquainted with the technology of that time period, in that region?

I was interested to find a book about this as well but came up short. However, these articles might be of interest: J. Waldbaum, "The coming of iron in the Eastern Mediterranean: thirty years of archaeological and technological research" in The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World (1996). Thilo Rehren et al, "5,000 years old Egyptian iron beads made from hammered meteoritic iron," Journal of Archaeological Scienc…

Perfect, thanks very much for taking the time to respond so helpfully.

Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#13

Post by CelestialTeapot »

wavefunction wrote: post #6
xufi wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting I didnt know that at all. Your "proper iron was more valuable" comment reminds me of about a little different period from a documentary that I watched that talked about the time around 700BC where Umayyad empires used silver coins while gold and copper coins were used in Egypt/Syria.

700CE rather than BC.

Small point, consistent use of BCE/CE is preferable mixed usage or use of BC/AD. Thou shouldst not cross the streams... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Era

Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#15

Post by will_brown »

xufi wrote: post #11
unimpressive wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention that aluminum used to be more valuable than silver. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_monument#Aluminum_a...

Correct, I believe this was also what I read about how it being more valuable allowed these ancient civilizations who had access to it, to have some more monetary value to their coins and also showed their political influence (Ex: a picture of their leader ) when they traded with other civilizations overseas

>I read about how it being more valuable allowed these ancient civilizations who had access to it, to have some more monetary value to their coins and also showed their political influence (Ex: a picture of their leader )

Probably 1 of 3 reasons Gold was valuable at all to the ancients:

1. Gold is the most malleable of all the metals, making it easy to coin in extreme detail.

2. Antimicrobial properties (probably known to the ancients).

3. Oh look, its shiny!!! We are no less vain now, than then. Or perhaps no less vain then, than now.

Edit: Sorry I think you were referencing aluminum.

Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#19

Post by mmanfrin »

xufi wrote: post #3
theophrastus wrote: post #2

The bronze age in that part of the world was around 3300 to 1200BC. Tutankhamen ruled from 1332 to 1323. From that alone we might suppose why a bit of proper iron was more valuable than gold. (the Hittite secret of iron wasn't for another 275 years despite Mika Waltari's poignant novel "The Egyptian" which had the Hittites flashing their iron about the court of King Tut)

Interesting I didnt know that at all. Your "proper iron was more valuable" comment reminds me of about a little different period from a documentary that I watched that talked about the time around 700BC where Umayyad empires used silver coins while gold and copper coins were used in Egypt/Syria.

CE. Umayyads were a muslim caliphate, which would have been pretty odd to exist 1300 years before Mohammed.

Re: King Tut's dagger blade made from meteorite, study confirms

#20

Post by Cozumel »

The Egyptians called iron the 'metal of heaven', 'ba-en-pet' because it came from meteorites. This was back in the bronze age, they could work it but not make it themselves yet. Meteorite iron is known to be magnetic as well so it's possible this would have seemed 'magical' as well.
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