King Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun, or Tutankhaten as he was previously known, ruled Egypt from 1332-1323 BC, 10 years, before his death at 19 years of age. Tut, as his friends called him, was married to Ankhesenamun, his half-sister, who was also reported to have been married to her father before Tut came calling.  The couple had no children that survived but was said to have had two daughters that are suspected of being stillborn.

Taking the throne as a boy 9 years of age would have called for co-regents, or “viziers”, to assist him in ruling the country. Viziers were the highest-ranking officials in ancient Egypt that supported the king. Two viziers took a role in supporting the boy king, one for Upper and one for Lower Egypt.

King Tutankhamun – the man, the myth, the mummy

Not bad looking for 3500 years.

Tut’s biggest accomplishment was to convert Ancient Egypt back to the practice of worshiping the many deities believed to be present in the world. That’s why Tutankhamun had changed his name, to show he was the living image of Amun, God of Air, and Amun-Ra, the Sun God. His father, Pharaoh Akhenaten, had dissolved this practice once he became pharaoh.

Other than that, King Tut had a pretty uneventful life. He was plagued with a few deficiencies like scoliosis, several bouts with malaria, bone necrosis, and a deformed left foot causing him to use a cane when he walked. Several canes were found in his tomb along with the other 5,000+ items.

As for Tut’s tomb (sounds like a dive bar), it is of typical design with four chambers, entryway and corridor. The difference with this tomb is that the entrance and tomb were built into the ground, not the hillside like all the other tombs. This fact may be what saved Tut’s tomb from being discovered by tomb robbers in later years. (It was looted very early after he was interred but most items were recovered and placed back in the tomb) The entrance was also covered by debris from the diggings of the tomb for Ramesses V and Ramesses VI, helping hide it from robbers.

Ay, Tut’s successor, performing the “Opening of the Mouth” ritual on Tut’s mummy

Granite sarcophagus

Twelve baboons from the Amdut funerary text describing the sun god Ra’s journey thru the afterlife

The sacred scarab beetle

King Tut (second from left) and his Ka (third from left) greeting Osiris in the afterlife

That was until 1922 when Howard Carter stumbled upon the tomb. For the next 10 digging seasons, Howard would discover and remove over 5,000 items from the king’s tomb. Back then it was procedure to share the findings equally with the Egyptian government and the dig’s sponsors. That all changed in 1925 when the findings were mostly allocated to the Egyptian government and placed in a museum.

Today, the only remaining object in King Tut’s tomb is King Tut and a granite sarcophagus. And, unlike the other tombs we saw, this tomb only has decorations and depictions in the burial chamber.