In November 1925, during the examination of Tutankhamun’s mummy, Howard Carter’s team recorded two daggers among the king’s burial wrappings. One had a gold blade. The other, catalogued as Carter 256K and Egyptian Museum inventory JE 61585, had an iron blade, a gold hilt, and a gold sheath. In a royal burial of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty, during the 14th century BCE, that iron blade was an unusual object.

For decades, researchers debated whether the metal came from an early attempt to smelt iron ore or from an iron meteorite. In 2016, a nondestructive X-ray fluorescence study measured unusually high nickel and cobalt levels, strongly supporting meteoritic iron. A later study, published in 2022, mapped nickel across the surface and identified dark sulfur-rich inclusions. Its authors argued that the blade may preserve features of an iron meteorite and was likely forged at relatively low temperatures.

But the scientific findings do not provide a complete biography. They do not identify the meteorite, the workshop, or the craftsperson. A diplomatic letter from the Amarna archive records that Tushratta, king of Mitanni, sent Amenhotep III an iron-bladed dagger with gold fittings. Could that recorded gift be connected to Tutankhamun’s weapon? The resemblance is compelling, but the evidence does not establish an identification.

This investigation follows the dagger from Carter’s 1925 records to modern chemical mapping, separating what the blade’s material can demonstrate from the ancient history that remains beyond reach.

This podcast uses artificial intelligence in its research, writing, production, and narration. Episodes are editorially reviewed before publication.

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YES OR NO: Was Tutankhamun’s iron dagger likely made outside Egypt???????