King Tut Mysteries Endure 100 Years After Discovery

The tomb of the young Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun is one of the most famous discoveries in archaeology. The final resting place of the boy king was found 100 years ago. The tomb and its owner have been studied by scholars. The life and times of Tut have been outlined. How the young pharaoh was related to Queen Nefertiti is one of the many mysteries that remain. Some of the missing details may be filled in by new findings. debate rages over how to interpret them

Perseverance was the key to Tut's success. Carter and his team had been searching for a royal tomb for five years. Everything the valley had to offer had already been found. Carter was going to dig under a group of huts that housed the tomb builders. He and Mace wrote in The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamen that they almost thought they had been beaten. It was hard for us to make a discovery beyond our wildest dreams when we set hoe to ground in despair.

The step was found beneath the huts. Within a few days, the team had excavated a staircase and a 30-foot passageway that was sealed with plaster and stamped with a royal necropolis seal. Carter waited until the fifth earl of Carnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, could get to the site to open the door. The stairs and door were sealed with plaster and stamped with the royal necropolis seal. Carter waited until the fifth earl of Carnarvon, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, could get to the site to open the door. The corridor was opened on November 24, 1922, followed by a 30-foot passageway that ended in another door. Carter broke a small hole in the door and stuck a candle through it to light the chamber for the first time in over 3000 years. His eyes adjusted as he saw. He was looking into the antechamber of the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Carter spent a decade studying the four chambers that make up the tomb and the thousands of artifacts within them. Ikram says she's grateful that it was the man who discovered the tomb. We would have had less left to us if it weren't for other people. Carter complicated his legacy by taking artifacts from the tomb for his personal collection, but he was more careful in his documentation of the tomb than a number of other excavators. Carter enlisted archaeological photographer Harry Burton, who was working with an expedition sponsored by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to photograph the excavation of the tomb before any objects were moved. The artifacts were drawn on a map. Zahi Hawass, the former head of Egypt's Ministry of Archaeology, says that Carter was trained by the most important archaeologist of that time. This man was a draftsman andPetrie changed him to one of the most important excavators at that time. Modern Egyptologists still use Carter's methods to document tombs and other rooms full of artifacts despite the use of technology.

Carter and his successors created a picture of Tut and his family. The sun god Amun was renounced by Tutankhamun, the son of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The Egyptians had worshipped Amun for a long time. He was replaced by a sun god called Aten. Tutankhamun was named "Tutankhaten" before his father died in 1336 B.C.E. The capital of Egypt was moved from Thebes to a new city built on land near the Nile. The city had a huge temple dedicated to his god, and he called it Akhetaten.

The temples of Egyptian gods were used as centers of trade and distribution of wealth. The kingdom was thrown into turmoil because Amun did not carry out this business. The public didn't like the cult of Aten very much. The remains of the people who lived at Akhetaten show that a lot of them were poor and had toil hard for their money.

Tutankhamun and Nefertiti were depicted as equal in power to their husbands. She was a subject of fascination for scholars because of her role in Egypt. The story of how Egypt changed as the cult of Aten ended is part of the story. She is thought to have given birth to Tutankhamun, but it is not known if she was his mother. Nefertiti is depicted with her daughters, but not a son, in some artwork.

The throne was taken by an enigmatic pharaoh named Smenkhkara. The ruler's identity is being debated. One of the very few women to rule Egypt alone is thought to have been Smenkhakara, who may have used a different name. Ikram thinks that Nefertiti may have been a king. In her time, so much of her iconography was about a male king.

This view is supported by the pottery shards found by Hawass and his team at a city called the "Dazzling Aten". Hawass says that the discovery is a big one because they don't know who Smen Khkara is. I think Smenkhkara is Nefertiti. Hawass believes that there is a female ruler in the tomb. He says that it was not uncommon for a ruler to change their name after a political change. Hatshepsut changed her name to Pharaoh more than 100 years before Nefertiti.

Smenkhkara was Nefertiti using a different name. A professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester believes that Smenkhkara was a brother or half-brother of Tutankhamun. A drawing in the tomb of Meryra II shows the royal line of succession. Kemp says that he finds it perverse to argue that the queen is Nefertiti.

Smen Khkara ruled for four years. In 1332 B.C.E., Tutankhamun ascended the throne when he was eight or nine years old. According to Egyptologists, he was a puppet king whose strings were being pulled by older men who had served as his father's advisers: Ay, who would become Tutankhamun's successor as pharaoh, and Horemheb, the general of Egypt's army and the The worship of Aten and Amun was re-established by Tut early in his rule. The capital was moved to Thebes. It is unlikely that the changes were the idea of Tut.

The excavations at the Dazzling Aten show new evidence about Tutankhamun's counterrevolution. The main street of the city has been uncovered after less than two years of work. The workshops that were used during Tutankhamun's reign for making jewelry, leather sandals, clothing, amulets, statues and mud bricks were located near the street. An artificial lake was the city's water source. The drawings on the walls are from the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and show the Aten. Amenhotep III and his palace at Malqata are referred to as "Dazzling Aten" The worship of Aten was fully formed before the reign of Akhenaten, according to HaWass. For the first time, we can confirm that the idea of Aten was not from the area. Aten was created by AmenhotepIII.

There are fresh insights into the life of Tutankhamun. Several members of the royal family have been found to have incestuous relationships with Tut. The Valley of the Kings contains two mummies that have not been positively identified. The wife of Tutankhamun is believed to be Nefertiti. The results of the genetic analysis are expected in December. There are questions about how Tutankhamun was related to Nefertiti and other members of his dynasty.

The matter might not be settled by the evidence. Generations of inbreeding among Egyptian royalty limits the conclusions that can be drawn from genetic studies. It can be hard to tell a sister from a cousin when they share the same genes.

There are many unanswered questions about Tutankhamun, including the cause of his death at the age of 17. The hypotheses for his demise ranged from murder to a chariot accident to a Hippopotamus attack. A definitive answer has not been provided by the scans of Tut's mummy. The most important legacy of Tutankhamun may not have anything to do with the restoration of the old gods to Egypt. He is able to draw tourists to the country. Ikram says that Tutankhamun is the best Egyptian pharaoh because he has made Egypt's economy boom. I want to see another king who did that.