(FILES) -- A picture taken on October 20, 2009 shows King Tutankhamun's golden mask displayed at the Egyptian museum in Cairo. DNA testing has unraveled some of the mystery surrounding the birth and death of pharaoh king Tutenkhamun, revealing his father was a famed monotheistic king and ruling out Nefertiti as his mother, Egypt's antiquities chief said on February 17, 2010. AFP PHOTO/KHALED DESOUKI (Photo credit should read KHALED DESOUKI/AFP/GettyImages)
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An expert works to uncover one of the 20 wooden sculptures which were recently discovered at the ancient archaeological site of Chan Chan, in the outskirts of the northern city of Trujillo, in Peru, on October 22, 2018, - The unique sculptures found in niches are fixed to the ground measuring an average of 70 centimeters and representing different characters. (Photo by CRIS BOURONCLE / AFP) / The erroneous mention[s] appearing in the metadata of this photo by CRIS BOURONCLE has been modified in AFP systems in the following manner: [20] instead of [19]. Please immediately remove the erroneous mention[s] from all your online services and delete it (them) from your servers. If you have been authorized by AFP to distribute it (them) to third parties, please ensure that the same actions are carried out by them. Failure to promptly comply with these instructions will entail liability on your part for any continued or post notification usage. Therefore we thank you very much for all your attention and prompt action. We are sorry for the inconvenience this notification may cause and remain at your disposal for any further information you may require. (Photo credit should read CRIS BOURONCLE/AFP/Getty Images)
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CAIRO, EGYPT - OCTOBER 21: Camels and horses stand tied to a fence below the Great Pyramid of Giza on October 21, 2013 in Cairo, Egypt. The Pyramids of Giza, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world and built around 2600 B.C., are one of Egypt's major tourist drawcards. After a summer of violence, tourist numbers across Egypt are at their lowest levels since a 2010 peak in tourism in the country. While Egypt's tourism sector took a dive following the popular uprising that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in early 2011, occupancy rates of hotels in the capital Cairo and across Egypt have been reported as dramatically down since the Egyptian military's overthrow of President Morsi in July. In 2010, tourism represented 13% of Egypt's economy and employed one in seven of the country's workers. (Photo by Ed Giles/Getty Images).
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Story highlights
X-ray spectrometry determines iron dagger came from meteorite
Research suggests ancient Egyptians valued "iron from the sky"
CNN
—
New research shows that an iron dagger buried with King Tutankhamun was made from a meteorite.
It even suggests the Egyptians knew what they were working with.
Archaeologists and historians have been fascinated by King Tut’s mummified remains and the mysterious objects found in his tomb since their discovery in the 1920s.
King Tut's knife
Meteoritics & Planetary Science
In the past, scientists have claimed that an iron dagger, found along with a gold blade in King Tut’s tomb, may have come from meteorites.
Other ancient Egyptian iron artifacts have also been suspected to be meteoritic, since smelted iron was rarely used.
They found its makeup of iron, nickel and cobalt matched other meteorites in a database, and “strongly suggests its meteoritic origin.”
The authors said the Egyptians knew what they were using.
“We suggest that ancient Egyptian attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of fine ornamental or ceremonial objects,” the article said.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
courtesy Czech Institute of Egyptology
The recent discovery of Khentkaus III's tomb in Abusair, Egypt, fills in a "black patch" in the history of the Old Kingdom, according to dig leader Professor Miroslav Barta. Located a few 100 feet from the unfinished tomb of her husband, Pharaoh Neferefre (also known as Reneferef), her tomb is one of several significant historical finds in the country in recent months.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Egyptologists are optimistic that a second chamber may soon be found behind King Tutankhamun's tomb, based on results of scans from the Valley of the Kings. One archaeologist has speculated that if the second chamber exists, it could be Queen Nefertiti's long-lost burial place.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Discovery Channel/Getty Images
A female mummy discovered in 1898 in tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings, and dubbed 'The Younger Lady' has been speculated to be Nefertiti. DNA tests in 2008 showed she was not only King Tutankhamun's mother, but also his aunt (she was sister to his father Akhenaten). Many Egyptologists say this DNA evidence means it's unlikely the remains are those of Nefertiti.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Iziko Museums of South Africa
The African continent has been home to many historic finds over the years. Last June, archaeologists and divers found the remains of an 18th century Portuguese slave ship off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The ship is believed to have been on its way from Mozambique to Brazil in 1794. These copper fastenings and copper sheathing were also uncovered.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Graeme Laidlaw/Courtesy Louise Schofield
Africa has long been a treasure trove of ancient remains. Last year, the 2,000-year old remains of a sleeping woman, dubbed 'sleeping beauty', were found in Ethiopia in the former biblical kingdom of Aksum.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Jake Haggmark
The Pyramid fields from Giza to Dahshur, including the majestic Great Sphinx, were part of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. Considered to be one of the seven wonders of the world in Hellenistic times, there remains the only inscription on the original list still in existence.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
MPK-WTAP
According to a paper published last May by the science journal Nature, the oldest stone tools made by our human ancestors were discovered in northwestern Kenya and date back 3.3 million years -- about 700,000 years before the oldest tools previously unearthed.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Pietro Donaggio Bitner
Last year, an international diving team explored flooded caves in Madagascar, and uncovered the largest cache of fossils in the country to date, including the remains of gorilla-sized lemurs, pygmy hippopotamuses, horned crocodile and elephant birds.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities
A Japanese team from Waseda University stumbled on the tomb of an ancient beer-maker while cleaning the courtyard of another tomb at the Thebes necropolis in the Egyptian city of Luxor.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP/AFP/Getty Images
The 15th-century Qaitbay Citadel in the port city of Alexandria occupies that same location where the famous lighthouse once stood -- partially destroyed in the 11th century by an earthquake, and totally decimated by another in the 1300s. Today the citadel functions as a maritime museum.
Photos: Africa's archaeological treasures
Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty
The Temple of Karnak, in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor, can be visited on luxury cruises down the Nile, along which tourists can track 5,000 years of history.
In fact, the authors say their findings may explain why Egyptians in the 13th Century BCE referred to a new hieroglyph that translates literally into “iron of the sky.”
This, the researchers say, “suggests that the ancient Egyptians, in the wake of other ancient people of the Mediterranean area, were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th C. BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia.”