On the final leg of a 10-year-long world tour, �Tutankhamen and the
Golden Age of the Pharaohs� exhibition opens on 18 January, 2012 at the
Tampozan Special Gallery in the Japanese city of Osaka.
The event is a message to the Japanese people in particular and the
whole world at large that Egypt is safe and welcomes visitors from
around the world. The event is also aimed at driving home a message to
the effect that Egypt, with its great ancient civilization, has never
been advocating destruction or violence.
The move comes within the framework of efforts exerted by the Egyptian
government to attract more tourists at a time when intensive efforts are
also being exerted to restore stability and security.
The exhibition includes 122 artifacts carefully selected from the
Egyptian Museum in Tahrir, 50 of them from the collection of King
Tutankhamen.
Since its start in 2002, the exhibition has traveled to Brazil, Switzerland, Germany, France, the United States and Australia.
During the New Kingdom, special police protected the tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
These men were relatively effective until the late New Kingdom, when,
despite their best efforts, the royal tombs were at first randomly and
then systematically violated.
Thieves invaded Tutankhamun's tomb fairly soon after his burial. The
thieves were caught in the act and official inspectors reorganized the
contents and resealed the tomb. Several generations later, workmen
constructing the nearby tomb of another pharaoh built their huts over
the young king's place of burial, thus obscuring it. Later flooding in
the area erased any evidence of its existence. Tutankhamun's tomb would
remain hidden for more than three thousand years.
On November 4, 1922, workmen uncovered the top step of a staircase which
archaeologist Howard Carter followed to discover eleven stairs and
sealed door. Stamped on the surface of the doorway was the
Jackal-and-Nine-Captives seal of the official guards, but a royal name
was not visible. The upper left-hand corner of the door had been
re-plastered and resealed, which told Carter that robbers had broken
into the tomb in antiquity, but that something important still remained
inside. After making a small hole, Carter peered inside and saw a
corridor filled with rubble. He curbed his impatience, had his men
refill the stairway, and sent the momentous telegram to Lord Carnarvon
in England:
He was not to realize the extent of his discovery until November 26th,
when he held a small candle up to a breach in the doorway separating him
from the first of the four rooms, checking for noxious gases and then a
few seconds later enlarging the opening and peering inside. Carter
recorded his first impression in his popular book, The Tomb of
Tutankhamen:
"At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber
causing the candle flame to flicker, but presently, as my eyes grew
accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from
the mist, strange animals, statues and gold - everywhere the glint of
gold...I was struck dumb with amazement, and when Lord Carnarvon, unable
to stand the suspense any longer, inquired anxiously, "Can you see
anything?" it was all I could do to get out the words, "Yes, wonderful
things."
Howard Carter and an Egyptian workman examine the doors of the fourth gilded shrine enclosing the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.
Two life-sized figures of the king, one in a nemes head cloth and the
other in the khat headdress, were found flanking the entrance to the
Burial Chamber.
How the course began
The Curse of King Tutankhamun
The Curse of King Tutankhamun is directly connected with the death of
Lord Carnarvon on May 6, 1923. As news of Lord Carnarvon's death was
reported around the world, stories of the curse began to surface almost
immediately. Carnarvon, the financial supporter of the expedition led by
Howard Carter, died less than one year after the tomb of King Tut had
been opened. Legend states that a writer had made a prediction of danger
to those who entered the tomb two weeks prior to the tragic incident.
Then after Carnarvon's death, it was reported that tomb had contained an
ancient Egyptian curse: "They who enter this sacred tomb shall swift be
visited by the wings of death." Despite the fact that no such
hieroglyphic text existed, the public seemed fascinated by such
misinformation. Apparently they preferred to accept what they read about
the curse in the newspapers and journals, rather than to listen to the
experts and scholars.
While the discovery of the tomb and the very public death of Lord
Carnarvon were very interesting stories, at this point in time it was
not easy for the media to receive direct information regarding what the
excavators were doing in the tomb. With policies in place that
restricted entrance of the tomb to only a select few, journalists had
limited resources for information and perhaps for this reason several
stories were invented.
The limited access to the tomb allowed Carter and his staff to work
without constant interruption. In addition, Lord Carnarvon and the Times
of London had signed a contract, to help fund the lengthy clearing of
the tomb. This contract allowed only the Times of London direct access
to all of the data and information found before it was released to other
sources. This apparently, motivated some reporters to take matters into
their own hands and they conspired with others to make news by
concocting a fictional curse, based on the tragedy of Lord Carnarvon's
death.
In the beginning only the one death was attributed to the curse, but
soon the fatality of any one even remotely connected with the tomb was
ascribed to the same cause. In fact, only six individuals directly
associated with opening of the tomb had died after ten years. Perhaps
most important is that the discoverer of the tomb, Howard Carter lived
more than seventeen years after discovering the tomb and then died at
the age of sixty four.
All of this interest in a concocted curse obscures the fact that the
ancient Egyptians did in fact engage in the use of various types of
curses and threats. Some even were directed specifically against
trespassers who attempted to violate the tomb. But the tomb of
Tutankhamun did not possess such protection.
This material is adapted from text written by Dr. David P. Silverman and
Dr. Zahi Hasass' book "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs".
Who was King Tut
King Tut was born during the Amarna Age, a time when the pharaoh
Akheneaten, his probable father, had introduced quasi-monotheistic
beliefs into ancient Egypt, replacing the traditional religion.
Akhenaten had also moved the administrative center (Memphis in the
north) and religious capital (Thebes in the south) to Akhetaten (modern
Tel el Amarna) in Middle Egypt, a site not previously associated with
any other god.
