In those early days, iron was most likely a rarer and therefore more expensive material than gold
An interesting explanation was offered by archaeologists to the most important find made in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. A chemical analysis of a dagger found among many objects in the tomb of the young pharaoh gave amazing results. Not only was it not made of silver or gold, but iron. It turned out that the iron was far from simple. The ancient armourers took the material for making the royal dagger from … a meteorite.
Until recently, scientists believed that the ancient Egyptians experienced problems in working with iron and revealed all the secrets of this process only in the last period of the history of ancient Egypt, approximately in the middle of the first millennium BC. At least there is archaeological evidence that Egyptian metallurgists were dealing with iron before the 6th century. BC, in the Nile valley not found. During the life of Tut, as the young king is called, who died, presumably at the age of 18, in the XIV century. BC, iron was even a rarer metal in Egypt than gold.
The most common source of iron on our planet is iron ore. These are rocky rocks in which this metal is mixed with other chemical elements. In order to extract it, the ore must be heated to a high temperature. Then the resulting iron, which was, by the way, of poor quality, needs to be processed with hammers for a long time in order to clean it of impurities. This process is complex and requires a lot of knowledge and experience, which the ancient Egyptians, apparently, did not possess.
Nevertheless, the Scroll website emphasizes that the ancient Egyptians and representatives of other ancient civilizations, of course, had iron objects, although they were rare. Their rarity is explained by the fact that often their source was iron not from ore, but from meteorites that fell to Earth. As it happened with the dagger found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. This explains why such a high importance was attached to iron objects and why the dagger belonged to the pharaoh himself, that is, the ruler of ancient Egypt. It should be remembered that the sky, from where the iron fell, in this kingdom, just as, indeed, in other ancient states, was considered the place of residence of the gods. It is not surprising that iron in those days was a sacred metal and could only belong to kings and the most noble nobles and high priests.