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Tutankhamen – King Tut
•In 1346 BC life in Egypt was difficult and I am only eight years old.
•My father Pharaoh Akhenaten ruled Egypt for many years – he abandoned the worship of
Egypt’s many traditional gods – now only one god is worshipped – Aten.
•My father has a new capital to replace Memphis and Thebes – which has angered many
Egyptians - no kidding!
•Every summer the rain from the highlands of Ethiopia swell up the Nile and cause it to flood.
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/geography/nile.htm
Meet The Family
•The time I lived was known as “The New Kingdom” – the Egyptian Empire was at its height of
power and wealth.
•Enormous supplies of gold were being mined in the newly re conquered deserts to the east of
the River Nile.
•Gold was described as “plentiful as dirt” in Egypt.
•My father Pharaoh Akhenaten had many wives – his great wife was the beautiful queen Nefertiti
– my mother was believed to be Kiya – on his minor wives.
•My father and Nefertiti had six daughters – my half-sisters.
Queen Nefertiti
– means “my beautiful one has come” – she was probably not of royal blood – her father was
thought to be a high official Ay – who will one day rule as Pharaoh after my death.
My Grandparents: Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye
– my grandfather became Pharaoh at the age of 12 and my grandmother was regent – she was
the daughter of a military officer.
The Mysterious Smenkhkare
– many believed that Smenkhkare was my brother but others think that Nefertiti became known
as Smenkhkare.
Boys Only!
At this time Egypt’s pharaohs needed sons to rule after them – my father had six daughters until
my birth – finally a son!!
Religion – Change Isn’t Always Good!
•The Ancient Egyptians worshiped many gods – each protecting a different aspect of their lives –
protecting: homes, cities, rivers, wind and weather, sky, and crops – Horus, Thoth, Osiris, Isis,
Ra, Anubis, Hathor and many, many more!
•My father believed there should be only one god – Aten – the sun disk, creator of everything. My
father adopted this new religion and he closed the temples where the old gods were worshipped.
The ordinary people are dismayed and the powerful priests at the temples no longer have any
work.
***Note to self *** Don’t suddenly change your country’s religion – the priests will be powerful
enemies!
Akhetaten – The New City
•New temples are built to Aten and a new capital city is established to replace Thebes (modern
Luxor). It is called Akhetaten, which means “horizon of the sun.” The site of the new capital is
chosen because the cliffs nearby are shaped like the hieroglyphic word for “horizon,” through
which the sun god is “reborn” every morning.
•Two temples are built in the heart of the new city. Like other Egyptian temples, they consist of a
series of smaller courtyards leading to a shrine. In a traditional temple, this would lead to an
enclosed shrine, but Aten’s sun rays cannot be enclosed, so the courtyards are open. Offerings
are made to the god and the courtyards are piled high with fruits, vegetables, birds, and other
animals.
My Childhood In The New City
•I was born in the new city Akhetaten (now known as Amarna) and like other children from noble
families, I was raised in the women’s quarter of the palace. Education was highly valued and
schools are part of the temple and government offices. Royal children have their own school
within the palace. Boys start school at the age of five and the first thing they are taught to write is
the hieratic script used for official documents. Older students learn to draw hieroglyphs that are
used in religious texts.
Go For Gold!
•The Window of appearances – from this window the pharaoh shower his loyal subjects with gold
as a symbol of the divine light of the sun. My father also rewards his supporters with houses and
even tombs for the nobility.
Well Fed!
•When I was an infant, I had a nurse called Maia and she nursed me and treated me as her own
child. I do not suffer from any of the common childhood illnesses.
Princely Learning
•As I grow older, I am sent to a school especially for princes and sons of important nobles. The
school is attached to one of the palaces. In the morning I concentrate on writing. In the
afternoons I practice riding and shooting with a bow and arrow, skills important for warfare as well
as hunting.
My “Hometown”
•The new city is a political center and ceremonial city. It has many palaces and official buildings,
as well as temples, soldiers’ barracks, headquarters for the police, and many storerooms and
granaries. There are two palaces that are connected by a bridge that crosses the “Royal Road.”
This is a processional route along which the pharaoh rides his chariot to the temple.
Royal Gods
•Residents of the city keep small statues of the royal family to worship in their household shrines.
Palaces Of Mud
•The city is planned on a large scale. It encloses an area of 77 sq. miles and has a population
estimated to be more than 20,000. Its palaces and houses are built of mud brick hardened in the
sun. Only the temples are made from stone.
Feasting
•Ordinary people have simple diets consisting mainly of bread, vegetables, and beans. As a
prince I enjoy meat, fish, cakes, beer, and wine – nothing but the best for me!
***Note*** I eat as much as I can – only the very wealthy can afford lots of food, so being fat is a
sign of how rich I am. “Get in my belly!”
The Pharaoh Is Dead!
•In 1335 BC my father dies. Smenkhkare becomes pharaoh, but was Smenkhkare in charge?
