New research shows that an iron dagger buried with King Tutankhamun was made from a meteorite.
They found its makeup of iron, nickel and cobalt matched other meteorites in a database, and "strongly suggests its meteoritic origin."
The authors said the Egyptians knew what they were using.
"We suggest that ancient Egyptian attributed great value to meteoritic iron for the production of fine ornamental or ceremonial objects," the article said.
In fact, the authors say their findings may explain why Egyptians in the 13th Century BCE referred to a new hieroglyph that translates literally into "iron of the sky."
This, the researchers say, "suggests that the ancient Egyptians, in the wake of other ancient people of the Mediterranean area, were aware that these rare chunks of iron fell from the sky already in the 13th C. BCE, anticipating Western culture by more than two millennia."