Artefact From Space Discovered Inside A Tomb | Egypt's Unexplained Files | Channel 5 #AncientHistory

2015 the priceless artifacts unearthed from king tutankhamun's tomb are on display at the egyptian museum in cairo amongst them an unusual dagger unlike any other in the collection the dagger itself has a golden handle with delicate geometric designs and a beautiful golden sheath but it's not the design that's so special it's what it's made of it's an iron blade fully functional ever since its discovery archaeologists have been puzzled over the dagger's very existence iron seems so commonplace to us but for the ancient egyptians iron was quite a rarity the iron age doesn't arrive in egypt for another two centuries after the time of tutankhamun so it's very strange to find such a fine object made of iron at this time a clue to the dagger's origins surfaces in an ancient text a piece of hieroglyphic writing that points to the heavens they found the phrase which seemed to read iron from the sky experts are unsure what the hieroglyphs mean can modern technology help pinpoint the source of the metal scientists investigate the chemical makeup of the blade itself the dagger is tested using x-ray fluorescence spectrometry which is a newly developed technique analysis of the results point to a surprising source the equipment shows that the composition of the iron in the dagger is of iron but also nickel and cobalt in exactly the combination that matches the database record for meteoric ion iron from inside a meteorite it's an extraordinary result the riddle written in the hieroglyphs iron from the sky now makes sense [Music] the metal that was fashioned into the dagger's blade came from space egyptians didn't know how to make iron for themselves due to its rarity it is revealed as a sacred metal so it's easy to imagine that they would think of a meteorite falling as being like a gift from god that would make meteorites very highly prized and for that reason they're the kind of thing that the king might well have wanted to claim for himself this iron was likely more valuable than gold and so to be buried with an iron dagger would have linked to don gammon to the gods themselves if the iron in the dagger arrived in a meteorite where had it landed investigators draw a blank in the hunt for a new lead they search for any other items in tutankhamun's treasures which may also have celestial origins their attention is drawn to king tut's breastplate inside the sarcophagus is an extraordinary brooch made of a kind of yellow gemstone which has been cut and polished into the shape of a scarab this presents something of a mystery because this is a material which we wouldn't expect the egyptians having access to or being able to work in this way so what is it doing here in the tomb the beetle-shaped brooch was initially assumed to be a gemstone [Music] to be sure researchers test the material using a technique called oxygen isotope analysis they discover it's actually a strange type of glass the egyptians did have the technology to make glass but not with such a clarity and translucence the chemical composition of the glass matches a material found naturally in one specific area of egypt a remote region located on the western edge of the ancient egyptian empire this desert is known as the great sand sea the only way to make glass like this is with extraordinarily high temperatures geological surveys of the site suggest these high temperatures could only be the result of a meteor strike when meteors enter the earth's atmosphere if they're traveling at the right speed they explode on impact [Music] they create a giant fireball of masses and masses and masses of energy and heat when it hits the ground silicon in a substance like sand melts immediately and forms a kind of glass a very particular kind of glass experts calculate that the glass in tutankhamun's brooch was made by a meteor strike ten thousand times more powerful than an atomic bomb turning a desert of sand into a sea of glass mummified bodies have been found perfectly preserved even after thousands of years archaeologists are still unsure how the ancient egyptians achieved this mummified tissue samples are put through a series of biochemical analyses the results reveal a complex mixture of herbs and oils it's found that they were using types of plant resins things like juniper turpentine and so on they would rub things like myrrh over the body to sweetness and dispel some of the unpleasant smells associated with preserving the body but the chemical ingredients of these herbs and spices alone are not enough to stop dead bodies decomposing it was necessary to remove the organs to take out the moisture that lends itself to the decay process the moisture in the body is where the bacteria live and they start eating the body up so they had some sense that you should remove whatever is causing that decay but extracting the organs and associated bacteria still doesn't explain such perfect preservation found in mummies archaeologists have to cast the net wider 2018 in the desert tombs of sakara archaeologists make an extraordinary discovery an area where mummification actually took place we're finding obama's workshops we're finding ingredients there that were clearly involved in some sort of embalming so we're getting the physical evidence from the place where some of these mummies were actually made inside these ancient workshops archaeologists find the remains of a special mineral salt chemical analysis reveals its composition it's sodium carbonate sodium bicarbonate and sodium chloride which is a little bit like table salt plus baking soda known as natron this salt is known to quickly remove moisture from anything it comes into contact with nature is found naturally in the valley of wadi al-natrin 50 miles from the obama's workshops at sacara but it was in the middle kingdom about 4 000 years ago that they discovered the magic ingredient of natron a few years ago a taxi driver donated his body to science in a controversial experiment scientists try to preserve the taxi driver's body but this time they dissolve the natron salts in water soaking the body in super concentrated salt solution [Music] we've found that it is actually possible to preserve a human body in a bath of nature on nature on in solution super salty water after a period of some 40 days almost all of the moisture has left the body leaving the body in a leather-like state like a leather handbag you need to time it very carefully dry the body out but not too much so that you leave the limbs flexible and you can move the arms into whatever position you want it's the breakthrough archaeologists are looking for modern scientific analysis along with hands-on experimentation reveals that a concentrated liquid solution of nature was the key component above all others for preserving a body for eternity they drive inside the body and out to produce a body completely preserved that in the right dry situation would last forever 3000 years old and they're still looking recognizable they were thinking of the long term they are masterpieces of the embalmers craft you

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Id: lyCvMoJqyqs

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 03 2020