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Tutankhamun (alternate transcription Tutankhamen), named Tutankhaten early in his life, was Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt (ruled 1334 BC/1333 BC – 1323 BC, lived ca. 1341 BC – 1323 BC), during the period known as the New Kingdom. His original name, Tutankhaten, meant "Living Image of Aten", while Tutankhamun meant "Living Image of Amun". He may be the Nibhurrereya of the Amarna letters, written by the mourning queen Ankhesenamun, but his historical significance is in dispute. Tutankhamun is a compound word formed of Tut + Ankh + Amun.

The Uniqueness of King Tut

Tutankhamun (or "King Tut") is the world's best known Pharaoh, not for the fact that his tomb (KV62) was best preserved -- King Psusennes I and the Tombs at Tanis were better -- but because Tut's discovery happened at the moment in time that it did (1922), with an archaeologist uncharacteristically dedicated to absolute preservation and documentation. That archaeologist was Howard Carter, a man both stubborn and fiercely independent in his work, insisting that every piece of treasure unearthed be meticulously catalogued and photodocumented -- photos for which Harry Burton became nearly as famous as Carter himself. It is this impeccable record of the Tutankhamun find and the subsequent exhibition of its splendors that have together cemented the young king in popular imagination.

As wrote Jon Manchip White, in his Introduction to the 1977 Dover edition of Carter's The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen,

"The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt's kings has become in death the most renowned."

The more Egyptologists glean from what scant evidence there is of Tutankhamun's life, the less significant his role becomes in the context of Egypt's dynastic kings. And that evokes the question: if Tutankhamun's tomb, small, already plundered twice by the time Carter discovered it and thought then to be bereft of 60% of the jewelry inside, is considered by the world to be one of the richest archaeological finds, if not the richest, what did the tombs of much more significant Pharaoh's contain? Consider, perhaps, what might have been buried along with the mummy of Cheops/Khufu, for whom the Great Pyramid was built.

Prof. Pierre Montet partly answered this question in 1940, upon the discovery of the intact tomb of King Psusennes I. Unfortunately, due to its location, most of the "perishable" objects there had been destroyed by water -- a fate not shared by KV62. Fifteen years earlier, in 1925, George Reisner stumbled onto the first known intact tomb of the Old Kingdom, belonging to the mother of Cheops/Khufu himself. Her name was Hetepheres, and the discovery of her tomb and funerary equipment proved that even 1,000 years before Tutankhamun, Egyptian art was a paragon of craftsmanship, beauty and detail.

Do still more unplundered tombs remain, waiting to be discovered? Two facts seem to make this very likely: (1) the probable total volume of kings interred, coupled by (2) the great loss of historical records and libraries (such as Alexandria and Ephesus) from antiquity.

There is also the possibility, as Deir el-Bahri demonstrates, that funeral equipment thought lost or stolen might in fact still exist relatively unmolested, only moved to a different location.

These questions rise wholly from the excitement Tutankhamun brought to the archaeological world, and for that are significant to his story.

Life

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 (better known as Akhenaten), perhaps with his enigmatic second queen, Kiya. It should be noted that when Tutankhaten succeeded Akhenaten to the throne, Amenhotep III had been dead for some time; the duration is thought by some Egyptologists to have been seventeen years, although on this, as on so many questions about the Amarna period, there is no scholarly consensus. Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for eight to ten years; examinations of his mummy show that he was a young adult when he died.Recent CT scans place Tut at age 19. This conclusion was reached after images of Tut's teeth were examined, and were found to be consistent with the teeth of a 19 year old. (see national geographic magazine website.)That would place his birth around 1342 BC-1340 BC, and would make it less likely that Amenhotep III was his father.

During Tutankhamun's reign, Akhenaten's Amarna revolution (Atenism) began to be reversed. Akhenaten had attempted to supplant the existing priesthood and gods with a god who was until then considered minor, Aten. In year 3 of Tutankhamun's reign (1331 BC), when he was still a boy of about 11 and probably under the influence of two older advisors (notably Akhenaten's vizier Ay), the ban on the old pantheon of gods and their temples was lifted, the traditional privileges restored to their priesthoods, and the capital moved back to Thebes. The young pharaoh also adopted the name Tutankhamun, changing it from his birth name Tutankhaten. Because of his age at the time these decisions were made, it is generally thought that most if not all the responsibility for them falls on his vizier Ay and perhaps other advisors.

Tutankhamun was married to Ankhesenpaaten, a daughter of Akhenaten. Ankhesenpaaten also changed her name from the -aten endings to the -amun ending, becoming Ankhesenamun. They had two known children, both stillborn – their mummies were discovered in his tomb.

