King Tut: Minor Ruler, Major Legacy

Here is a brief biography of King Tut and his discovery:

In November 1922, Howard Carter was in the Valley of the Kings eagerly searching for the tomb of a mysterious king named Tutankhuman.

Legend has it that a boy employed to fetch water spotted the first step of a set of stairs descending to an underground tomb.

On Nov. 26, 1922, Carter got his first glimpse through a small hole cut into the tomb. Standing behind him, the financier of the dig asked if anything could be seen. "Yes, wonderful things, " Carter famously replied.

Little is known about Tut's life, and much of that information is still debated.

He was probably born around 1341 B.C. as the son of Akhenated, the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh who radically changed Egypt by disavowing the pantheon of gods, creating his own capital and establishing a cult devoted to the "Athen" sun-disc symbol, representing the sun god. Atenism is now considered the world's first monotheistic religion.

Tut became king at age 9. By then, his parents were dead, his father denounced as a heretic. The capital had returned to Memphis, outside of modern Cairo, and the Egyptian pantheon had been restored.

There's little dispute that the real power during Tut's reign was held by his trusty advisers - Aye, his father's chief official, and perhaps Tut's uncle; and Horemheb, general of Egypt's armies. To strengthen his claim to the throne, Tutankhamun was married to his sister Ankhesenamum.

The rest of Tutankhamun's life is murky, largely because later Pharaohs removed his and his father's names from official records. What is known is that he died around age 19 and was hastily buried in a small tomb.

Questions swirl around the boy king.

Did a jealous adviser deal the fatal blow that modern X-rays indicate on his skull? Tut was known to enjoy hunting and riding chariots. Did he have a fatal fall? Or, was it someone closer to Tut who murdered him, perhaps his wife or his personal aide?

As far as Dr. Hawass is concerned, "The case of King Tut's murder is closed."

In January 2005, with the world eagerly watching, Dr. Hawass and his team removed Tut's fragile mummified body from the tomb for the first time in decades and performed an unprecendented series of computed tomography (CT) scans on it. Never before had such research been performed on a royal Egyptian mummy.

We've now dismissed the murder theory," he said. "Now I can say we know accurate information about his age, health and cause of death."

Fifteen minutes of CT scanning yielded nearly 2,000 images, but Dr. Hawass' research found no evidence of a blow to the head. Dr. Hawass said earlier X-rays showed possible skull trauma due to Carter's careless handling of the mummy.

Instead, Dr. Hawass found a severe fracture on the king's left leg, leading him and international experts to believe Tut succumbed to gangrene a few days after having an accident. "I cannot say that the fracture on his leg was fatal, but the subsequent infection could have been," Dr. Hawass said.

By Christopher Sandlin, Special Contributor.

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The exhibit included 12 galleries:

Gallery 1: Tut's imposing statue is the only object you see, and it sets the tone, dramatically, for the embarrassment of riches that follows: 11 more galleries featuring 130 Egyptian artifacts, 50 of which come from Tut's tomb.



Statue of Tuthmosis IV and his mother.

Gallery 2: "Egypt Before Tutankhamun, Daily Life in Ancient Egypt." Here, you're first introduced to Tut's ancestors and his immediate family. The daily life of ancient Egyptians in the second half of the 18th Dynasty is depicted in a series of stunning artifacts. Some were used in life; others prepared for the afterlife, which hangs like a shadow over the exhibition.



Composite statue of Nefertiti.

Gallery 3: "Traditional Beliefs" focuses on religion. The Egyptians worshipped hundreds of gods, depicted here in statues. Vessels, amulets and figurines relate to the Egyptians' funerary beliefs as well as their "personal piety and religious ritual."



Shabti.

Gallery 4: "Death, Burial and the Afterlife" contains a coffin, death mask and servant statuettes. They come from the tomb of Yuya and Tjuya, a nonroyal couple who received permission to be buried in the royal Valley of the Kings. As the parents of Queen Tiy, they might have been the great-grandparents of Tut, the key word being "might." It was so long ago, no one knows for sure.



Gilded funerary mask of Tjuya.

Gallery 5: "Religious Revolution" involves Tut's presumed father, Akhenaten, and his unorthodox faith. It was neither fashionable nor acceptable back then to even suggest that there might be only one god. (Tut later reversed his father's monotheism, which made Tut quite popular, albeit a bit of a puppet.) Here, you see and Egyptian temple and standing before it, the statue of Akhenaten.