Ay, the grand vizier and Nefertiti’s father, still holds his position of great power behind the throne.
Over time, the traditional gods are reinstated. Gradually Akhenaten’s name is removed from all
monuments and the Aten temples are dismantled. The temple stones are reused for other more
traditional building projects.
Plague In Egypt?
•A great plague sweeps through Egypt at the time of Akhenaten’s death and other members of
my family also die around this time. The priests and followers of the old gods say that the plague
was sent as a punishment because my father abandoned them. They use this as an excuse to
go back to worshipping these gods after my father’s death.
•Did captured prisoners bring the plague to Egypt?
•At the time of my father’s death his chief doctor was Pentiu – yet he still died despite his efforts.
•Abandoned and forgotten – sand gradually covers the once-magnificent city.
Nefertiti – The Queen Who Became King!
•Like other royalty, Queen Nefertiti has a confusing collection of royal titles and names. She is
promoted over time from being a queen (chief wife to my father, Akhenaten), to a co-regent, so
when Akhenaten dies, she becomes pharaoh.
•Nefertiti becomes queen – she then becomes Neferneferuaten Nefertiti – who later becomes coregent Ankhkherprure – then as co-regent she becomes ruler Pharaoh Ankhkherprure
Smenkhkare.
Am I Vain Or What?
•I hire master sculptors to make portraits of myself. These will be sent out for lesser sculptors to
copy and is the only way most people will know what I look like.
Long Live Me!
•In 1333 BC, at the age of nine, I became pharaoh. At my coronation, the priests set the crowns
of Egypt on my head. At first I am too young to be a real ruler, so I am helped by plenty of
advisors. Ay, Akhenaten’s grand vizier; and Horemheb, The commander of the army, make
decision for me. My father was preoccupied with religious reform and had neglected ruling his
country, so many temples and cities have fallen into decay
Tutankhaten – Now I’m Tutankhamen
•I continue the work of restoring the old religion and rebuilding temples that Nefertiti had set in
motion before Akhenaten’s death. Anyone who dares to mention Aten is punished. I change my
name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamen to show that I am a faith worshipper of Amen.
Married
•As pharaoh I must marry my older half-sister Ankhesenpaaten, who changed her name to
Ankhesenamen. Adopting these names signals our royal family’s return to the old gods. By
marrying my sister, I the royal bloodline is pure and ensures that my children will be pharaohs
Not All Work – After All I’m Still A Child!
•As pharaoh I am not just a mighty ruler, my people see me as a living god. This means that I
have many religious duties to perform. I take part in religious ceremonies at the temples, say
prayers, and make offerings to the gods so that past pharaohs will not be forgotten. The most
important religious festival is the feast of Opet, which takes place once a year in Thebes when the
Nile floods. Statues of the gods are taken by boat to the Temple of Luxor at Karnak. The
procession has drummers, dancers, and acrobats. The gloomy festival of the god Osiris in the
fourth month is when Egypt goes into mourning for the death of Osiris. After several days, priests
announce that Osiris has risen from the dead and the festival becomes a celebration.
Wow – a man’s work is never done!
My Favourite Game – Now We’re Talking!
•Senet is a board game played on a rectangular board divided into squares. Casting-sticks are
used to see who gets the highest score. I have four boards.
•Hunting in the desert is for the very wealthy. My bow is inscribed with two hieroglyphs, meaning
you are the “possessor of a strong arm.”
•I enjoy hunting in the marshes. Birds are trapped in nets or hunted using throw-sticks. Hunters
sometimes use tame geese as a decoy, calling wild geese toward them. Specially trained dogs
and cats are sometimes used to fetch the birds that have been hit with the throw-stick. I must
beware of hunting hippos and crocodiles – they are very dangerous!
•As pharaoh I must also beware of dangerous humans - the commander of the army can not
become too powerful – he’s also in charge of trading missions and building works
My Sudden Death – Onto the Underworld!
•I die suddenly and unexpectedly in my late teens. The cause of my death is still unknown. Did I
die from a blow to the head? Did Ay and Horemheb have anything to do with my death in their
quest for power? Or was it simply and infection that set in after I broke my leg?
•After my death, Ay becomes pharaoh and is in charge of the arrangements for my burial. The
tomb chosen for me is very small and was probably built for someone else of much lower rank
than me. My sudden death at such a young age means that my official tomb remains unfinished.
•My tomb is well stocked with food for the well being of my “Ka.”
Unfinished Paintings
•The paintings in my tomb are unfinished. The artist recreates a scene of baboons that he has
done in my unfinished official tomb. The lid of my sarcophagus cracks because the foot-shaped
end of my outer coffin is too high. The lid is removed, the coffin levelled, the lid replaced and the
crack filled with plaster.
•The panels for the shrine enclosing my coffins are banged into place roughly with mallets,
damaging the decorated surfaces.
