King Tut

A detailed Summary of King Tut

King Tutankhamen The Boy King

King Tutankhamen ,or King Tut, was one of the youngest kings to reign over any country. "The Boy King" is best remembered for his magnificent funeral treasures, including his elaborate golden burial mask. King Tut achieved a measure of immortality through his glittering burial treasures.

King Tut was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who reigned from about 1348 to 1339 BC. His name can be spelled a variety of ways including Tutankhamen, Tutankhamon, or Tutankhamun. There is an enigma, though, surrounding his name. Researchers have no idea where it came from because his parents are unknown. He became king during the period of readjustment that followed the death of his father-in-law, the pharaoh Akhenaton. The boy king married Akhenaton's third daughter to strengthen his claim to the throne and took the name Tutankhaton meaning "gracious of life is Aton." After less than three years of residence at Akhetaton he changed his name to Tutankhamen. Because Tut was only nine or ten when he became pharaoh the direction of the state was devolved onto an older official named Ay. ( He succeeded Tut when he died.)

When Tut was alive, however the Egyptians had a

Few sites in the ancient world held as much wealth as the Royal Valley, and nearby villagers made a profession of robbing the tombs almost before the doors were sealed. the laborers who built the tombs- and even high officials- shared in the plunder. In a vain attempt to safeguard the royal burial chambers, architects sank the crypts deep into secret recesses and sealed tomb entrances. But despite armies of guards, and watchman who made regular checks to see that the crypts were sealed, the tombs were violated. Thieves stole anything they could get- even the statues of gods they worshipped.

Last but not least the inscriptions on the right panel of the tomb spelled out exactly what Tutankhamen's name meant. Imn = Amun, Tut = Image, Ankh = Living. This is the meaning of his last name, Living image of Amun.

In the inner most room, guarding a shrine containing the dead king's vital organs, stood four beautiful goddess: Isis, protecting the liver; and Serket, the intestines. These organs were preserved in separate urns. The heart was left in the mummy.

"For a moment," reflected the archeologists who unsealed these ancient coffins, "time as a factor in human life has lost its meaning...The very air you breathe, unchanged through the centuries, you share with those who laid the mummy to its rest."

Tutankhamen died before he was twenty, as his mummy shows, and was buried in the Valley of the Kings in a tomb that originally had been prepared for his advisor Ay. Tut left no heir to succeed him and an important and powerful official, Ay, became pharaoh. About ten years after his death, thieves broke into his tomb and ransacked the antechamber. But the tomb, resealed and eventually covered over with rubble, was not touched again until modern times-although by 1000BC every other sepulcher in the Valley had been robbed.

"Can see anything ?" "Yes," Carter replied, "wonderful things." Such were the words of Howard Carter on February 17, 1923 as the archaeologist peered into the 3500 year old darkness of Pharaoh Tutankhamen's burial chamber and forever altered the scope of man's imagination. Carter and his team of the world's most eminent archaeological experts uncovered what are undoubtedly among the greatest riches of this or any known time. The name Tutankhamen, in reality a relatively insignificant young king, has become legendary and has furthermore assumed a position in our vocabulary and cultural ethos rivaled by few other figures of ancient history. Of the events which directly followed that momentous day in 1923, we are utterly baffled. By 1929, twenty-two people who had been either directly or indirectly involved in the exhumation of Tut and his treasures were dead, in most cases, of undiagnosable causes. Was this just a flook or was it the curse of King Tutankhamen.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2161
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People