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The
US King Tut Exhibit Tour
It will come as no
news to most ancient Egypt enthusiasts
that the treasures of the New Kingdom,
18th Dynasty
pharaoh, Tutankhamun, perhaps better
known to the world as King Tut, are
coming to the US in June of 2005. This
King Tut Exhibition is no small event,
and one not to be missed, because the
last time these artifacts left the
basement of the Egyptian Antiquities
Museum in Cairo for the US was some 26
years ago. There will be more than 130
objects on display, including
Tutankhamun's royal diadem. This gold
crown was discovered encircling the head
of the king's mummified body that he
likely wore while living.
The exhibit is
being organized by National Geographic,
AEG Exhibitions and Arts and Exhibitions
International, with cooperation from the
Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt.
The Northern Trust Corporation has
entered into an agreement with Los
Angeles based AEG to become the National
Sponsor of the event.
The layout,
flow and scholarly conception of the
show is being organized by curator David
Silverman, the Eckley B. Coxe Jr.
professor of Egyptology and
curator-in-charge, Egyptian Section,
University of Pennsylvania Museum, who
also helped curate the 1970's tour. Zahi
 Hawass,
secretary general of the Egyptian
Supreme Council of Antiquities is
writing the exhibition companion book,
"Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the
Pharaohs," and a children's book,
"Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Boy
King," both to be published by National
Geographic in June 2005.
AEG is one of
the leading sports and entertainment
presenters in the world, and a wholly
owned subsidiary of the Anschutz
Corporation, which has never
participated in an art exhibit in the
past, but is now betting some $40
million that the company can run this
blockbuster.
That $40
million will go to the Egypt's Supreme
Council of Antiquities, and will help
pay for antiquity site restoration in
Egypt, as well as help finance the
building of the new Grand Museum in
Cairo. However, this type of "for
profit" exhibit is also creating waves
among museum curators. Several museums,
including New York's famed Metropolitan
Museum of Art refused the exhibition.
“It's not worth
the cost, the hassle, the difficulty of
setting up the whole infrastructure,”
says Philippe deMontabello, director of
the Met. “The Metropolitan has a
pay-as-you-wish policy.”
 Nevertheless,
ticket sales, promoted through radio,
print, billboard, television, direct
mail, retail tie-ins and electronic
marketing, suggest another wave of Tut-mania,
despite the world's most famous art
museum snubbing the world's most famous
mummy. "It is a merging of art and
entertainment," said David Stamper, an
executive vice president in the Los
Angeles office of Chicago-based
GolinHarris International, a public
relations firm working on the rollout.
"When you see these items, they are so
incredible and so beautiful, that really
all you have to do is to shine a
spotlight on them.
The Tut Exhibit
actually begins on June 16th, 2005 and
runs through November 15th, 2005 at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, one of
the same venues of it's last visit to
the US. That first tour of King Tut's
artifacts, which was only half the size
of this the new one, is widely
considered to be the first museum
mega-event. It generated eight million
visitors nationwide. Since then, such
museum road shows have become
commonplace and an
 opportunity
for the various venues to generate new
members and revenue.
Michael
McDowell, senior director of cultural
tourism for Los Angeles, said that the
LA museum expects about one million
people to attend the show, topping the
Van Gogh exhibit in 1998-99 that brought
821,000 during a 17-week run. Tickets
are currently on sale. Afterwards, the
exhibit will move on to three other
cities where it will be on display at
the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale
(beginning in December 2005), the Field
Museum in Chicago (beginning in May,
2006) and the Franklin Institute in
Philadelphia (beginning in February
2007).
The exhibit
will include about fifty objects
belonging to the boy king that were
discovered when Howard Carter unearthed
Tutankhamun's Valley of the Kings tomb
in 1922. In addition, there will be
scans of Tutankhamun's mummy captured
through the use of a portable CT scanner
and donated by Siemens Medical
Solutions. These scans have allowed
researchers to see through the mummy's
wrappings for the first time and have
never been on display in the past. Other
 documentary
media, including videos, will also be on
display.
The exhibition
also will include more than 70 objects
from tombs of other 18th Dynasty royals
as well as several non-royal
individuals. These stone, faience and
wooden pieces from burials before Tut's
reign will give visitors a sense of what
the lost burials of other royalty and
commoners may have been like. They
include objects from the tomb of
Amenhotep II, the tomb of
Tuthmosis IV and the rich, intact tomb
of Yuya and Tuyu. All of the treasures
in the exhibit are between 3,300 and
3,500 years old.
