A. After discovering the tomb, Carter and Carnarvon did not want to be bothered by the press. They decided to sell the rights to the story of Tutankhamen’s tomb to one British newspaper, The London Times. Even Egyptian journalists were locked out. B. Carter and Carnarvon cleared the antechamber and made a number of interesting discoveries. They found funerary couches, thrones, and chariots, in addition to jars of sacred oils and other provisions for the next world. Strangely, nothing in the tomb named Tutankhamen’s father or mother. C. The excavation was difficult and took more than 10 years. At one point, Carter requested help from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and was given the services of the photographer Harry Burton. D. When the team finally reached the burial chamber, they discovered a small room, about 14 feet square. The space was almost entirely occupied by a gold shrine, which seemed to have been built inside the room. To remove the shrine, it had to be carefully dismantled, and doing so revealed two [should be three] more shrines, one inside the other. E. Eventually, Carter’s team reached the sarcophagus. The excavation was halted for a time when Carter committed a political gaffe that angered the Egyptian government, and before he could return to work, Carnarvon died. His death gave rise to rumors of the curse of Tutankhamen. F. Inside the sarcophagus were three nested sarcophagi [should be “coffins”], the last one, 250 pounds of solid gold. Inside this coffin, the body of Tutankhamen was held fast by congealed oil poured over it 3,300 years earlier.
II. The story revealed by the mummy of Tutankhamen may be even more interesting than the objects discovered in his tomb. I believe that Tutankhamen’s body and the circumstances of his burial strongly suggest that he was murdered. A. To remove the mummy from the sarcophagus, Carter called in an anatomist, who sawed the body in half at the fourth lumbar vertebra. B. This “autopsy” of the body revealed that the epiphyses, or ends of the long bones, were separate and movable, indicating that Tutankhamen was about 18 years old when he died. The fact that Tutankhamen’s molars had not yet erupted also confirmed this age. III. How did Tutankhamen become king? A. Remember that Tutankhamen was the son of Akhenaten, born at Tell el Armarna of a minor wife. When Akhenaten died, he left behind only two royal children, Tutankhamen and his half-sister, Ankhesenpaaten. Tutankhamen married his sister, both of them around the age of 10, to become king. B. The couple left Tell el Armarna, returning to Thebes and the earlier religious traditions. Further, Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamen and his wife changed hers to Ankhesenamen, harking back to the god Amun. These children were probably frightened by the events taking place around them. C. The vizier of Egypt, a man named Aye, was likely making decisions for the young royal couple. D. Tutankhamen began his reign by building his own tomb, near that of his grandfather, Amenhotep III. Next, Tutankhamen embarked on a project to decorate an unfinished temple of Amenhotep III at Luxor. The walls there are illustrated with scenes of the most traditional religious festival in Egypt. Tutankhamen was, at this point, probably a popular king. IV. Why, then, was Tutankhamen murdered? A. A second autopsy, conducted in the 1960s, was performed more carefully than the first one. The mummy, which still rests in the tomb, was x-rayed on site. Findings indicated that Tutankhamen could have suffered a blow to the back of the head, which in turn, could have caused his death. B. After Tutankhamen’s death, his wife, Ankhesenamen, sent a letter to the king of the Hittites, a traditional enemy of Egypt. In the letter, she says that she is afraid, and she offers to marry a Hittite prince and make him king of Egypt. A Hittite ambassador was sent to confirm the truth of the letter. When he returned, a prince was dispatched, but he was murdered at the borders of Egypt. C. The walls of Tutankhamen’s tomb reveal what happened after his death. Inscriptions show a high priest performing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony on Tutankhamen’s mummy to enable him to breathe and speak in the next world. The priest is also wearing the crown of the pharaoh; he is Aye, the former vizier of Egypt. D. How did Aye become king? A ring found in the 1930s by Percy Newberry shows a double cartouche encircling the names of Ankhesenamen and Aye. Aye, a commoner, had married Tutankhamen’s widow, but she disappeared from history. E. Aye may have realized that he would no longer be needed as advisor once Tutankhamen became old enough to rule on his own. He also knew that Ankhesenamen was capable of bearing children and would probably produce an heir. In these circumstances, it is possible that Aye murdered Tutankhamen, but ironically, Tutankhamen remains the king that is known to history.