Balustrade showing Akhenaten and family.

Gallery 6: "The Discovery of Tutankhamun's Tomb" is devoted to Howard Carter, the British archaeologist who discovered the tomb in 1922, and Lord Carnarvon, who financed the expedition.



Howard Carter.



Lord Carnarvon.

Gallery 7: "The Boy King" comes closest to the focus of the show. It contains one item - the painted torso of Tut himself, easily one of the show's most dazzling pieces.



Painted wooden mannequin.

Gallery 8: "Daily Life in Tutankhamun's World" contains items Tut used "during his lifetime and desired to retain in the afterlife." The rulers of the 18th Dynasty were nothing if not wealthy. You see the boy king's chair, inlaid with ivory. A gilded case contains his silver mirror, the carved and inlaid calcite container for his cosmetics and an ivory game board.



Mirror case in shape of ankh.

Gallery 9: "Tutankhamun's Tomb" focuses on his role as a Pharaoh, with a pair of gilded statuettes portraying him as the king of Upper and Lower Egypt. You see the staffs and a coronation necklace. A shield, mace and camp stool mark him as commander-in-chief and various gilded deities depict him as high priest.



Canopic stopper.

Gallery 10: "Causing His Name to Live" deals with the afterlife and how Egyptians believed one needed to make the necessary preparations for what lay beyond. Here you see one of the more acclaimed pieces, a miniature coffinette inlaid in gold.



Canopic coffinette.

Gallery 11: "The Burial Chamber of Tutankhamun." This is the showstopper: Brass inlays suggest, in the organizers' words, "the positioning of the nested layers of the outer shrines that prevented the robbers from infiltrating the coffin...five exquisite artifacts found on the mummy, including the royal diadem and the dagger, appear suspended in glass cases."



Dagger & sheath.

Gallery 12: "New Discoveries" is the exhibition's answer to the Kennedy assassination's grassy knoll. It examines conspiracy theories behind Tut's death. It includes video of the recent unveiling of Tut's mummy in Luxor and CT scans conducted as part of a five-year research and conservation project.

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Here are some of the items also on the exhibit:



Canopic Jar contained the mummified organs of Queen Kiya, one of Akhenaten's two wives and possibly Tutankhamun's mother.



Coffin of Tjuya belived to be King Tut's great-grandmother. Special permission was requested to her buried in the Valley of King's.



Falcon collar - found on King Tut's mummy.



Flail and Crook, Royal Symbols from Tutankhamun's Burial are made of gold, copper alloy, glass, wood and carnelian.



Tiny game board from the Tomb of Tutankhamun was carved from a single piece of ivory. The pieces were kept in its small drawer. It is just under 5 and a half inches long.



Guardian Statue of Amenhotep II, King Tut's father.



Inlaid Pectoral Spelling Out the Name of the King.



Ancient Egyptian Jewel Chest from the Tomb of Tutankhamun's possible great grandparents, Yuya and Tjuya, is made of wood, decorated with gilding, ivory, faience and ebony. The colors are so fresh it looks like it was made yesterday.



Gilt statues depict Tutankhamum as the King of Lower Egypt (left) and King of Upper Egypt (right).



The Haunting Face of the Boy King.



Child's Chair and Footrest.



Tutankhamun's Royal Diadem, of gold, glass, obsidian and semiprecious stones, was found on his mummified head. The cobra's hood is made of gold, inlaid with dark blue glass and carnelian.



Exquisite Pectoral is made of gold, inlaid with silver, glass and semiprecious stones. It depicts the king with the god Ptah and his wife, the goddess Sekhmet, both reinstated by Tut.



The handle of an unguent spoon in the shape of a naked, swimming girl is made of painted and gilded carved wood. It would have belonged to a lady. Such unclothed figures were said to suggest sexuality.



Head of Amenhotep IV, Tutankhamun's father. He changed his name to Akhenaton when he changed the religion of Egypt to the worship of one god, the Aten, or the Sun God Ra. After his death, Tutankhamun reinstated the old gods.

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This composite sketch was made after the CT scans were made on the mummy of King Tut. If he were alive today, this is what he might look like.