Tickets for the
event can be purchased through any
number of sources online, such as Ticket
Masters, but there are many
opportunities for special deals so shop
carefully. For example, a number of LA
hotels are offering a summer savings
spectacular featuring deals and discount
packages in connection with the Tut
Exhibit. They include the Le Meridien
Hotel in Beverly Hills, the Luxe Hotel
Sunset Boulevard, the Doubletree Hotel
Westwood, as well as various Holiday
Inns and Sheratons.
Interestingly,
the excitement of this exhibit seems to
be spawning a number of others. For
example, various science centers such as
the McWane Center in Birmingham, Alabama
will be featuring a Tut exhibit
featuring 120 high quality replicas of
the original treasures
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Tutankhamen was one of the
Egyptian family-sensitive eighteenth in the history of
ancient Egypt and the pharaoh of Egypt from 1334 to 1325 BC.
M. In the era of the modern state. Tutankhamen is one of the
most famous pharaohs, for reasons not related to the
accomplishments achieved or where the victorious wars, but
for other reasons are not considered important historically
is the most prominent is the discovery of the cemetery and
treasures in full and without any damage to the mystery
surrounding the circumstances of his death was considered
much hailed the death of Pharaoh at a very early age is Not
normal, especially with the presence of traces of fractures
in the skull and thigh bone and Minister of the marriage of
his widow after his death and the inauguration of the same
pastoral, all these fuzzy and intensive use of the myth of
the curse of the pharaohs associated with the cemetery
Tutankhamen used in films and video games made Tutankhamen
months Pharaohs, for reasons not related at all, or the
historic significance of the accomplishments achieved during
the short years, Egypt Branch, but the gas and do not answer
questions it considers some of the oldest murders in human
history.
Tutankhamen was 9 years old when he became pharaoh of Egypt
and the ancient Egyptian language name that means "living
image of the god Amon", a large ancient Egyptian gods.
Tutankhamen lived in a transitional period in the history of
ancient Egypt, where he later Akhenaten, who tried to unify
Egypt's old gods in the form of a single machine was in the
custody of a return to worship gods of ancient Egypt
multinational. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by British
archaeologist Howard Carter and the discovery of this latest
uproar extensive media in the world.
he most famous Egyptian pharaoh today is, without doubt,
Tutankhamun. The boy king died in his late teens and
remained at rest in Egypt's Valley of the Kings for over
3,300 years.
All that changed in November 1922, when Tutankhamun's tomb
was discovered by the British Egyptologist Howard Carter who
was excavating on behalf of his patron Lord Carnarvon. His
tomb almost escaped discovery and could have been
undiscovered to this day.
Carter had been searching for the tomb for a number of years
and Carnarvon had decided that enough time and money had
been expended with little return. However, Carter managed to
persaude his patron to fund one more season and within days
of resuming the tomb was found.
Today, the tomb still contains the pharaoh's remains, hidden
from view inside the outermost of three coffins. He is the
only pharaoh still residing in the Valley of the Kings - as
far as we know!
The tomb itself is very small and appears to have been
destined for someone of lesser importance. Tutankhamun's
unexpected early demise saw the tomb's rushed |
Tutankhamun (King Tut)
At this point, it almost
seems to be repetitive to remind readers that Tutankhamun
(King Tut) was not a major player in Egypt Pharaonic
history, or at least, in comparison with other pharaohs. In
fact, prior to Howard Carter's discovery of his tomb, almost
nothing was known of him and interestingly, the one
disappointment in Carter's discover was that there was
little in the way of documentation found within his tomb.
Therefore, we still know relatively little about
Tutankhamun. For example, even who is father was remains a
topic of some debate. That has not prevented writers from
producing volumes of material on the Pharaoh.
We believe Tutankhamun
ruled Egypt between 1334 and 1325 BC. He was probably the
12th ruler of Egypt's 18th Dynasty.
