Everything about Tutankhamen totally explained
Tutankhamun (alternately spelled with
Tutenkh-,
-amen,
-amon),
Egyptian (
1341 BC –
1323 BC) was an
Egyptian Pharaoh of the
Eighteenth dynasty (ruled
1333 BC –
1324 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of
Egyptian history known as the
New Kingdom. His original name, Tutankhaten, means "Living Image of
Aten", while Tutankhamun means "Living Image of
Amun". Often the name Tutankhamun was written Amen-tut-ankh, meaning "living image of
amun", due to scribal custom which most often placed the divine name at the beginning of the phrase in order to honor the divine being.
He is possibly also the
Nibhurrereya of the
Amarna letters. He was likely the eighteenth dynasty king 'Rathotis', who according to
Manetho, an ancient historian, had reigned for nine years - a figure which conforms exactly with
Flavius Josephus' version of Manetho's Epitome.
Tutankhamun, wasn't a particularly notable pharaoh in ancient times; the size of his relatively small, forgettable tomb was part of the reason the tomb wasn't discovered or opened until modern times. The 1922 discovery by
Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's intact tomb,
KV62, received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's burial mask remains the popular face. Tutankhamun is, in modern times, one of the most famous of the pharaohs, and the only one to have a nickname in popular culture - King Tut.
Significance
Tutankhamun was only eight or nine years old when he became pharaoh, and reigned for approximately ten years, making him eighteen or nineteen years old at death. In historical terms, Tutankhamun's significance stems from his rejection of the radical religious innovations introduced by his predecessor
Akenhaten and that his tomb, uniquely, in the
Valley of the Kings was discovered almost completely intact -- the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever found. As Tutankhamun began his reign at such an early age, his vizier and eventual successor
Ay was probably making most of the important political decisions during Tutankhamun's reign. The 1922 discovery by
Howard Carter of Tutankhamun's intact tomb received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in
ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's burial mask remains the popular face.
Parentage and lineage
Tutankhamun's parentage is uncertain. An inscription calls him a king's son, but it isn't clear which king was meant.
He was originally thought to be a son of
Amenhotep III and his
Great Royal Wife Queen
Tiye. Later, further research claimed that he may have been a son of
Amenhotep III, although not by Queen
Tiye, since Tiye would have been more than fifty years old at the time of Tutankhamun's birth.
At present, the most common hypothesis holds that Tutankhamun was the son of
Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, and his minor wife Queen
Kiya. Queen Kiya's title was "Greatly Beloved Wife of Akhenaten" so it's possible that she could have borne him an heir. Supporting this theory, images on the tomb wall in the tomb of Akhenaten show a royal fan bearer standing next to Kiya's death bed, fanning someone who is either a princess or more likely, a wet nurse holding a baby, considered to be the wet nurse and the boy, king-to-be.
Professor James Allen argues that Tutankhamun was more likely to be a son of the short-lived king
Smenkhkare rather than
Akhenaten. Allen argues that Akhenaten consciously chose a female co-regent named
Neferneferuaten as his successor, rather than Tutankhamun, which would have been unlikely if the latter had been his son.
Another theory is that Tutankhamun was the son of
Smenkhkare and
Meritaten (one of the six daughters of
Akhenaten and
Nefertiti). Smenkhkare appears when Akhenaten entered year 14 of his reign and it's thought that during this time Meritaten married Smenkhkare. Smenkhkare, as the father of Tutankhamun, needed at least a three year reign to bring Tutankhamun to the right age to have inherited the throne. However, if there had been lengthy co-regency between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, Amenhotep definitely could be Tutankhamun's father.
Tutankhamun was married to
Ankhesenpaaten (possibly his half-sister, since Ankhesenpaaten is unequivocally recorded as another of the six daughters of
Akhenaten and
Nefertiti), and after the re-establishment of the traditional Egyptian religion the couple changed the –
aten ending of their names to the –
amun ending, becoming Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun. They are known to have had two children, both girls, whose mummies were discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb - they both died as babies, and medical evidence suggests they may have been stillborn.
Reign
During Tutankhamun's reign, Akhenaten's
Amarna revolution (
Atenism) was being reversed. Akhenaten had attempted to supplant the traditional priesthood and
deities with a god who was until then considered minor,
Aten. In Year 3 of Tutankhamnen's reign (1331), while he was still a boy, probably about 11, and under the influence of two older advisors (Akhenaten's
vizier Ay and perhaps
Nefertiti), the ban on the old
pantheon of
deities and their
temples was lifted, the traditional privileges were restored to their priesthoods, and the capital was moved back to
Thebes. The young pharaoh adopted the name Tutankhamun, changing it from his birth name Tutankhaten. Because of his age at the time responsibility for these decisions can be attributed to his advisors. King Tutankhamun restored all of the traditional
deities, and restored order to the chaos created by his uncle Akhenaten. In addition, temples devoted to
Amun-Ra were built during this period. Although, Tutankhamun's wooden box depicts him going to war against
Hittites and
Nubians, and he's shown wearing the blue war crown, it's doubtful that he ever went to war since scrutiny of the period's extensive written evidence doesn't yield records of him participating in any wars or battles.