Name

praenomen or throne name nomen or birth name
Tutankhamun in hieroglyphs
Era: New Kingdom (1550–1069 BC)

Under Atenism, Tutankhamun was named Tutankhaten, which in Egyptian hieroglyphs is:

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 realised as Tutankhamun Hekaiunushema, meaning "Living image of Amun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis". On his ascension to the throne, Tutankhamun took a praenomen. This is transliterated as nb-ḫprw-rˁ, and realised as Nebkheperure, meaning "Lord of the forms of Re". The name Nibhurrereya in the Amarna letters may be a variation of this praenomen.

Death

For a long time the cause of Tutankhamun's death was unknown, and was the root of much speculation. How old was the king when he died? Did he suffer from any physical abnormalities? Had he been murdered? Many of these questions were finally answered in early 2005 when the results of a set of CT scans on the mummy were released.

The body was originally inspected by Howard Carter’s team in the early 1920s, though they were primarily interested in recovering the jewelry and amulets from the body. To remove the objects from the body, which in many cases 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, and the removed from the golden mask to which it was cemented by means of hot knives. Since the body was placed back in its sarcophagus in 1926, the mummy had subsequently been X-rayed twice: first in 1968 by a group from the University of Liverpool, and then in 1978 by a group from the University of Michigan.

X-rays of his mummy had revealed a dense spot at the lower back of the skull. This had been interpreted as a chronic subdural hematoma, which would have been caused by a blow. Such an injury could have been the result of an accident, but it had also been suggested that the young pharaoh was murdered. If this is the case, there are a number of theories as to who was responsible: one popular candidate was his immediate successor Ay. Interestingly, there are seemingly signs of calcification within the supposed injury, which if true meant Tutankhamun lived for a fairly extensive period of time (on the order of several months) after the injury was inflicted.

Much confusion had been caused by a small loose sliver of bone within the upper cranial cavity, which was discovered from the same X-ray analysis. Some people have mistaken this visible bone fragment for the supposed head injury. In fact, since Tutankhamun's brain was removed post mortem in the mummification process, and considerable quantities of now-hardened resin introduced into the skull on at least two separate occasions after that, had the fragment resulted from a pre-mortem injury, it almost certainly would not still be loose in the cranial cavity. It therefore almost certainly represented post-mummification damage.

2005 research

On March 8, 2005, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass revealed the results of a CT scan performed on the pharaoh's mummy. The scan uncovered no evidence for a blow to the back of the head as well as no evidence suggesting foul play. There was a hole in the head, but it appeared to have been drilled, presumably by embalmers. A fracture to Tutankhamun's left thighbone was interpreted as evidence that suggests the pharaoh badly broke his leg before he died, and his leg became infected; however, members of the Egyptian-led research team recognized as a less likely possibility that the fracture was caused by the embalmers. 1,700 images were produced of Tutankhamun's mummy during the 15-minute CT scan.

Much was learned about the young king's life. His age at death was estimated at 19 years, based on physical developments that set upper and lower limits to his age. The king had been in general good health, and there were no signs of any major infectious disease or malnutrition during childhood. He was slight of build, and was roughly 170 cm (5½ ft) tall. He had large front incisor teeth and the overbite characteristic of the rest of the Thutmosid line of kings to which he belonged. He also had a pronounced dolichocephalic (elongated) skull, though it was within normal bounds and highly unlikely to have been pathologic in cause. Given the fact that many of the royal depictions of Akhenaten (possibly his father, certainly a relation), often featured an elongated head, it is likely an exaggeration of a family trait, rather than a distinct abnormality more typical of a condition like Marfan's syndrome, as had been suggested. A slight bend to his spine was also found, but the scientists agreed that 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 Tutanhkamun had suffered from scoliosis.

The 2005 conclusion by a team of Egyptian scientists, based on the CT scan findings, confirmed that Tutankhamun died of a swift attack 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 was not sustained during the mummification process or as a result of some damage to the mummy as claimed by Howard Carter. The Egyptian scientists have also found no evidence that he had been struck in the head and no other indication he was killed, as had been previously speculated.

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.

Events after his death

A now-famous letter to the Hittite king Suppiluliumas I from a widowed queen of Egypt, explaining her problems and asking for one of his sons as a husband, has been attributed to Ankhesenamun (among others). Suspicious of this good fortune, Suppiluliumas I first sent a messenger to make inquiries on the truth of the young queen's story. After reporting her plight back to Suppilulumas I, he sent his son, Zannanza, accepting her offer. However, he got no further than the border before he died, perhaps murdered. If Ankhesenamun were the queen in question, and his death a murder, it was probably at the orders of Horemheb or Ay, who both had the opportunity and the motive.