Tutankamun was not given
this name at birth, but rather Tutankhaten (meaning "Living
Image of the Aten), squarely placing him in the line of
pharaohs following Akhenaten, the heretic pharaoh, who was
most likely his father. His mother was probably Kiya,
though this too is in question. He changed his name in year
two of his rule to Tutankhamun (or heqa-iunu-shema, which
means "Living Image of Amun, Ruler of Upper Egyptian
Heliopolis", which is actually a reference to Karnak) as re
reverted to the old religion prior to Akhenaten's upheaval.
Even so,
this did not prevent his name from being omitted from the
classic kings lists of Abydos and Karnak. We may also find
his named spelled Tutankhamen or Tutankhamon, among other
variations. His throne name was Neb-Kheperu-re, which means
"Lord of Manifestations is Re.
Left: Tutankhamun from the
back of his gold throne.
We do know that he spent
his early years in Amarna, and probably in the North Palace.
He evidently even started a tomb at Amarna. At age nine he
was married to Ankhesenpaaten, his half sister, and later
Ankhesenamun. We believe Ankhesenpaaten was older then
Tutankhamun because she was probably of child bearing age,
seemingly already having had a child by her father,
Akhenaten. It is possible also that Ankhesenamun had been
married to Tutankhamun's predecessor. It seems he did not
succeed Akhenaten directly as ruler of Egypt, but either an
older brother or his uncle, Smenkhkare (keeping in mind that
there is much controversy surrounding this king). We believe
Tutankhamun probably had two daughters later, but no sons.
At the end of Akhenaten's
reign, Ay and Horemheb, both senior members of that kings
court, probably came to the realization that the heresy of
their king could not continue. Upon the death of Akhenaten
and Smenkhkare, they had the young king who was nine years
old
crowned in the old secular capital of Memphis. And since
the young pharaoh had no living female relatives old enough,
he was probably under the care of Ay or Horemheb or both,
who would have actually been the factual ruler of Egypt.
Right: Kiya, a lesser wife
of Akhenaten who was probably Tutankhamun's mother..
We know of a number of
other officials during the reign of Tutankhamun, two of
which include Nakhtmin, who was a military officer under
Horemheb and a relative of Ay (perhaps his son) and Maya,
who was Tutankhamun's Treasurer and Overseer of the Place of
Eternity (the royal necropolis). Others included Usermontju
and Pentu, his to viziers of upper and lower Egypt, as well
as Huy, the Viceroy of Nubia.
Immediately after becoming
king, and probably under the direction of Ay and Horemheb, a
move was made to return to Egypt's traditional ancient
religion. By year two of his reign, he changed his, as well
as Ankhesenpaaten's name, removing the "aten" replacing it
with "amun". Again, he may have had nothing to do with this
decision, though after two years perhaps Ay's and Horemheb's
influence had effected the boy-king's impressionable young
mind.
One reason why Tutankhamun
was not listed on the classical king lists is probably
because Horemheb, the last ruler of the 18th Dynasty,
usurped most of the boy-king's work, including a restoration
stele that records the reinstallation of the old religion of
Amun and the reopening and rebuilding of the temples. The
ownership inscriptions of other reliefs and statues were
likewise changed to that of Horemheb, though the image of
the young king himself remains obvious. Even Tutankhamun's
extensive building carried out at the temples of Karnak and
Luxor were claimed by Horemheb. Of course, we must also
remember that little of the statues, reliefs and building
projects were actually ordered by Tutankhamun himself, but
rather his caretakers, Ay and Horemheb.
Left: Kiya, a lesser wife
of Akhenaten who was probably Tutankhamun's mother.
His building work at
Karnak and Luxor included the continuation of the entrance
colonnades of the Amenhotep III temple at Luxor, including
associated statues, and his embellishment of the Karnak
temple with images of Amun, Amunet and Khonsu. There were
also a whole range of statues and sphinxes depicting
Tutankhamun himself, as well as a small temple in the king's
name. We also know, mostly from fragments, that he built at
Memphis. At Kawa, in the far south, he built a temple. A
pair of granite lions from that temple today flank the
entrance to the Egyptian Sculpture Gallery at the British
Museum.
Militarily, little
happened during the reign of Tutankhamun, a surprising fact
considering that Horemheb was a well known general.
