Meteoric Iron in Ancient Egyptian and Chinese Cultures

Before the Iron Age, that is before the advent of iron smelting, the main source of the metal was meteoric iron. Here we propose a discussion about the use of this iron to make artifacts by people of ancient Egypt and China. For Egypt, we will report as the iron is appearing, according to Alan Alford, in the Pyramid Texts. The iron of Tutankhamun’s dagger and of Kamil Crater will be discussed too. Then, we will consider China and in particular the Hongshan Culture, famous for its jade artifacts. Modern artifacts, defined as Hongshan iron meteorites, show asterisms (the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia) carved on them, but the literature that we will mention here, about this Chinese neolithic culture, is not stressing any use of meteorites. In any case, it is true that the Nine Stars of the Big Dipper have been represented by Neolithic China. For what concerns meteorites, it is possible that, as in ancient Egypt, people of Neolithic China had considered the stars as the source of meteoric iron. Contents: Sidereus Nuncius - Sign N41 and the Pyramid Texts -The big void in Akhet Khufu - Shafts and Heaven’s Doors - Iron throne and sceptre - Glittering in the nightly sky - The second Khufu solar boat – Black-market and Kamil Crater - Other non destructive analyses – The necklace from Gerzeh - Origin of the words - From Egypt to China - Meteoric Iron and Amulets - Shang and Zhou - Hongshan Meteorite Iron? - The Nine Stars of the Big Dipper – Pig-dragon - The “secret” Hongshan culture - The C-dragon &nbsp