“Unearthing the Enigmatic Jewelry of Ancient Egypt: King Tutankhamun’s Cosmic Treasures”
“When Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team unearthed the treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings on November 4, 1922, they were astounded to discover the extraordinary artifacts within. Among them were several cosmic jewels, believed to have been adorned by the young pharaoh during his brief 18-year reign.
These ancient artifacts, according to experts, were crafted with materials not of earthly origin. Some of the jewels were intricately adorned with extraterrestrial origin metals or gemstones, posing intriguing questions about the ancient Egyptians’ knowledge and access to such materials.”
“Many years before researchers could determine some of King Tut’s artifacts were formed when a meteorite smashed into the Earth 28 million years ago.
King Tut’s Cosmic Scarab Brooch was thought King Tut’s breastplate was made of chalcedony, a type of quartz. However, scientists became curious when geographer Patrick Clayton, who was exploring in 1932 the Great Sand Sea along the border of modern Egypt and Libya, stumbled upon the mysterious glass in the sand. This yellow-green glass was identical to the gemstone discovered in King Tut’s tomb.
What was it possible?”
The origin of desert glass has long remained a mystery, but scientists have finally solved the riddle.
Today, scientists know the material known as Libyan Desert Glass was formed about 28 million years ago when a meteorite entered the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded over Egypt. This cosmic impact heated the sand beneath it to a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Celsius. As a result of this, desert glass was formed, and this material was later used to create King Tut’s scarab brooch.
King Tutankhamun’s magnificent breastplate “is adorned with a rare green desert glass scarab set on the body of a falcon, symbolizing the sun. The front legs and wings of this composite creature support a celestial boat containing the solar disk with a crescent in gold.”
“The Pharaoh Tutankhamun is depicted in the disk flanked by the moon god Thoth and by the sun god Ra-Horakhty in a protective pose.
The scarab is one of the oldest and widely used symbols of the ancient Egyptians. Egyptians pharaohs worshipped dung beetles, and most probably, it was symbolically associated to the Egyptians as the cross is to Christians.
The scarab with aesthetic qualities and shamanic symbolism were already known in the Old Kingdom (3rd millennium BC) and played an important role in the early worship of animals. It is supported by archaeological evidence discovered in graves dating back to the time of King Den of the First Dynasty.
What is still unknown is how desert glass became part of King Tut’s breastplate. One possible scenario is someone, perhaps a caravan wandering through the dunes spotted a glint of light and bent down to pick up a particularly luminous piece of glass, the color of sun shining through a yellow-green leaf. It was small enough to fit in the palm of their hand, but precious enough to be carried some 450 miles to the lush shores of the Nile River, where an ancient Egyptian civilization was flourishing.
Researchers at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Milan Polytechnic, and Pisa University used x-ray scanning technology to examine the composition of the metal. They found the remarkably well-preserved blade, which had suffered little corrosion while buried with its owner, contained high levels of nickel, along with traces of cobalt and phosphorus.
They were able to match the chemical composition of the blade to a meteorite named Kharga, which was found in 2000 on the Maras Matruh plateau in Egypt, 150 miles west of Alexandria.
The dagger is considered one of the most outstanding items to have been retrieved from Tutankhamun’s tomb due to the fine metalwork.
King Tut’s tomb also contained other objects with a link to the cosmos.”
All these magnificent burial gifts were placed in the young King Tutankhamun’s tomb to make the journey to the afterlife easier.
