Let’s Send King Tut’s Dagger Back to Space
Today I wrote about how scientists figured out that the blade of one of the daggers buried with King Tut is made from meteoric iron—as in, metal from outer space.
In response, a reader tweeted a compelling idea:
@AdrienneLaF This summer, @OSIRISREx is going to an asteroid. I’d seriously love it if @NASA sent a flake of Tut’s knife back to space.
— Chris Devers ☔️ (@cdevers) June 8, 2016
I realize that historians don’t often take kindly to the destruction—flaking or otherwise—of ancient artifacts, but the idea is a romantic one. I can’t help but appreciate the thought of such a journey: A ball of metal falls to Earth from the sky, is discovered by a human, and fashioned into something meaningful and valuable to that person’s culture. It is soon forgotten, buried underground for millennia before being rediscovered and sent skyward once again.
The ancient Egyptians who buried Tutankhamun with the dagger believed it would protect him as he ascended to the heavens after his death. Perhaps it could make it there after all.