Events following Tutankhamun's death
A now-famous letter to the
Hittite king
Suppiluliuma I from a widowed queen of Egypt, asking for one of his sons as a husband, has been attributed to
Ankhesenamun (among others). The royal lineage of Egypt was carried by its women. Marriage to a woman of the royal line was essential for a male pharaoh, even if he came from outside the lineage. Suspicious of this good fortune, Suppiluliumas I first sent a messenger to make inquiries about the truth of the young queen's story. After receiving reports that the situation was as related to Suppiluliuma I, he sent his son,
Zannanza, accepting her offer. However, Zannanza got no further than the border before he was killed, according to the Hittite archives. If Ankhesenamun were the queen in question, and his death a strategic murder, it was probably at the orders of either
Horemheb or
Ay, who both had the opportunity and the motive to kill him.
Name
Under
Atenism, Tutankhamun was named Tutankhaten, which in
Egyptian hieroglyphs is:
<-i-t:n:ra-t:w:t-anx->
Technically, this name is
transliterated as twt-ˁnḫ-ỉtn.
At the reintroduction of the old pantheon, his name was changed. It is transliterated as twt-ˁnḫ-ỉmn ḥq3-ỉwnw-šmˁ, and often realized as
Tutankhamun Hekaiunushema, meaning "Living image of
Amun, ruler of Upper
Heliopolis". On his ascension to the throne, Tutankhamun took a
praenomen. This is translated as nb-ḫprw-rˁ, and realized as
Nebkheperure, meaning "Lord of the forms of
Re". The name
Nibhurrereya in the
Amarna letters may be a variation of this praenomen.
Cause of death
The cause of Tutankhamun's death is unclear, and is still the root of much speculation. In early
2005 the results of a set of
CT scans on the mummy were released.
The body originally was inspected by
Howard Carter’s team in the early 1920s, although they were primarily interested in recovering the jewelry and amulets from the body. To remove these objects from the body, which often were stuck fast by the hardened embalming resins used, Carter's team cut up the mummy into various pieces: the arms and legs were detached, the torso cut in half and the head was severed. Hot knives were used to remove it from the golden mask to which it was cemented by resin.
Since 1926, the mummy has been X-rayed three times: first in 1968 by a group from the
University of Liverpool, then in 1978 by a group from the
University of Michigan, and finally in 2005 a team of Egyptian scientists led by Secretary General of the
Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities,
Dr. Zahi Hawass, who conducted a
CT scan on the mummy.
X-rays of Tutankhamun's
mummy, taken in 1968, revealed a dense spot at the lower back of the
skull interpreted as a
subdural hematoma. Such an injury could have been the result of an accident, but it also had been suggested that the young pharaoh was murdered. A trauma specialist from
Long Island University insisted that this injury couldn't have been from a natural cause. The specialist stated that the blow was to a protected area at the back of the head which isn't easily injured in an accident. . Theories as to who was responsible for the death include Tutankhamun's immediate successor
Ay, his wife, and his chariot-driver
A slight bend to his spine also was found, but the scientists agreed that there was no associated evidence to suggest that it was pathological in nature, and that it was much more likely to have been caused during the embalming process. This ended speculation based on the previous X-rays that Tutankhamun had suffered from
scoliosis. (However, it was subsequently noted by Dr. Zahi Hawass that the mummy found in
KV55, provisionally identified as Tutankhamun's father, exhibited several similarities to that of Tutankhamun — a
cleft palate, a
dolichocephalic skull and slight
scoliosis.)
The 2005 conclusion by a team of Egyptian scientists, based on the CT scan findings, is that Tutankhamun died of
gangrene after breaking his leg. After consultations with
Italian and
Swiss experts, the Egyptian scientists found that the fracture in Tutankhamun's left leg most likely occurred only days before his death, which had then become gangrenous and led directly to his death. The fracture in their opinion wasn't sustained during the mummification process or as a result of some damage to the mummy as claimed by
Howard Carter. The Egyptian scientists also have found no evidence that he'd been struck on the head and no other indication that he was murdered, as had been speculated previously. Further investigation of the fracture led to the conclusion that it was severe, most likely caused by a fall from some height — possibly a chariot riding accident due to the absence of
pelvis injuries — and may have been fatal within hours
Despite the relatively poor condition of the mummy, the Egyptian team found evidence that great care had been given to the body of Tutankhamun during the embalming process. They found five distinct embalming materials, which were applied to the body at various stages of the mummification process. This counters previous assertions that the king’s body had been prepared carelessly and in a hurry. In November 2006, at the annual meeting of the
Radiological Society of North America, Egyptian radiologists stated that CT images and scans of the king's mummy revealed Tutankhamun's height to be 180 centimetres or 5 feet 11 inches tall, a revision upward from the earlier estimates.
