King Tut’s Family Album

Andy at Egyptology News has posted several pictures showing the members of King Tut’s family. Tutankhamun’s family album is based on an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which studies King Tut’s life and death.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

King Tut’s Illness: The Video

Here is a video describing King Tut’s problem with malaria.





HT: Egyptology News

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

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Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

King Tut the Warrior

Recently, several articles on King Tut have been published, showing that popular interest in Boy King’s life and reign has not diminished.

In the current issue of Archaeology Magazine (March/April 2010), W. Raymond Johnson, director of the Epigraphic Survey, Oriental Institute, University of Chicago has an article in which he said that sculptures from Luxor prove the King Tut was the scourge of Egypt’s foes.

Below is an excerpt from the article:

Little was known about Tutankhamun when his tomb was discovered in 1922. He ruled sometime after the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten--who abandoned the traditional Egyptian pantheon headed by the god Amun in favor of Aten, a solar deity--and presumably died young after an insignificant reign. Since then, the "boy king" tag has colored our understanding of the young king. But new discoveries contradict that early assessment. Recent CT scanning of his mummy shows that Tut was no boy at death, but was a grown man by the standards of the time and may have been 20 years old. And his 9- to 10-year reign toward the end of the 14th century B.C. was one of the greatest periods of restoration in the history of Egypt. Under Tut, the damage caused by Akhenaten's iconoclastic fury against the state god Amun, which tore the country's social, political, and economic fabric asunder, was repaired and Amun's cult restored.

The rich array of objects found in Tutankhamun's tomb speak to the opulence of the Egyptian court and the young king's pampered life. But other items, including numerous throwsticks (sort of non-returning boomerangs), spears, bows and arrows, and chariots--many inscribed with his name and clearly used--attest his athleticism and youthful energy. Today, new evidence of Tutankhamun's reign has emerged that shows he was much more active than was thought, and may have led military campaigns against the Syrians and Nubians before he died.

*****
Two sets of battle-themed carvings from Tut's mortuary temple survive, one depicting a Nubian campaign, and one larger group that shows several episodes of Tutankhamun in a chariot leading the Egyptian forces against a Syrian-style citadel. Other blocks depict the king receiving prisoners, booty, and the severed hands of the enemy dead, as is traditional, though in this case the hands have been strung on spears like shish kabobs, a detail that is unique in Egyptian art. The second set shows a royal flotilla returning up the Nile, with a manacled Syrian prisoner hanging in a cage from the sailyard of the king's barge. Pieces of a concluding scene show the king offering prisoners and booty to the divine family of Amun, his wife Mut, and son Khonsu. Before now, we thought that Sety I of the 19th Dynasty invented this genre of battle narrative, but it is now clear that the tradition goes back at least to Tutankhamun and the late 18th Dynasty, and probably earlier.

Archaeology Magazine has made the full text of Johnson’s article available free online. The article also contains several images of King Tut, one showing him fighting Nubians and Syrians and another showing him as a sphinx, trampling Egypt’s enemies.

Read this interesting article by visiting Archaeology Magazine online.


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, King Tut

King Tut and His Medical Problems

Image: King Tut





A recent DNS study performed on the mummy of King Tut, one of the most famous pharaohs of ancient Egypt, reveals that King Tut was a sick young man who had problems with malaria and a bone disorder that probably forced him to walk with a cane.

According to a report published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, some of King Tut’s health problem was due to his incestuous origins. Archaeologists have concluded that King Tut’s mother and father were brother and sister. This kind of biological relationship compromise the immune system of children born of incestuous relationships and increase the chances these children will be born with physical malformations.

Read more about King Tut, the results of the DNA study, and some facts about King Tut’s life, family, and reign by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, King Tut

King Tut: Born of a Virgin

Several months ago, I wrote a post showing the reconstructed face of King Tut. The reconstruction of King Tut's face was made with the help of more than 1,700 high-resolution CT-scanner images of King Tut’s mummy. In response to my post, a reader sent me the following email:

Subject: King Tut

"I can e-mail you an authentic pic of King Tut if you like which shows his Negro features. Why try to derive his face from a mummy when you already have a life size accurate picture of his appearance? Disinformation! They are hard to find anywhere in the world as the Egyptian government attempts to distance themselves from their African ancestry. Zahi Hawass is a pawn of the Egyptian govt that already has human right issues. Hawass can't be relied on for the truth. King Tut didn't have a father, like Christ he was born through immaculate conception. His mother was his wet nurse Maia (Maya). Her tomb was teh only tomb EVER found with a lion mummy in it. Maya was also the same name as Buddha's mother. He had 144 objects wrapped within the bandages of his mummy. 144,000 is the speed of LIGHT around the earth, thus associated with light beings (Revelations). Tribe of Judah is tribe of light contains 144,000 in numbers. Light travels 6.66 times the earth in a second. Humans are the beast. King Tut reincarnated as Christ to take to the next stage what was begun in Egypt. Old testament was derived from Egyptian mythology. King Tut, King Akhenaten, Moses, A was part of the trinity that started Monotheism"

Now, how do I respond to this amazing email?

