King Tut had a dagger made of starmetal!

[Haladir]

Really! I'm not making this up:

Slate: King Tut Had a Dagger that Fell From Space

This story really makes me want to start that Mummy's Mask campaign I've been thinking of...

[GM_Beernorg]

Thanks for sharing that Haladir, that thing is pretty sweet, and now I have another thing I need to get, a blade made of meteo...err I mean, star metal!

[Drahliana Moonrunner]

Didn't help him much, did it? Still died as nothing more than a boy puppet. Historically, he was nothing more than the priest's tool used to erase the legacy of Akhenaton.

[Pan]

I think it was a gift from Nyarlathotep.

[DungeonmasterCal]

It's a beautiful weapon though.

[GM_Beernorg]

Tis indeed, owww Akhenaton, haven't heard that name in a while.

[Generic Villain]

GM_Beernorg wrote:

Tis indeed, owww Akhenaton, haven't heard that name in a while.

Everyone loves Tut, but I think his father was way more interesting. Akhenaten attempted to transform Egypt into what was probably the first ever monotheistic religion (though Zoroastrianism might have it beat), and a lot of his portrayal in art is strikingly different than the typical Egyptian style. He looks downright weird.

I'm not an aliens did Egypt guy, but Akhenaten's artistic representations could certainly be fodder for those types. And if Akhenaten was an extraterrestrial, it'd explain where Tut got his nifty dagger.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Generic Villain wrote:

I'm not an aliens did Egypt guy, but Akhenaten's artistic representations could certainly be fodder for those types.

It is fodder for those types. Who completely ignore the fact that by that logic virtually everyone important in Egypt looked exactly the same.

It's simultaneously both annoying and hilarious that some people never get it into their heads that ancient art does not have to be any more literal than art made today.

[I'm Hiding In Your Closet]

Tutankhamun.

That is all.

F%+$in' Tutankhamun.

Life is cruel, unfair, riddled with paradox, haunted by irony, largely unpredictable, wholly absurd, and most certainly not human-hearted. Ugliness stands side-by-side with beauty, tragedy and wickedness with greatness and euphoria, not giving a s!## about your cognitive dissonance, while frustrating banality dances daggers with awesome mystery, and Evil and Good have sworn to kill each other should they ever meet in person, yet never recognize each other as they ride the same bus every morning.

To put all that in one word: Tutankhamun.

[Generic Villain]

SilvercatMoonpaw wrote:

It is fodder for those types. Who completely ignore the fact that by that logic virtually everyone important in Egypt looked exactly the same.

It's simultaneously both annoying and hilarious that some people never get it into their heads that ancient art does not have to be any more literal than art made today.

It's classic confirmation bias. People pay attention to the stuff that supports their beliefs, and ignore any evidence to the contrary. And when I say "people" I mean everyone else, because I don't do that. Pretty sure I'm the only one though.

But seriously, I think another major factor is that modern humans vastly underestimate ancient humans. It's like, our brains haven't changed much in 10,000 years - we were as smart, creative, and curious then as we are now. According to the OP's article, apparently iron work was occurring earlier than commonly accepted. That alone is a pretty big deal. Imagine all the stuff our ancestors knew/did that we still haven't unearthed.

(Obviously I'm referring to the well-established and legit pyrmid power)

[Dragonchess Player]

Generic Villain wrote:

According to the OP's article, apparently iron work was occurring earlier than commonly accepted.

Indeed.

Iron was used in the "Bronze Age," it just was very rare because its ores were not recognized as metal (instead of just rocks; other than "fool's gold"), unlike inclusions and nuggets of copper, gold, silver, and tin. Early "iron" (actually iron/nickel alloy in most cases) objects were made almost exclusively from meteorites and may be a possible source for "magical" weapons in some myths (being significantly harder and more durable than bronze).

Once the iron ores were recognized and methods for extracting the metal were developed, iron (relatively) quickly replaced bronze, being stronger and more common. Which significantly increased warfighting capabilities (allowing larger and better equipped armies).