There are about two dozens of iron objects known that date before 2000 BC, most notably the iron dagger from Alaca Hüyük in Anatolia with a golden hilt. Long ago I studied iron meteorites with PIXE and would contend that it is not the ideal method because of limited sensitivity. LA-ICP-MS would be much better for the chemical identification of meteoritic iron.

Best, Ernst Pernicka

Von: Arch-Metals Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Im Auftrag von Killick, David J - (killick)
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 18. Oktober 2012 17:01
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Betreff: King Tut's iron blade

Many thanks to Thilo for making this copy available. Unfortunately, as Ernst points out, it does not solve the problem of whether this is smelted or terrestrial iron.  This question really needs to be properly investigated. If I remember correctly, Michel Valloggia discusses (in Mediterranean Archaeology 14, 2001) the slightly earlier letter from Armana in which a Hittite ruler makes excuses to his Egyptian counterpart for not sending the iron that the latter had requested, and he (Valloggia)  argues that the Tutankhamum dagger is one such gift. Why is it necessary to know whether this object is meteoritic or smelted iron?  Because it is one of the best-preserved iron objects from the period when iron was just starting to become available to elites in Anatolia (during the New Hittite period, 1400-1200 BCE). There are few contemporary iron artefacts known from Anatolia itself - most of what we know about Hittite iron is from contemporary documents.  

Non-destructive measurement of Ga, PGE and Co on the blade could be done either by PIXE or by synchrotron radiation. Unfortunately, as far as I have been able to determine by asking Egyptologists, neither technique is available in Egypt, and Egyptian policy on antiquities prohibits the temporary export of artefacts for scientific analysis.  This is why the study of archaeometallurgy in Egypt lags so far behind that in the rest of Eurasia and Africa. As Michel Wuttman wrote (also in Mediterranean Archaeology 14, 2001) we know little more today about the development of metallurgy in Egypt than we did in 1960.