Died and Wrapped – Up
•The preservation of an ancient Egyptian’s body through mummification is essential for a happy
afterlife. The ka, or life-force of the deceased, is believed to remain in the tomb and receives
offerings of food and drink. The ba, which represents the deceased personality, can leave the
tomb to maintain contact between the worlds of the living and the dead. It is vital that your body
does not decay if my ba and ka are to flourish, so the embalmers do everything to ensure that my
body is perfectly preserved for the afterlife.
•Anubis is often identified by the word “sab” which means “jackal.” This is possibly because
Egyptians would have noticed jackals around areas where burials took place.
•The jackal mask is worn by a priest or an embalmer playing the role of Anubis.
•The Book of the Dead is a guidebook to help me through any problems in the Underworld.
What is a Mummy?
•A mummy is the result of a long process. The body is washed first and then the brain (which is
thought to be of little importance) is pulled out through the nose and thrown away. Next the liver,
lungs, stomach, and intestines are removed. Special jars are used to store these organs, which
are embalmed separately. The heart is kept with the body because it is believed that the dead
person would need it to be judged in the Afterlife. The body is then cleaned out and covered with
natron, a type of powdery salt that dries it out. After 35 – 40 days, the body is dried out and ready
to be wrapped in about 20 layers of bandages. The complete process takes 70 days.
•The sternum and much of my rib cage are removed and your chest is stuffed with bundles of
cloth. 515 feet of linen strips are used to wrap the body. 339 pounds of natron are used to dry
the body out.
The Valley Of The Kings
•In early 1323 BC, my funeral takes place in The Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the
River Nile, the land of the dead. Like all wealthy Egyptians, I take with me everything I need for a
happy Afterlife. My sudden death has caused my burial to be a rushed and haphazard affair
using old funeral equipment. Ay takes my widow (his granddaughter) as his wife to secure his
claim to the throne.
•The Valley of the Kings contains many tombs of pharaohs from the New Kingdom. Tombs cut
into the solid rock were favoured after the repeated lootings of the pyramids.
•No Weighing of the Heart for you!
•In death, pharaohs are believed to join the sun god traveling across the sky in a ship. But nonroyals are judged before Osiris and their hearts are weighed against the Feather of Truth. If
found free from sin, the deceased is admitted to the realms of the dead. The monster Ammut (a
combination of a crocodile, lion, and hippo) waits in the judgment hall to eat the heart and body of
those who fail the test.
•Ay performs the Opening of the Mouth ceremony. Egyptians believe that this returns the five
senses to the mummy. With its sense restored, the deceased could enjoy the food offerings left
in the tomb.
•Mine is the only royal mummy to have been hung upside down during the mummification
process.
•Priests, courtiers, and servants follow my coffin. My body lies within the three coffins and is
dragged on a sledge toward your tomb.
Tomb Raiders
•My tomb is sealed and I am left to enjoy eternity in peace…but not for long because robbers
break into my tomb twice. Ay tries to remove all evidence of my father’s and my reign. Ay
replaces my name and uses his own on many of the monuments I built. When Ay dies four years
after me, Horemheb succeeds him as pharaoh. Sand slowly covers the entrance to my tomb,
and over time, my reign is forgotten along with my father’s.
•Sealing the entrance to my tomb is plastered over, and seals marked with prayers for protection
from the gods are stamped into the wet plaster.
•The fate of captured robbers was gruesome; they were fist beaten on the soles of their feet with
a stick before being impaled slowly on a sharpened stake. The linen in the tomb is more than
valuable than gold. It’s easier to sell and is much harder to trace.
Mummified – Carbonized Too!
•Years later when Howard Carter found me, he blames the bad state of my mummy on the
embalmers. Carter says that the use of too much embalming oil may have caused my mummy
to start carbonizing, or turning into charcoal. Hot knives were sued to melt the resin that holds my
mummy in my coffin. Then I was left out in the hot desert sun. The damage done to my body is
disguised when it is laid on a stray of sand to be photographed with enough sand not only to
support my remains, but to hide the fact that you had been taken apart.
Sources
Websites:
http://www.stewartsynopsis.com/evolvement_of_king_tut.htm
http://www.inquisitr.com/61901/king-tut-unwrapped/
http://www.amazing-animations.com/animated-egyptian2.php
http://www.ablogabouthistory.com/tag/nefertiti/
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/nefertiti.html
http://www.alchemygallery.com/showphoto.php?photo=12
http://ib205.tripod.com/akhetaten_map.html
http://picsicio.us/keyword/hieroglyphic%20meanings/
http://achanjati.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/akhenaten-heretic-king-of-the-18th-dynasty/
http://www.panafricanperspective.com/panafricanculcentre/cultural.html
http://cs.wellesley.edu/~cs349B/
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Backgammon.htm
http://www.destination360.com/africa/egypt/valley-of-the-kings
Book:
Stewart, David, Salariya, David and Antram, David (Illustrator) You Wouldn’t Want to Be
Tutankhamen!: A Mummy Who Really Got Meddled With: The Salariya Book Company Ltd.,
Great Britain, 2006.