Apparently there were campaigns in Nubia and
Palestine/Syria, but this is only known from a brightly
painted gesso box found in Tutankhamun's tomb. It portrays
scenes of the king hunting lions in the desert and gazelles,
while in the fourth scene he is smiting Nubians and then
Syrians. There are paintings in the tomb of Horemheb and as
well as the tomb of Huy that seem to confirm these
campaigns, though it is unlikely that the young Tutankhamun
actually took part in the military actions directly. The
campaigns in Palestine/Syria met with little success, but
those in Nubia appear to have gone much better.
Though we know that
Tutankhamun died young, we are not certain about how he died
until very recently. Both forensic analysis of his mummy
and clay seals dated with his regnal year support his demise
at the age of 17 or no later then 18. As to how he died, a
small sliver of bone within the upper cranial cavity of his
mummy was discovered from X-ray analysis, suggesting that
his death was not due to illness. It has been suggested
that he was possibly murdered, but it is also just as likely
the result of an accident. In fact, a recent medical
examination now seems to indicate that he may very well have
died from infection brought about by a broken leg.
Yet it is clear that
others certainly had eyes on the throne.
After Tutankhamun's death,
Ankhesenamun was a young woman surrounded by powerful men,
and it is altogether obvious that she had little interest or
love for any of them. She wrote to the King of the
Hittites, Suppiluliumas I, explaining her problems and
asking for one of his sons as a husband. Suspicious of this
good fortune, Suppiluliumas I first sent a messanger 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 was murdered, probably at
the orders of Horemheb or Ay, who,
both had both the opportunity and the motive. So instead,
Ankhesenamun married Ay, probably under force, and shortly
afterwards, disappeared from recorded history. It should be
remembered that both Ay and Horemheb were military men, but
Ay was much older then Horemheb, and was probably the
brother of Tiy who was the wife of Amenhotep III. Amenhotep
III was most likely Tutankhamun's grandfather. He was also
probably the father of Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten.
Therefore, he got to go first, as king, followed a short
time later by Horemheb.
Right: Tut's famous gold
funeral mask.
Tutankhamun's famous tomb
is located in the Valley of the Kings on the West bank
across from modern Luxor (ancient Thebes). It is certainly
less magnificent then other pharaohs of Egypt, yet, because
of it, Tutankhamun has remained in our memory for many
years, and will probably continue to do so for many years to
come. Regardless of all the myths surrounding his tomb's
discovery, including the "curse of the mummy" and other
media hype, it is all a blessing to the boy-king. The
ancient pharaohs believed that if their name was remembered,
their soul would live on, so not even the powerful Rameses
the Great's soul can be as healthy as King The Death of
King Tut
 It
all stacked up. It was all circumstantial evidence as such,
but frequently that is all that investigators of ancient
mysteries have to go on. And yet, the most recent findings
on the death of King Tut (Tutankhamun) seem to conclusively
indicate that he died of natural causes, rather than being
murdered. Specifically, the latest report is that he died of
gangrene caused by a broken leg.
There was more than a
little reason to believe that King Tut may have been
murdered. The two principal suspects, Aye
who succeeded him as king, and General Horemhab who in turn
succeeded Aye to the throne, both appear to have been
powerful men who, in effect, ruled Egypt while King Tut was
a child. It would not be unreasonable at all to believe
that, as King Tut grew into a young man, the two elder men
would have resented losing much of their power. Furthermore,
at the time of his death, King Tut was certainly old enough
to have sired an heir to the throne himself, which would
have at least technically eliminated Aye and Horemhab from
ever ascending the throne. It is also noteworthy that the
young King Tut was greatly loved in ancient Egypt for
restoring the Amun priesthood
 after
the death of his presumed heretic father, Akhenaten.
However, this was almost certainly the work of Aye and
General Horemhab, who could have even resented Tut receiving
all the glory of their work.
Finally, there was the
issue of King Tut's widow, Ankhespaton, who was apparently
forced to marry Aye after King Tut's death. Only a short
time later, she disappeared from the annals of history,
leading to speculation that she too might have been
murdered.
These circumstances all
contribute to an ancient mystery, and much intrigue, a
situation that was not completely uncommon in the Egyptian
royal court. Attempts had, and would be made to murder
pharaohs, a few of which were successful. Usually, these
seem to have been plots within the harem with the goal of
elevating one wife's son to the throne over another's.
Now we are told, in
absolute terms, that King Tut died by natural causes.
However, lets take a little closer look.
