King Tutankhamun

King Tut was one of the great pharaohs for several reat reasons which i will present in this blog. First of all he is known well is he reigned for only 9 years beggining his reign when he was only 9. he died at the age of 18 and when he was 9 he married a 13 year old woman. His tomb wasn't found until 1922 on the date of September the 23 by archeoligist Howard Carter.

Oakes,Lorna and Gahlin, Lucia. "Ancient Egypt" 2003 Barnes and Noble

Howars Carter and his partner Lord Carnarvon started the search for King Tut's grave which wasnt found until 1922 By Howard carter after the fifth season of searching. howard's partner Lord Carnarvon originally wanted to give up the search,but Howard wanted to continue the search. When the door bearing King Tut's seal took several weeks to remove the debris behind it. After they came to the second door they moved it open inch by inch. howard got the first look inside it and at first he couldn't see anything taking that it was already robbed. But suddenly he caught the glimmer of gold inside and found it filled with gold and riches beyond our wildest dreams.(Oakes 254-255)

"The first room they came to was a fake and it had a hidden door that led to the main chamber. From the main chamber two rooms split off. There was a storage room and the burial chamber where the mummy was laid. Many people died of the so-called curse on King Tut's tomb but we now know that bacteria sealed in the tomb fed on the food in the tomb and killed the workers when it got in their lungs. Carter said later "As my eyes grew accustomed to the light I was struck dumb with amazement". A winged scarab beetle spells out the hieroglyphs " Neb, Kheperu and Re" which mean Tutankhamun."

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Dersin, Denise; "What Life Was Like on the Banks of the Nile". 1997 Time Life Inc.

King Tut was a very young Pharaoh starting his rule. He entered the after world accompanied by his wealth which included this rare 22 and a half pound solid gold death mask.There were many other things besides this there were 164 baskets of dried fruit, a solid gold throne, golden fan, 3 glass vessels, serpent amulet, 80 stone vessels, 4 board games,2 life-size gaurdian statues, 454 arrows and arrow heads, a scarab chain, bronze razors, an iron dagger, headrests of glass faience and ivory, 6 chariots, and much much more.(Dersin 164-167)

"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."

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"Some time after his death, Tutankhamen's tomb in western Thebes (not his original, which Ay had appropriated for himself) was entered twice by plunderers who, however, were caught after doing only minor damage. The burial chamber was not entered and remained intact until it was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, the English Egyptologist who excavated the tomb. When in the 19th dynasty the "Amarna kings"--Akhenaton, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay--were stricken from the royal lists and publicly condemned, the location of Tutankhamen's tomb was forgotten, and his relatively few monuments were usurped, chiefly by his former general, Horemheb, who later became pharaoh. In the 20th dynasty, when the tomb of Ramses VI was cut immediately above that of Tutankhamen, the stone rubble dumped down the side of the valley covered the young king's tomb with a deep layer of chips. The workers of the 20th dynasty came close to Tutankhamen's tomb and clearly had no knowledge of it. The tomb escaped the great series of robberies at the end of the 20th dynasty and was preserved until a systematic search of the Valley of the Kings revealed its location.
Inside his small tomb, the king's mummy lay within a nest of three coffins, the innermost of solid gold, the two outer ones of gold hammered over wooden frames. On the king's head was a magnificent golden portrait mask, and numerous pieces of jewelry and amulets lay upon the mummy and in its wrappings. The coffins and stone sarcophagus were surrounded by four shrines of hammered gold over wood, covered with texts, which practically filled the burial chamber. The other rooms were crammed with furniture, statuary, clothes, a chariot, weapons, staffs, and numerous other objects. But for his tomb, Tutankhamen had little claim to fame; as it is, he is perhaps better known than any of his longer lived and better documented predecessors and successors."

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