A documentary aired on Quest TV focuses on a pair of knives found by Howard Carter when he discovered the tomb of the famous “boy king” in 1922. The documentary, featuring interviews with a range of experts, examines the possibility that the daggers were gifts by the Mittani, a people allied with the ancient Egyptians who were based at a site now know as Tell el Hameh, and who were renowned metalworkers. It refers to satellite photography which appears to show an ancient smelting works dating back to a time when most of mankind could not work the metal.
However, the documentary concludes the timeline does not match, with them only becoming proficient in the smelting techniques required to produce iron in 1000BC, too late to have supplied the knives to Tutankhamun.
Archaeologist Dr Mark Altaweel asked: “How did King Tutankhamun obtain iron when iron basically did not exist?
“The quality of this dagger is fantastic.
“It’s pure, almost, made using the kind of technology that would happen only centuries later, when people became experts in creating iron.”
Dr Jassel Majevadia, a material scientist, adds: “This particular dagger does not rust and that’s what makes it special.
Archaeologist Dr Hendrik van Gijseghem says: “No-one in the world is capable of producing that kind of metal in pre-modern times.
“This iron was not mined by man.
“There’s a high content of nickel and traces of cobalt which indicates in all likelihood that this metal is not from earth.”
The ancient Egyptians were fascinated by the stars, and the film postulates that a iron-rich meteor may have crashed to Earth which could be the source of the unusually pure metal.
However, even though one such site is uncovered in the region, investigations have ruled it out as the source, further deepening the mystery of where the metal came from.
Dr Aidan Dodson pointed to ancient hieroglyphs suggesting iron was the “bones of the gods”, suggesting any metal which fell from the stars was likely to have been regarded as a “gift”.
And some following the documentary went one step further, suggesting the artefacts really could be the product of alien contact.
Several commenting on the documentary made references to “alien technology”, while another said: “This is from the Nephilim”.
The Nephilim were the supposed offspring of the “sons off God” and the “daughters of men” referred to in the book of Genesis.
Some has postulated the Nephilim were actually spacefaring aliens who made contact with ancient civilisations thousands of years ago.
There has also been speculation that ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs show contact with aliens.