 One
of the most interesting aspects of Egyptology is that
various scholars very frequently present their
interpretation of events as absolute, and particularly in
books or releases to the general public, neglect to reveal
opposing views. This occurs all the time, frequently with
one expert asserting absolutely one conclusion, while
another asserting absolutely a completely different
conclusion. For example, debates continue to rage over who
was actually King Menes, the founder of the 1st ancient
Egyptian Dynasty, with some scholars stating unequivocally
that it was Aha, with others still believing it to have been
Narmer.
In the case
of King Tut, one must first remember that his mummy is not
in very good condition today. When Carter discovered it, his
team basically dismantled the corpse while looking for
amulets and other jewelry. Furthermore, many of its parts
present at the original examination by Carter are now
missing, and both skin and bones were broken in numerous
places, supposedly also by the Carter team.
Dr. Zahi
Hawass, the Director of the Egyptian Supreme Council of
Antiquities (SCA), makes some interesting comments about the
most recent findings on King Tut. Though he seems to mostly
be in agreement with these findings, he states, for example,
that, "...some (not all) team members interpreted a fracture
in the left thighbone as
 evidence
for the possibility that Tutankhamun broke his leg badly
just before he died".
He goes on to
explain that:
"The team has
noted a fracture of the left lower femur (thighbone), at the
level of the epiphyseal plate. This fracture appears
different from the many breaks caused by Carter’s team: it
has ragged rather than sharp edges, and there are two layers
of embalming material present inside. Part of the team
believes that the embalming material indicates that this can
only have occurred during life or during the embalming
process, and cannot have been caused by Carter’s team. They
note that this type of fracture, unlike most of the others,
is possible in young men in their late teens, and argue that
it is most likely that this happened during life. There is
no obvious evidence for healing (although there may be some
present, and masked by the embalming material). Since the
associated skin
wound
would still have been open, this fracture would have had to
occur a short time, days at the most, before death. Carter’s
team had noted that the patella (kneecap) on this leg was
loose (now it is completely separated, and has in fact, been
wrapped with the left hand), possibly suggesting further
damage to this area of the body. The part of the team that
subscribes to this theory also notes a fracture of the right
patella and right lower leg. Based on this evidence, they
suggest the king may have suffered an accident in which he
broke his leg badly, leaving an open wound. Although the
break itself would not have been life-threatening, infection
might have set in. However, this part of the team believes
it also possible, although less likely, that this fracture
was caused by the embalmers".
"Part of the
team believes that the above scenario is absolutely not
possible. They maintain that the fracture mentioned above
can only have been done by Carter’s team during extraction
of the body from the coffin. They argue that if such a
fracture had been suffered in life, there would have been
evidence for hemorrhage or hematoma present in the CT scan.
They believe the embalming liquid was pushed into the
fracture by Carter’s team".
However,
one of the main reasons that murder has ragged on as a
possible cause of King Tut's death is because of a fracture
to the back of his head. Revealed in an X-ray of his mummy
made by the University of Liverpool, a trauma specialist at
Long Island University in the US theorized that the blow was
not caused by an accident. However, according to Dr. Hawass,
"The entire
team agrees that there is NO evidence for murder present in
the skull of Tutankhamun. There is NO area on the back of
the skull that indicates a partially healed blow. There are
two bone fragments loose in the skull. These cannot possibly
have been from an injury from before death, as they would
have become stuck in the embalming material. The scientific
team has matched these pieces to the fractured cervical
vertebra and foramen magnum, and
 believes
these were broken either during the embalming process or by
Carter’s team".
So, while
some recent news coverage seems to indicate that all of the
questions surrounding Tutankhamun's death have now been
answered, at least for some scholars, they have not.
Perhaps, once all the results of the recent CAT scan have
been released, everyone may be in agreement, but there still
seems to be some question, at least according to Dr. Hawass,
that at least some of the team that examined the CAT scans
disagree with the absolute finding that gangrene caused by a
broken leg caused King Tut's death.
In fact, Dr.
Hawass does reveal in recent media that we are not really
completely sure how King Tut died, but that we know it was
not murder. We have always had the utmost respect for Dr.
Hawass, as we continue to have, but it was long suggested as
a hypothesis that King Tut may have been poisoned, so in
fact, if we are not certain as to how he died, then murder
cannot yet be ruled out.
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