A dagger buried with King Tutankhamun's mummified body was made with metal that came from a meteorite, a new study has revealed.
A team of researchers from Milan Polytechnic, Pisa University and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo used non-invasive, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry to determine the make-up of the weapon.
"Meteoric iron is clearly indicated by the presence of a high percentages of nickel," said lead researcher Daniela Comelli of Milan Polytechnic, adding: "The nickel and cobalt ratio in the dagger blade is consistent with that of iron meteorites that have preserved the primitive chondritic ratio during planetary differentiation in the early solar system."
The research team's findings were published in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
The dagger was found by archaeologist Howard Carter's team in 1925, enclosed in the wrapping around Tutankhamun's right thing. Carter described it as a "highly ornamented gold dagger with crystal knob."