The Tomb of King Tut

The Best Website of the most important find of the century by the most promising Prehistory student, Kevin Larke.

The History Behind Tutankhamen

He is known for being the boy-pharoah who ruled Egypt from 1333 to 1323 B.C.
The name of Tutankhamen is incredibly famous.
He was the son-in-law of the heretic king Athenkan.
Tutankahamen married Athenkan's third daughter of six named Ankhesenpaaten.
Click here to see a web page about Athekan's daughters.
When they married is uncertain; some experts say that it was before Athenkan's death.
Others say that they married after because of the fact that it would legalize his claim to the throne.
Ankhesenpaaten was about ten years old when they married and evidence shows that Tutankhamen was little more than a boy.
Because of the Egyptian law of succession, he became potential heir to the throne.
Athenkan died in 1333 B.C. and Tutankhamen became King Tutankhamen.
When Tutankhamen held the throne and knowing the fact that he was so young, many believed that there was a power behind the throne.
This power, many believed was held by a man named Ay.
Ay was a close friend of Athenkan. Ay's wife was named Tyi, who was the nurse of Nefertiti.
King Tut did several things during hi reign.
During King Tut's reign, he moved the Court back to Thebes.
He began to become an Aten worshipper, then he converted to the old religion.
Experts know this fact because he changed his original name of Tutankhaten, to the name that is now synonomous with him, Tutankhamen.
He also made small additions and restorations to the temples of the old gods at Thebes.
After Tut's death, which many have suspected to be foul play, Ay became the apparent heir to the throne.
So, how did this King, who was alive over 3200 years ago, become widely known around the world?
Because of dedication and persistence by one man named Howard Carter.

Howard Carter's Personal History

He was born in 1874 in Swaffam in Norfolk, England.
His father was an artist and trained him the fundamentals of drawing and painting.
Carter then went to Egypt and worked for the Egyptian Exploration Fund as a tracer.
The first project that he was in was at Basi Hassan, the gravesite of the Sovereign Princess of Middle Egypt during 2000 B.C.
There, his job was to record and copy the scenes from the walls and tombs.
Then he worked with Flinders Petrie, who was one of the most world renowned archaeologists.
Click here for an interesting web site on Petrie.
Petrie tutored Carter and developed hiim into an archaeologist while still using his artistic skills.
In 1908 he was introduced to the Fifth Lord Carnarvon, a man who funded many archaeological projects.
He became the Supervisor of the Excavations funded by Carnarvon in Thebes.
This relationship between Carter and Carnarvon made Carnarvon very wealthy because he owned one of the most valuable, private collections of Egyptian artifacts.
Carter had his sights set on finding the tomb of a fairly unknown pharoah at the time, King Tutankhamen.
There were few clues that led to the existence of the tomb.
Carter looked through an area known as the Valley of the Kings looking for the burial place. Season after season went by and very few artifacts were found.
Click here for a first set of personal diaries by Carter.
Click here for a second diary.
After he removed that, Carter fell into the most important discoveries of the twentieth century, King Tut's Tomb.
All of the artifacts took a decade to catalogue.
Lord Carnarvon was bit by a mosquito and eventually died of pneumonia.
The media caught wind of this news and said he died because it was King Tut's curse.
That find was obviously the height of his archaeological career.
Howard Carter then died on March 2, 1939.
Howard Carter's discovery of King Tut's tomb had many valuable artifacts within the tomb.
This is one of the main reasons why King Tut's tomb is so famous!

The Treasures of the Tomb

To begin, here is a map of King Tut's Tomb.
Carter first went up the stairs, then through a short corridor.
The first room that he came to was the antechamber. This is the room where many of Tut's household items for his eternal voyage was kept.
Most of the antechamber was filled with a huge shrine, made of cedar, and covered with gold. This shrine was seventeen feet by eleven feet and stood nine feet high.
Besides the shrine, there were many objects that had ritual and personal meaning.
Many of these objects include:
Seven oars
A silver trumpet
A wooden goose
Two rushwork baskets
Then Carter went into the burial chamber.
This was guarded by statues that represented the royal Ka or soul and a statue named Osiris who symbolizes the hope of rebirth. Here is a picture of Osiris:
The burial chamber holds, obviously, Tut's coffin but also his sacrophagus.
The burial chamber contained a total of four shrines.
One of the shrines was a red quartzite sacrophagus.
The others were three different nesting coffins.
King Tut's mummy was in the innermost coffin.
The mummy is constructed of solid gold and weighs about 243 pounds.
King Tut's complete body was wrapped in linen.
His face was covered with a gold mask. This is possibly the most famous mask in history.
The walls of the burial chamber are painted with scenes of King Tut in the afterworld. Here is what they look like:
Past the burial chamber was a room called the treasury room.
This room had been boarded up for four years while Carter's archaeological team cleared the rest of the rooms.
At the entrance of treasury room was Anubis, the Jackal god.
It was a dog-like figure carved of wood and here is what he looks like:
Behind Anubis was the Canopic Shrine. Within this was King Tut's embalmbed organs.
Behind that 22 wooden shrines that were placed on a number of models of boats. These shrines were shrines of the Gods. Such as:
This room also contained many wooden boxes that had shawabti figures.
These figures were known as servants to King Tut in the afterworld if he was required to do any work.
Also in the room was a row of caskets that contained jewelry. Some thieves got a hold of these caskets, but there was still much jewelry left. Here are some of the contents:
These are most of the objects and artifacts form the discovery of King Tut's tomb.
Before you leave listen to a song that was dedicated to King Tut by Steve Martin
**Note you need Real Audio Player to play this song**
I hope you enjoyed your tour of the whole story behind Howard Carter and King Tut's tomb. Y'all come back now ya hear.