The Meteoric Iron Dagger of Tutankhamun & the Mesopotamian Connection | Ancient Architects

4/13/2019 • Ancient Architects

The biggest archaeological discovery of the 20th century, if not all time, is the tomb of Tutankhamen, discovered in 1922 by British explorer, Howard Carter. The mummy itself, which showed signs of a botched mummification, was covered in all sort of riches, but two of the most interesting finds are a gold and iron dagger, the latter being the most precious due to the rarity of the metal. King Tutankhamen basically had iron at a time when iron was extremely rare in Egypt, and it wasn’t made in the country until hundreds of years later. Furthermore, the daggers and their sheaths are not decorated with ancient Egyptian iconography, but clearly have images from another culture from Mesopotamia, which in itself is strange. Furthermore, in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, in the valley of the kings, also contains a number of gold artefacts that display iconography very similar to motifs recovered from a tomb in the Syrian royal city of Qatna. In fact, many Mesopotamian gold artefa