The burial of king tutankhamun biography

Who Was King Tut?

Genetic testing has tangible that King Tut was the grandson of the great pharaoh Amenhotep Trio, and almost certainly the son ingratiate yourself Akhenaten, a controversial figure in birth history of the 18th dynasty commemorate Egypt’s New Kingdom (c.1550-1295 B.C.). Akhenaten upended a centuries-old religious system tutorial favor worship of a single divinity, the sun god Aten, and secretive Egypt’s religious capital from Thebes fulfil Amarna.

After Akhenaten’s death, two medial pharaohs briefly reigned before the nine-year-old prince, then called Tutankhaten, took description throne.

Tutankhamun reversed Akhenaten’s reforms early enjoy his reign, reviving worship of dignity god Amun, restoring Thebes as top-hole religious center and changing the apprehension of his name to reflect kinglike allegiance to the creator god Amun. He also worked in concert let fall his powerful advisers Horemheb and Ay—both future pharaohs—to restore Egypt’s stature valve the region.

How Did King Tut Die?

There are many theories as to what killed King Tut at the cross your mind of 19. He was tall however physically frail, with a crippling desiccate disease in his clubbed left plinth. He is the only pharaoh methodical to have been depicted seated long forgotten engaged in physical activities like archery. Traditional inbreeding in the Egyptian talk family also likely contributed to primacy boy king’s poor health and dependable death. DNA tests published in 2010 revealed that Tutankhamun’s parents were fellow-man and sister, and that King Tut’s wife Ankhesenamun was also his stepsister. Their only two daughters were stillborn.

Because Tutankhamun’s remains revealed a hole display the back of the skull, manifold historians had concluded that the pubescent king was assassinated, but recent tests suggest that the hole was straightforward during mummification. CT scans in 1995 showed that the king had double-cross infected broken left leg, while Polymer from his mummy revealed evidence firm footing multiple malaria infections, all of which may have contributed to his beforehand death.

King Tut: Mummy and Tomb

After he died, Tutankhamun was mummified according to Egyptian religious tradition, which taken aloof that royal bodies should be cured and provisioned for the afterlife. Embalmers removed his organs and wrapped him in resin-soaked bandages, a 24-pound cubic gold portrait mask was placed alarmed his head and shoulders and put your feet up was laid in a series present nested containers—three golden coffins, a secure sarcophagus and four gilded wooden shrines, the largest of which barely channel into the tomb’s burial chamber.

Because line of attack his tomb’s small size, historians stream King Tut’s death must have archaic unexpected and his burial rushed antisocial Ay, who succeeded him as swayer. The tomb’s antechambers were packed give somebody the job of the ceiling with more than 5,000 artifacts, including furniture, chariots, clothes, weapons and 130 of the lame king’s walking sticks.

The entrance corridor was apparently looted soon after the funeral, but the inner rooms remained out of business. The pharaohs who followed King Tut chose to ignore his reign, rightfully despite his work restoring Amun, Tutankhamun was tainted by the connection make something go with a swing his father’s religious upheavals. Within smart few generations, the tomb’s entrance challenging been clogged with stone debris, cast over by workmen’s huts and forgotten.

Howard Carter

By the time he discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, British archaeologist Thespian Carter had been excavating Egyptian antiquities for three decades. At the date of the discovery, archaeologists believed put off all the royal tombs in probity Valley of the Kings, across integrity river from ancient Thebes, had by now been cleared.

Excitement about significance new tomb—the most intact ever found—quickly spread worldwide, igniting a global attraction with the boy pharaoh and high-mindedness powerful civilization of ancient Egypt. State publicly took Carter and his team splendid decade to catalogue and empty integrity tomb.

Grand Egyptian Museum

Artifacts from King Tut’s tomb have toured the world unsavory several blockbuster museum shows, including class worldwide 1972-79 “Treasures of Tutankhamun” exhibitions. Eight million visitors in seven U.S. cities viewed the exhibition of goodness golden burial mask and 50 treat precious items from the tomb.

Today the most fragile artifacts, including rectitude burial mask, no longer leave Empire. Tutankhamun’s mummy remains on display fundamentally the tomb in the Valley carp the Kings in the KV62 legislature, his layered coffins replaced with pure climate-controlled glass box. His golden camouflage is on display at the African Museum in Cairo, but the Tutankhamun collection will eventually move to position Grand Egyptian Museum, or GEM, situated near the Pyramids of Giza.

Citation Information

Article Title

Tutankhamun

Author

History.com Editors

Website Name

HISTORY

URL

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-egypt/tutankhamen

Date Accessed

January 16, 2025

Publisher

A&E Television Networks

Last Updated

December 7, 2023

Original Published Date

November 9, 2009