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Tutankhamun and meteoritic iron - Part 2 of 2

Now here is part 2 of what I found in Burke's "Cosmic Debris":

BURKE J.G. (1986) Cosmic Debris, Meteorites in History, pp. 229-231:

In 1911 Wainwright discovered nine iron beads in two predynastic
Egyptian graves at Gerzeh, 50 miles south of Cairo. It was not until
1928 that an analysis was made, but then C.H. Desch determined that one
contained 7.50 percent nickel. Immediately thereafter, Wainwright began
to publish his series of articles on thunderbolts, meteorites, and
omphaloi, among which was one entitled "Iron in Egypt." In it,
Wainwright revived von Lauth's hypothesis (without citing this source),
but used slightly different transliterations - namely, bij instead of
ba, and bij-ni-pt (B. Pauli: more accurate transcription = bjaa-n-pt =
iron, meteoritic iron) instead of ba ne-pe. In addition to emphasizing
the nexus between thunderbolts, meteorites, and omphaloi (= a
cylindrical pedestal whose upper surface is a hemisphere or a cone)
mentioned earlier, Wainwright produced new evidence. In the important
preburial ceremony known as the "Opening of the Mouth," priests in
predynastic times used a forked flint knife, which was replaced by a
stone knife in the early dynastic period. Later, they used a chisel
named "the mdtft of bij," and Wainwright pointed out that the miniature
ceremonial tools found in the tomb of Tutankhamen were chisel blades -
replicas of the actual iron chisels employed in the rite. Wainwright did
not state that the Tutankhamen tomb blades were made from meteoritic
iron, but he implied that they were, and he also strongly suggested that
the widespread use of meteoritic iron preceded the coming of iron
metallurgy. He concluded:

Thus, then, iron in Egypt as in many other countries was obtained from
meteorites long before the Iron Age set in. Moreover, the word bij
proves to have stood primarily for iron, or rather meteoric material in
general, whether iron, or stone, or a conglomerate of the two. From this
proceed the uses to which bij was put by the priests, and the secondary
meanings which the word took on. From it are derived the New Kingdom
expression bij-ni-pt and finally the Coptic fienine, which merely mean
"iron" without any thought of the other meanings of bij ."

R.J. Forbes was a leader in refuting Wainwright's hypothesis.
"Wainwright," he wrote,

never brought forward one text in which bij must have meant iron, the
old and recognized translation copper fits in just as well. . . . There
is no reason not to suppose that the Egyptians thought their meteoric
iron just a form of black unrefined copper and that they recognized its
celestial origin much later. . . . Only when they had attained the full
Iron Age and iron was smelted and worked in Egypt itself copper and iron
were distinguished as separate metals.

Later Forbes said that "Meteoric iron could never be a great factor in
the rise of iron metallurgy, for, in the absence of chemical knowledge,
the connexion between it and iron ores must have remained unknown." More
recent scholars have agreed with Forbes.

>From table 4:

Egypt  2050-2025  Deir-el-Bahari; tomb, thin blade from amulet; Ni/Fe
ratio, 1/10 (*)

Egypt  ca.1340  Thebes; tomb of Tutankhamun; dagger blade; 16 miniature
blades; model headrest; Ni analysis by Dr. Iskandar unstated; all deemed
meteoritic (*)

(*) Bjorkman (1973), 124-127.


Best wishes,

Bernd

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