King Tutankhamun

King Tutankhamun

King Tutankhamun lived over 3,300 years ago during a period known as the New Kingdom. This period of time was called the New Kingdom because it was when the pharaohs united upper and lower Egypt into one kingdom with the capital being Memphis near current day Cairo. The reason I chose to write a research paper on King Tut is because he is one of the most well known pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun is most well known only by the discovery of his intact tomb in 1922 by Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

King Tut was born in 1343 B.C. into the 18th Dynasty. Early in his life Tutankaten meaning the "Living Image of the Aten" changed his name to the well-known Tutankamun meaning "Living Image of Amun". Tutankhamun began his education at the young age of four learning first to read then to write. He was probably often found himself playing the ancient board game of Senet. The young pharaoh was involved in many sports such as swimming, fishing, and hunting. His passion was in hunting waterfowl, hare, gazelle, ibex, antelope, and ostrich. By the time of his death he had acquired forty-six bows the largest of which measured six feet in length.

King Tutankamun became the pharaoh at the young age of nine years old. He ruled over a troubled country that was in chaos because previous dynasties had alienated their gods. The people loved and adored their young king. Since he was so young he had powerful and experienced advisers mainly Ay and Horemheb the commander-in-chief of the army. During King Tut's reign he and his powerful advisors propriatated the gods and restored the religion and traditional art styles of the early pharaohs as well as rebuild the temples of Amun. King Tut also moved the capitol to Memphis near modern-day Cairo.

Being the king of the most large and powerful empire in the ancient world also came with some perks. The dressing of Tutankhamun was a ritual event carried out in front of expert courtiers. Some items that were found in his tomb were sandals, necklaces, jewels, kilts, and some undershirts with embroidery around the collar area. Such simple garments would take up to 3,000 hours to hand craft by some estimates. The wearing of gloves by the Egyptians was very rare and reserved for the upper class. Tut had 27 pairs of gloves some of which bore stitching that wasn't reinvented until the 18th century. This ama...

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...paintings as well as the coffin of King Tutankhamun.

Before the opening of the tomb novelist Mari Corelli gave a public warning that there would be dire consequences for anyone who entered the sealed tomb. Then just seven weeks after the official opening of the tomb "Tutankhamun's Curse" struck. On April 5th, 1923 Lord Carnarvon died and all sorts of links were found such as all the lights in Cairo went out at the same time of his death and also back in England his dog was said to have howled and died at the same time as his owner's death.

King Tutankhamun has always been and will always be the first pharaoh that I think about when I think about ancient Egypt. His tomb and its treasures symbolize Egypt's greatness and multiple centuries of prosperity.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs By the Editors of Time-Life Books Published By: The Time Inc. Book Company Copyright 1992

Ancient Civilizations By: Christopher Scarre & Brian M. Fagan Published By: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. Copyright 1997

Websites:

www.homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/

www.kent.wednet.edu/curriculum/soc_studies/Egypt/

www.geocities.com/TheTropics/2815/tut.html