Today–November 26th–back in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his employer Lord Canarvan entered the tomb of King Tutankhamun, becoming the first people to enter it in 3000 years since it had been overlooked by graverobbers.
Precisely because of its overlooking, it contained a wealth of aristic treasures (and junk) that had been stripped from every other pharonic tomb we’ve unearthed.
Precisely because of these treasures, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb became a media sensation, with people standing in line to see the boy king.
Mystery also surrounded his death at the unusually young age of 19. Had he been murdered? (No, it seems he died from gangrene after breaking his leg.)
Mystery also surrounded the deaths of some of his discoverers. Was there a curse on his tomb? (No, it seems that there is no statistically unusual death rate among those who visited the tomb.)
Tutankhamun’s role in Egyptian history is somewhat interesting. Though undoubtedly due to his advisors since he was only a boy at the time, his reign saw the undoing of his predecessor’s monotheistic reforms.
The Pharaoh Akhenaten banned the previous Egyptian polytheistic cult and instituted his own monotheistic worship of the deity Aten (note the last part of his name; it’s theophoric). Consequently, Tutankhamun’s birthname wsa Tutankhaten.
But when he became pharaoh, he undid his predecessor’s religious reforms, meaning that Akhenaten is now remembered as Egypt’s "heretic king" instead of as a great religious reformer. This makes Tutankhamun a kind of Egyptian "Julian the Apostate"–only a successful one.
He was able to turn Egypt back to its polytheistic roots (which it was all too willing to do since Akhenaten’s reforms were so short lived) and he changed his name to Tutankhamun after the god Amun.
His name means "Living Image of Amun" (ankh = life; tut = image), but for non-specialists the discovery of his artifacts has provided the most important living image of ancient Egypt that the modern world has seen.
As a result, he is now the most famous of the pharaohs, outshining many more historically important ones (like Rameses II or Seti I or Khufu) and the only one to have a popular nickname: King Tut.
Image King indeed!
With his P.R. skills, he could have won a Grammy.
Easy.
I wonder if anyone else gets the reference…..”Got a condo made of stone-a”…..
Is that from the King Tut song?
Btw, Jimmy, you forgot that Tut has his own network cartoon show — Tutenstein! Yes, it’s the only show on TV that has Horus, Bes and Set as supporting characters who often visit NYC. 🙂
Also, it’s “Lord Carnarvon”.
Do we know the name of the Pharaoh who wouldn’t let Moses leave with the Israelites?
According to Dr. Bob Breier it was Rameses II (the Great)
“Buried with a donkey…
He’s my favorite honky…”
And he was only King Tut after he was hit in the head with a flowerpot, etc. 😉
(Another obscure reference)
I got the Steve Martin reference right away!
Gen “X” my right buttock! We’re cool.
🙂
Now, there’s a theological issue: was Akhenaten’s worship of Aten the worship of the One True God?
Mary: I have asked myself that question too, and I think that Akhenaten did worship the true God, even if he didn’t have the fullness of the truth. Too bad his reign didn’t last for long… the forces of evil in Egypt were perhaps too strong.
a sobering reminder that, in truth,
“Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made. As a result, they have no excuse;”
and
“Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them.
Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them.
For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.
But yet, for these the blame is less; For they indeed have gone astray perhaps, though they seek God and wish to find him.
For they search busily among his works, but are distracted by what they see, because the things seen are fair.
But again, not even these are pardonable.
For if they so far succeeded in knowledge that they could speculate about the world, how did they not more quickly find its LORD?”
“He gave his life for tourism.”
I was actually lucky enough to see the King Tut exhibit in Cairo, and it was incredible to think that all these riches were associated with a relatively minor pharoah who reigned only briefly. The tour was way too quick, however, and they required some additional exhorbitant amount over the admission price to take photos.
Our bus caravan was escorted by three trucks full of Egyptian soldiers with automatic weapons pointing every which way. Chilling.
I was also privileged to buy the original Steve Martin “King Tut” single as a 45 record. I was more taken with the “B” side, an original Steve Martin composition called “Hoedown at Alice’s”, a banjo instrumental. Both “King Tut” and “Hoedown” were produced by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band manager William E. McEuen, and it’s likely that some members of NGDB played uncredited on the record.
It later melted when I left it in my car one summer day (I was moving).
Many have compared Akhenaten’s “Hymn to the Aten” to Psalm 104. Some have even speculated that Akhenaten was influenced by the monotheism of Joseph or of other Hebrew people. There is little direct evidence of this, but it is possible.
If I recall correctly, some individuals (including Sigmund Freud) considered Akhenaten to be the historical Moses. Since record of the burial rites for Akhenaten did not survive or have not been found, it was speculated that he simply followed his unitary God to different ends. Moses seems to have lived later, however, and the identification of Ramses II with the pharoah of Exodus is much more likely.
Since I have some knowledge of the area, I should probably point out that you refer not to Lord ‘Canarvon’, but Lord ‘Caernarfon’.
God Bless.
p.s. knowledge not of the ancient tombs…(I should be so lucky)…but of Caernarfonshire, from which the Lord hailed.
Don’t completely discount the idea of death from opening the tomb of the king. There’s now been some talk that Lord Carnarvon may have been ushered to an early grave by the tomb of King Tut. Not from a curse, but from mold.
Seems that as more people have been opening old tombs there’s been an number of people who died quickly afterwards of mold. If you are older, as Carnarvon was, then you seem to be particularly prone to having problems of mold infection. Most of us don’t think about it much as our immune system is strong enough to fight it off before mold can gain a foothold, but an infection is very hard to beat even with the strongest modern antibiotics and antifungals. Why?
Mold turns out to be very closely related to animals. Much closer than any of the plants. Plants are on a seperate branch of the tree of life at the earliest split. Fungi and animals are together untill about 1.5 billion years ago. As a result it’s very difficult to make a drug that would kill the mold, quickly and effectivly, without killing you, quickly and effectivly.
Makes you have a little bit more respect for Athlete’s Foot.
King Tutankhamen radiates LOVE. I am inclined to believe by deciphering the hieroglyphics from his Tomb Objects that he was deeply devoted to the SOUL OF MANKIND and that his personal goal was to unravel the mystery of death and return to life (re-incarnation). King Tutankhamen was a person with a source of power that can only be manifested by a person living in a Spiritual Realm. His Majesty wrote in hieroglyphics that, “Eternal life is granted to those that profess external love.” King Tutankhamen lived to the age of 28, not 18 posited by so-called Egyptologists. The King is the greatest Ambassador Egypt has ever had, bringing millions of dollars to Egypt. Amen.