Michael R. King continues to dispute these findings, claiming that the king was murdered. He argues that the loose sliver of bone was loosened by the embalmers during
mummification, but that it had been broken before. He argues that a blow to the back of the head (from a fall or an actual blow) may have caused the brain to move forward, hitting the front of the skull, breaking small pieces of the bone right above the eyes.
Some of the treasures in Tutankhamun's tomb are noted for their apparent departure from traditional depictions of the boy king. Certain cartouches where a king's name should appear have been altered, as if to reuse the property of a previous pharaoh—as often occurred. However, this instance may simply be the product of "updating" the artifacts to reflect the shift from Tutankh
aten to Tutankh
amun. Other differences are less easy to explain, such as the older, more angular facial features of the middle coffin and canopic coffinettes. The most widely accepted theory for these latter variations is that the items were originally intended for
Smenkhkare, who may or may not be the mysterious KV55 mummy. Said mummy, according to craniological examinations, bears a striking first-order (father-to-son, brother-to-brother) relationship to Tutankhamun.
2007 discoveries in Tutankhamun's tomb
On September 24, 2007, it was announced that a team of Egyptian
archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass, discovered eight
baskets of 3,000 year old
doum fruit in the treasury of Tutankhamun's tomb. Doum comes from a type of
palm tree native to the
Nile Valley. The doum fruit are traditionally offered at
funerals.
Fifty clay pots bearing Tutankhamun's official seal were also discovered. According to Dr Hawas, the containers probably contained money that were destined to travel with the pharaoh to the afterlife. He said the containers will soon be opened. The objects were originally discovered, but not opened or removed from the tomb, by
Howard Carter.
King Tutankhamun still rests in his tomb in the
Valley of the Kings, in a temperature-controlled glass case. On November 4, 2007, 85 years to the day since Howard Carter's discovery, the actual face of the 19-year-old pharaoh was put on view in his underground tomb at
Luxor, when the linen-wrapped mummy was removed from its golden sarcophagus for display in a climate-controlled glass box. This was done to prevent the heightened rate of decomposition caused by the humidity and warmth from tourists visiting the tomb.
Tutankhamun's appearance and controversy
In 2005, three teams of scientists (Egyptian, French, and American), in partnership with the
National Geographic Society, developed a new facial likeness of Tutankhamun. The Egyptian team worked from 1,700
three-dimensional CT scans of the pharaoh's skull. The French and American teams worked plastic moulds created from these—but the Americans were never told
who the subject of the reconstruction was. All three teams created
silicone busts of their interpretation of what the young monarch looked like.
Skin tone
Although modern technology can reconstruct Tutankhamun's facial structure with a high degree of accuracy based on CT data from his mummy, correctly determining his skin tone is impossible. The problem isn't a lack of skill on the part of Ancient Egyptians. Egyptian artisans distinguished quite accurately among different ethnicities, as can be seen clearly in the image, above at "Reign", where the enemies being vanquished are displayed under the rampant lioness with Tutankhamun's head. Sometimes they depicted their subjects in totally unreal colors, the purposes for which aren't completely understood. The colours may have had ritual significance. There is no consensus on Tutankhamun's skin tone.
Terry Garcia,
National Geographic's executive vice president for mission programs, said, in response to some protesters of the Tutankhamun reconstruction:
Exhibitions
The splendors of Tutankhamun's tomb are among the most traveled artifacts in the world. They have been to many countries, but probably the best-known exhibition tour was the
Treasures of Tutankhamun tour, which ran from 1972-1979. This exhibition was first shown in London at the
British Museum from
30 March until
30 September 1972. More than 1.6 million visitors came to see the exhibition, some queueing for up to eight hours and it was the most popular exhibition ever in the Museum. The exhibition moved on to many other countries, including the USA, USSR, Japan, France, Canada, and West Germany. The exhibition in the United States was organized by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and ran from
17 November 1976 through
15 April 1979. It was attended by more than eight million people in the United States.
An excerpt from the site of the American
National Gallery of Art:
» "...55 objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun included the boy-king's solid gold funeral mask, a gilded wood figure of the goddess Selket, lamps, jars, jewelry, furniture, and other objects for the afterlife. This exhibition established the term 'blockbuster.' A combination of the age-old fascination with ancient Egypt, the legendary allure of gold and precious stones, and the funeral trappings of the boy-king created an immense popular response. Visitors waited up to 8 hours before the building opened to view the exhibition. At times the line completely encircled the West Building."