It is here that this young prince, named Tutankhaten - to honor the
Aten, the deity of his new religion - was born and spent his early
childhood. The prince, however, ultimately did not maintain the
religious movement his father introduced. He ascended the throne (around
1333 BCE), while still a child. Guided by two officials of the court,
the general Horemhab and the god's father Aye (perhaps a relative of the
young king); Tutankhamun restored the traditional gods and
re-established Thebes as the religious capital and Memphis as the
administrative center. He also changed his name to Tutankhamun in order
to direct attention to the restoration of the pantheon and the god Amun
at its head. King Tut reigned for only about nine years.
King Tut's Mummy
New Research and Findings of Tut's mummy reveal much about how the boy king lived and died.
After a brief nine-year reign, the boy king passed away unexpectedly
before reaching his twentieth birthday. The cause of Tutankhamun's death
remains uncertain. On November 11, 1925, Carter and his staff began the
first examination of the mummy. A black resin covered the body inside
and adhered the king's head to his gorgeous, gold funerary mask. Over a
span of four days, the team delicately unraveled the bandages and
recorded each of the artifacts hidden within the wrappings.
In October of 1926, Carter re-wrapped the body and laid it, in its tray
of sand, returning it to its outermost coffin and its stone sarcophagus.
A plate glass lid was placed on top to protect the coffin. The mummy
was undisturbed in its original tomb for another 40 years, until 1968
when x-rays were performed.
The 1968 x-rays seemed to show damage to the base of the skull, perhaps
due to a blow to the head, however, CT scans in 2005 have disproved that
theory. Recent examinations also revealed a compound fracture of the
left thigh. If Tutankhamun sustained such an injury, it is also possible
that he could have died quickly of infection, but the soft tissue is
too damaged to provide conclusive proof.
Copy provided courtesy of The Field Museum, all rights reserved
As evidenced in this photo, Tut's mummy is remarkably well preserved.
This 3 dimensional bust of Tutankhamun, based on the findings of the
2005 CT scan of Tutankhamun's mummy, demonstrate what the boy king may
have actually looked like over 3,000 years ago.
Death and Burial
Tut's Mummification
Royalty and wealthy private citizens alike mummified the dead, a process
that mirrored the myth of the Underworld god Osiris, whose body had
been dismembered, reassembled and reanimated. Since the ba, or spiritual
essence of the person needed to return to the mummy to ensure its
continued life, the body had to be preserved through an elaborate
embalming process, which took at least 70 days.
Preparing the Body
Despite his early and unexpected death, Tutankhamun received traditional
mummification. Embalmers laid the body in a bed of natron, a
combination of salt and baking soda that naturally occurs in Egypt, to
dry out the flesh. This material was also stuffed into the body cavity.
Resins were then applied to soften the leathery skin. The brain was
removed through the nostrils with a long metal hook. The heart was left
in place or removed, dried out, and put back into the chest cavity.
Preserving the internal organs
Embalmers removed the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines through an
incision in the left side of the body. Each was carefully dried in
salts, anointed with oils, and then wrapped. Next these bundles were
placed in canopic jars and stored in the burial chamber. Tutankhamun's
organs, however, received elaborate treatment. Each were put into a
solid gold miniature coffin which in turn was placed in a stone canopic
chest divided into four compartments, and each section had its own lid
bearing the image of the king. Protective spells appear on the interior
of caffeinate and on the exterior of the outer chests.
Wrapping the mummy
Tutankhamun's limbs were wrapped in the finest linen bandages. Priests
recited special spells during the wrapping process and placed more than a
hundred beautiful amulets and pieces of jewelry between the layers of
cloth. Golden cylinders covered the king? fingers and toes and a
magnificent golden funerary mask protected his face.
Egyptian Religion
To maintain maat, order in the universe, the living constantly had to
pacify the many deities who existed in the cosmos. This system of
beliefs persisted for thousands of years until Akhenaten (probably
Tutankhamun's father) introduced the concept of the one god Aten and did
away with the pantheon of gods.
Religious revolution
At the beginning of the 18th Dynasty, the god Amun took center stage and
became the chief god of the state. Other prominent gods at this time
were the solar deity Re, creator god Ptah, the great god of the
Underworld, Osiris, and many more. Monumental temples to these gods were
built across the land.
When Amenhotep IV (later called Akhenaten) came to the throne, he was
steeped in these orthodox beliefs. But he soon brought a new religion to
prominence that would have repercussions for Tutankhamun, his son. By
the third year of his reign, Amenhotep IV had begun a series of temples
dedicated to the solar cult at Karnak. This cult emphasized the visible
image of the sun, called Aten, which was then as a sun disk whose rays
ended in human hands that extended ankh ("life") symbols to the king and
his queen.
In the fifth year of his reign, Amenhotep IV honored his new god by
changing his own name to Akhenaten ("The One Who is Effective for the
Aten"). He also moved the capital from Thebes to a new city on virgin
soil, not sacred to any other gods. Called Akhetaten ("Horizon of the
Sun Disk"), we now know this city as Amarna.
To implement this new religion, agents of the king traveled throughout
Egypt, destroying the names and images of other deities. Even the plural
word "gods" was obliterated. Aten could now be worshiped only through
representations of the royal family, who were portrayed in a rounded
exaggerated style quite different from traditional Egyptian art.
This unusual practice would not remain in public favor long, once Tutankhamun came to power.
Restoring harmony to the universe
Only a few years into his reign, Tutankhaten ("Living Image of the
Aten") changed his name to Tutankhamun ("Living Image of Amun").
Likewise, his queen Ankhsenpaaten became Ankhsenamun.
During his rule of almost ten years, the young king worked hard to
restore the worship of Amun and the other gods who had been neglected
under Akhenaten. He rebuilt their temples, replenished their treasuries,
and left Amarna to return to Memphis and Thebes.
