The opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years on

Otherwise, forgotten and buried underneath rubble and workmen’s huts, its contents were largely intact. They included Tutankhamun’s death mask, now probably the most famous artwork from ancient Egypt, and his sarcophagus, with an innermost coffin made of 110.4kg of gold. There were more than 5,000 objects in all, including six chariots, statues of deities, and many walking sticks – as the pharaoh had a deformed left foot.

What was the reaction?

Carter’s find, publicised with dramatic photographs in The Times, caused a media frenzy, and unleashed the biggest wave of “Egyptomania” since the early 1800s, when discoveries made during Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign had a similar effect. The pharaoh was given a tabloid nickname, “King Tut”.

US president Herbert Hoover gave his dog the same name, which also featured in Jazz Age novelty songs such as Old King Tut. Flappers wore pharaonic cobra headbands, and art deco designers put Egyptian motifs on everything from fridges to the Chrysler Building in New York.

In Britain, Carter and Carnarvon were hailed as heroes. Carnarvon’s sudden death in 1923 only added to the excitement, with newspaper speculation about a “curse of the pharaohs”, which inspired Boris Karloff’s The Mummy, Tintin’s adventure Cigars of the Pharaoh and the like.

What did the Egyptians think?

The excavations became a charged political issue; Egypt had won limited independence from Britain in February 1922. For Egyptian nationalists, Tutankhamun’s treasure was proof of the country’s ancient greatness and needed to stay in Egypt; British control of the dig was widely resented.

Carter and Carnarvon, however, had started work under the colonial “partage” system, which would have let them keep half their finds, and they’d promised some of it to foreign museums. Carter squabbled bitterly with the Egyptian government during the ten years it took him to clear the tomb, at one point going on strike. The government eventually won, and the treasures mostly stayed in Egypt, though Carter and his team smuggled out some pieces.

What have we learnt since?

A DNA study in 2010 revealed that Tutankhamun’s parents were brother and sister (although other studies have suggested that he could also have been the product of a long chain of first-cousin marriages). The evidence seems to confirm that he was the son of the pharaoh Akhenaten, a religious revolutionary who turned his back on the old Egyptian gods in favour of worship of Aten, the sun disk; Tutankhamun restored the old religion during his reign (his royal name honours the old patron deity, Amun).

It appears that he married his own half-sister, Ankhesenamun; two babies were buried with him, thought to be the couple’s daughters. The cause of his own death remains much debated; an X-ray study from 1968 purporting to show that he was murdered by a blow to the head has been debunked by CT scans.

What became of Tutankhamun?

He lives on as a prominent symbol of Egypt. Post-Suez, travelling exhibitions of his grave goods played an important role in Egyptian cultural diplomacy. A rapprochement between Richard Nixon and Anwar Sadat led to a blockbusting tour of the US in 1976-79, attracting eight million visitors.

Nearly the complete contents of his tomb will be on display at the $1bn Grand Egyptian Museum when it finally opens next year. Tutankhamun himself still lies in his tomb outside Luxor. Visitors can stare at his mummified and much-autopsied remains, displayed in a climate-controlled glass box.

Article source: https://www.theweek.co.uk/news/history/958484/how-tutankhamun-tomb-was-discovered