In 2004, the tour of Tutenkhamen funerary objects entitled "Tutenkhamen: The Golden Hereafter" made up of fifty artifacts from Tutenkhamun’s tomb and seventy funerary goods from other XV111 Dynasty tombs began in Basle, Switzerland, went to Bonn Germany, the second leg of the tour, and from there toured the United States . The exhibition returned to Europe and to London. The European tour was organised by the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), and the Egyptian Museum in cooperation with the Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig. Deutsche Telekom sponsored the Bonn exhibition.
In 2005, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, in partnership with Arts and Exhibitions International and the National Geographic Society, launched the U.S. tour of the Tutenkahamun treasures and other XVIII th 18th Century funerary objects this time called "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs." It was expected to draw more than three million people.
The exhibition started in
Los Angeles, California, then moved to
Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
Chicago and
Philadelphia. The exhibition is currently in
London before finally returning to Egypt in August 2008. Subsequent events have propelled an encore of the exhibition in the United States, beginning with the
Dallas Museum of Art in October of 2008. The tour will continue on to two other U.S. cities which have yet to be named.
The exhibition includes 80 exhibits from the reigns of Tutankhamun's immediate predecessors in the eighteenth dynasty, such as
Hatshepsut, whose trade policies greatly increased the wealth of that dynasty and enabled the lavish wealth of Tutankhamun's burial artifacts, as well as 50 from Tutankhamun's tomb. The exhibition doesn't include the gold mask that was a feature of the 1972-1979 tour.
A separate exhibition called "Tutankhamun and the World of the Pharaohs" is at the Ethnological Museum in Vienna from March 9 to September 28, 2008 showing a further 140 treasures from the tomb.
Tutankhamun in popular culture
If Tutankhamun is the world's best known pharaoh, it's partly because his tomb is among the best preserved, and his image and associated artifacts the most-exhibited. He also has entered popular culture—he has, for example, been commemorated in the whimsical song "
King Tut" by the American comedian
Steve Martin with a backup group he called "The Toot Uncommons". He was also the namesake of one of Batman's arch enemies played by
Victor Buono in the 1960s American television series "
Batman" with
Adam West.
In 1939, slapstick comedy trio the
Three Stooges filmed
We Want Our Mummy, in which they explored the
tomb of the
midget King Rutentuten (pronounced "rootin'-tootin'") and his Queen, Hotsy Totsy. A decade later, they were crooked used
chariot salesmen in
Mummy's Dummies, in which they ultimately assist a different King Rootentootin (
Vernon Dent) with a toothache.
As a side effect, the interest in this tomb and its alleged "curse" led to
horror movies featuring a vengeful mummy. As
Jon Manchip White writes, in his forward to the 1977 edition of Carter's
The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun, "The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt's kings has become in death the most renowned."
In fiction
King Tut, as played by
Victor Buono, was a villain on the
Batman TV series aired in 1966-1968. Mild-mannered Egyptologist William Omaha McElroy, after suffering a concussion, came to believe he was the reincarnation of Tutankhamun. His response to this knowledge was to embark upon a crime spree that required him to fight against the "Caped Crusaders",
Batman and
Robin.
Gallery depicting kin of Tutankhamun
Image:QueenTiy01-AltesMuseum-Berlin.png|A wooden statue head of Queen Tiye, thought to be Tutankhamun's Grandmother, part of the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin collection
Image:GD-EG-Caire-Musée061.JPG|Fragmentary statue of Akhenaten, perhaps Tutankhamun's father, on display at the Cairo Museum
Image:FaceOfAYoungAmarnaWoman-ThutmoseWorkshop_MetropolitanMuseum.png|Plaster face of a young Amarna-era woman, thought to represent Queen Kiya, the likely mother of Tutankhamun, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Image:KV55-CanopicJar-AmarnaQueen-CloseUp_MetropolitanMuseum.png|Canopic jar depicting an Amarna-era Queen, usually identified as being Queen Kiya, on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Image:Nefertiti bust (front).jpg|The iconic image of Queen Nefertiti, perhaps the step-mother of Tutankhamun, part of the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin collection
Image:StatueHeadOfNefertiti01.png|Another statue head depicting Nefertiti, now part of the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin collection
Image:Ankhesenpaaten-StatuetteHead_BrooklynMuseum.png|Fragmentary statue thought to represent Ankhesenamun, sister and wife to Tutankhamun, on display at the Brooklyn Museum
Image:UnfinishedStatueOfAmarnaPrincess.png|Statue of an unnamed Amarna-era princess, likely a sister (or step-sister) to Tutankhamun, part of the Ägyptisches Museum Berlin collection
Further Information
Get more info on 'Tutankhamen'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://tutankhamun.totallyexplained.com">Tutankhamun Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