In any event, after Tutankhamun's death, Ankhesenamun married Ay (a Signet Ring, with both Ay and Ankehesenamun's name was found), possibly under coercion, and shortly afterwards disappeared from recorded history.

Tutankhamun was briefly succeeded by the elder of his two advisors, Ay, and then by the other, Horemheb, who obliterated most of the evidence of the reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Ay.

Tutankhamun in popular culture

Tutankhamun is the world's best known pharaoh, partly because his tomb is among the best preserved, and his image and associated artifacts the most-exhibited. He has also entered popular culture - he has, for example, been commemorated in the whimsical song "King Tut" by comedian Steve Martin, and in a series of historical novels by Lynda Robinson.

Discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb

Tutankhamun's existence is believed to have been mostly forgotten at some point not too long after his death, until the 20th century. It has been suggested that his tomb was never opened, by either grave robbers or priests, exactly because he and it had been forgotten.

The Egyptologist Howard Carter (employed by Lord Carnarvon) discovered Tutankhamun's tomb (since designated KV62) in The Valley of The Kings on November 4, 1922 near the entrance to the tomb of Ramses VI, thereby setting off a renewed interest in all things Egyptian in the modern world. Carter contacted his patron, and on November 26 that year both men became the first people to enter Tutankhamun's tomb in over 3000 years. After many weeks of careful excavation, on February 16, 1923 Carter opened the inner chamber and first saw the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

For many years, rumors of a "curse" (probably fueled by newspapers at the time of the discovery) persisted, emphasizing the early death of some of those who had first entered the tomb. However, a recent study of journals and death records indicates no statistical difference between the age of death of those who entered the tomb and those on the expedition who did not. Indeed, most lived past 70.

Ancient Egyptian senet games were found in the tomb .

Further reading

• Howard Carter, Arthur C. Mace, The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen. Courier Dover Publications, June 1, 1977, ISBN 0486235009
  • the semi-popular account of the discover and opening of the tomb written by the archaeologist responsible
• C. Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure. London: Thames & Hudson, November 1, 1990, ISBN 0500050589 (hardcover)/ISBN 0500278105 (paperback)
  • fully covers the complete contents of his tomb
• T. G. H. James, Tutankhamun. New York: Friedman/Fairfax, September 1, 2000, ISBN 1586630326 (hardcover)
  • a large-format volume by the former Keeper of Egyptian Antiquities at the British Museum, filled with colour illustrations of the funerary furnishings of Tutankhamun, and related objects

Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, Sarwat Okasha (Preface), Tutankhamen: Life and Death of a Pharaoh. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1963, ISBN 0821201514 (1976 reprint, hardcover)/ISBN 0140116656 (1990 reprint, paperback)

• • a useful early work covering the environment as well as his tomb
• Thomas Hoving, The search for Tutankhamun: The untold story of adventure and intrigue surrounding the greatest modern archeological find. New York: Simon & Schuster, October 15, 1978, ISBN 0671243055 (hardcover)/ISBN 0815411863 (paperback)
  • this book details a number of interesting anecdotes about the discovery and excavation of the tomb
• Bob Brier, The Murder of Tutankhamen: A True Story. Putnam Adult, April 13, 1998, ISBN 0425166899 (paperback)/ISBN 0399143831 (hardcover)/ISBN 0613289676 (School & Library Binding)
  • this book contains useful information about Tutankhamun's medical condition
• Iorwerth Eiddon Stephen Edwards, Treasures of Tutankhamun. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976, ISBN 0345273494 (paperback)/ISBN 0670727237 (hardcover)
• Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, The Mummy of Tutankhamun: the CT Scan Report, as printed in Ancient Egypt, June/July 2005.

See also

• Ancient Egypt
• The Valley of Kings
• Burials in the Valley of Kings
• Howard Carter
• Lynda Robinson

External links

• The Face of King Tut: The controversy over skin color NPR
• Putting a Face on King Tut Wired Magazine
• End Paper: A New Take on Tut's Parents by Dennis Forbes (KMT 8:3 . FALL . 1997 � KMT Communications)
• The mummy's curse: historical cohort study (Mark R Nelson, British Medical Journal 2002;325:1482-1484)
• A more detailed profile of him
• Experts Seek King Tut's Cause of Death
• Tutankhamun Examined in a CT Scanner
• Life of King Tut
• King Tut @ National Geographic Magazine
• King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy
• Tutankhamun - Interactive Egypt E-Learning application covering ancient Egypt's history and the Pharaoh in detail.

Template:Pharaoh

• 1341 BC births
• 1323 BC deaths
• Pharaohs
• Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
• Curses
• Mummies
• Amarna Period