Misplaced Pages

Tutankhamun

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Oliver Pereira (talk | contribs) at 14:17, 3 February 2003 (parentage; external link). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 14:17, 3 February 2003 by Oliver Pereira (talk | contribs) (parentage; external link)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Tutankhamun was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 14th century BC, from 1333 BC to 1323 BC, during the period known as the New Kingdom.

Tutankhamun (or King Tut) is perhaps best known to modern westerners as the only pharaoh to have his intact, unplundered tomb discovered. However, he is historically important as well.

Tutankamun's parentage is uncertain. An inscription calls him a king's son, but it is debated which king was meant. Most scholars consider that he was probably a son either of Amenhotep III (though probably not by his Great Royal Wife Tiye), or of Amenhotep III's son Amenhotep IV (also known as Akhenaton).

Tutankhamun was married to Ankhesenpaaten, a daughter of the great King Akhenaton, and he was responsible for reversing much of his father-in-law's Amarna revolution, in which Akhenaton attempted to supplant the existing priesthood and gods with a god of his own devising, Aten.

Tutankhamun, still a young boy and probably under the influence of two older advisors, restored the old pantheon of gods and their temples, granted the traditional privileges back to their priesthoods, and moved the capital back to Thebes.

Tutankhamun died at the age of 18 of unknown causes. On his mummy there is evidence of an injury to his head, which apparently had time to partially heal before his death.

Tutankhamun was briefly succeeded by the older of his two advisors, Ay, and then by the other, Horemheb, who obliterated most of the evidence of the rules of Akhenaton, Tutankhamun, and Ay.

Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, setting off a renewed interest in the modern world in all things Egyptian. On January 3, 1924 Howard discovered the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

External link