What knowledge did the Egyptians have about the origin of meteorites? The answer could be hidden in their hieroglyphs
Illustrative image. Hieroglyphic designs and paintings on the ceiling and walls of the ancient Egyptian temple of Dendera
The sky is made of metal and metal can fall from the sky! The Egyptians are known for their multidisciplinary advances, including astronomical and mathematical. Possibly, they also had knowledge of the origin of meteorites, long before modern astronomers, some archaeological analyzes of their hieroglyphs suggest.
Hieroglyphics dating back more than four thousand years ago could reveal that the origin of meteorites was no secret to the Egyptians. According to analyzes by Egyptologist and researcher Victoria Almansa-Villatoro of Harvard University, hieroglyphic texts suggest that this ancient civilization had an understanding of the extraterrestrial origin of these precious metals.
The Egyptologist studied in particular the inscriptions in pyramids in the site of Saqqara. During her research, for example, as part of a study published in the Journal of Egyptian Archeology in 2019, she devoted herself to the analysis of symbols, using sociolinguistic theory in her decryption and translation work. and cultural psychology, as well as religious symbolisms.
Meteorites: what the Egyptians understood about their origin
The use of the hieroglyphic sign N41, “bi-An-pt”, literally meaning “iron from the sky”, was analyzed in particular by the researcher. This sign is often associated with words linked to women, water and metals and appears around 1295 BC.
The Egyptologist explains that he found that “ their knowledge of meteoritic iron was not recorded in a descriptive and linear manner as in scientific books. Rather, they were embedded in metaphors and rituals . Thus, she had to “abandon” her “modern preconceptions about science” in order to grasp the breadth of scientific understandings of the people of the Nile.
Translating mythological passages, for example on the passage of the pharaohs to the afterlife, she saw this sign linked to the meanings of the sky as a “cold water of stars”, contained in an “iron container”. When the late monarch crosses this sky-ocean, cold rocks from the iron container would fall. “ The inscriptions present the sky as an iron bowl containing water, pieces of which can fall to Earth in the form of meteorites or rain ,” she explains .
“[King] United seizes the sky and splits its iron”: this example sentence represents a key to deciphering what the Egyptians knew about meteorites, argues researcher Victoria Almansa-Villatoro. Indeed, in this mythological passage, there would be evidence that these rocks, rich in a precious metal (iron), would fall from the sky. These rocks would, therefore, be considered as a sort of “celestial iron”.
Tutankhamun's dagger and the Gebel Kamil meteorite
Other clues to the Egyptians' knowledge of meteorites are, of course, King Tutankhamun's dagger containing iron from a meteorite, which inscriptions suggest was a gift from the King of Mitanni to Amenhotep III (grandfather of Tutankhamun).
Also, geological evidence found in ancient Egypt, specifically the Gebel Kamil crater and meteorite, shows that an iron meteorite struck Egypt within the last 5,000 years.
While some experts are reluctant with this Egyptologist's hypotheses, she defends : “ What might at first glance be dismissed as random and irrelevant associations of 'non-scientific' minds describing metals, women and water , turns out to be a by-product of a scientifically correct interpretation of the provenance of meteoritic iron ”. The Egyptologist thus maintains that the Egyptian civilization would have “integrated” their scientific knowledge into “ metaphors, stories and rituals that could be easily remembered ”.
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