Without trying to offend my reader, I have to say that there is no end to ignorance in this world.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: King Tut

The New Face of King Tut

Photo: King Tut's New Face





Using more than 1,700 high-resolution CT-scanner images of King Tut’s mummy, scientists have been able to give King Tut a face, finally. The above image is the reconstructed face of King Tut.







For more information on King Tut, see the following:


Technology unlocks more King Tut mysteries

National Geographic article: King Tut, Unraveling the mystery

BBC article: Face to Face with Tutankhamun

Science Daily Article: The Fresh Face of King Tut

De Young Museum Photo Gallery: Exhibition Preview (Photos of King Tut’s Treasure)

National Geographic: Photo Gallery (More photos of King Tut’s treasure)


Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: King Tut, King Tutankhamun

King Tut’s Father

Image: Tutankhamun on his throne

Rossella Lorenzi, writing for Discovery News, says that an inscribed limestone block found a few months ago in a storeroom at el Ashmunein, a village on the west bank of the Nile, some 150 miles south of Cairo, reveals who fathered the boy pharaoh King Tut.

According to Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, the father of Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, was Akhenaten, the famous king of who promoted religious reforms in Egypt.

Hawass said that slab provides “an accurate piece of evidence that proves Tut lived in el Amarna with Akhenaten.

This discovery is important because it sheds light on two famous Egyptian pharaohs and helps scholars in their study of an important period in the history of ancient Egypt.

Read the article by clicking here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Akhenaten, Amarna, Archaeology, Egypt, King Tut,Tutankhamun

King Tut’s Curse Plagues Rugby Team

The All Blacks are New Zealand’s national rugby team. Rugby is New Zealand’s national sport. However, the All Blacks have not won the Rugby World Cup since 1987.

Fans are trying to find out why the All Blacks have gone without a championship since 1987. A new theory as to why that might be has been submitted and is receiving serious consideration by many people in New Zealand. The reason for the lack of championship: King Tut’s mummy.

Read the story here.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: All Blacks, King Tut, Rugby

Nefertiti’s Eyes

Nefertiti was one of the most famous women of all ancient Egypt. She was the wife of Akhenaten. Her name means “the beautiful woman has come.” Her bust can be seen in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin. Not much is known about her. She appeared with Akhenaten during his fourth year at el-Amarna, which was Akhenaten’s new city.

One peculiar characteristic of Nefertiti’s famous bust is the shape of her eye. In an article published in Archaeology, Earl L. Ertman wrote:

One of the earliest appearances of Nefertiti’s unusual eye shape is on a stela showing the royal family. Found at Amarna and now in Berlin, it is dated by an inscription to before years 8 through 12 of Akhenaten’s reign, or around 1350 B.C. On the stela, however, Akhenaten’s eye shape is “normal” and resembles those seen on sculptures of him in Thebes, but Nefertiti’s is not. So this stela may show a real, physical condition.

It could be that Nefertiti had an epicanthic fold, a piece of skin from the upper eyelid covering the inner edge of the eye. This feature is found not just in people of East Asian descent, but also in individuals with a number of different syndromes--groups of symptoms characteristic of an abnormality--some of which are genetically based. Some syndromes are debilitating, others less so, and still others are passed only from mothers to daughters.

The article on Nefertiti’s eye was published in the March-April issue of Archaeology and it is available free online.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tag: Akhenaten, Amarna Age, King Tut, Nefertiti

King Tut’s Face - The Pictures

Archaeologists have open King Tut’s sarcophagus and shown King Tut’s face for the first time.

Click here to see other great pictures of King Tut’s face.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

King Tut’s Face

Archaeologists have revealed the face of King Tut for the first time. It has been more than 3,000 years since one of the most famous pharaohs of Egypt died and was buried in his underground tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

According to the press release,

Archeologists carefully lifted the fragile mummy out of a quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses, momentarily pulling aside a beige covering to reveal a leathery black body.

The linen was then replaced over Tut's narrow body so only his face and tiny feet were exposed, and the 19-year-old king, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was moved to a simple glass climate-controlled case to keep it from turning to dust.

Read the article in its entirety by clicking here.

King Tut has become the most famous and the best known pharaoh of Egypt. Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass has done a magnificent job in the restoration of King Tut's remains.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

The Treasures of King Tut

The Evening Standard has published an article describing the upcoming exhibit of the treasures of Tutankhamun. The article contains a brief description of the exhibit and several beautiful pictures of some of the artifacts that will be shown.

What follows is an excerpt of the article:

THE KING

Tutankhamun was king of Egypt, ascending the throne around 1333 BC, when he was about nine. As a child, he did not rule directly and had two advisers: a military general named Horemheb and a male relative named Aye. The young Pharaoh married Ankhesenpaaten, who may have been his sister, and they had two daughters, who were both stillborn and whose mummies were discovered in his tomb. Tutankhamun reigned for only nine years and died before his 20th birthday after suffering a mysterious head injury. Experts cannot agree on whether he was murdered or simply had an accident, despite carrying out exhaustive forensic tests. The Pharaoh's body was mummified by priests and embalmers in a process which typically took 70 days. During the process all his organs were removed and put in small coffins of their own, each intricately decorated, and his body was wrapped in fine Egyptian linen.

THE TOMB

The tomb of Tutankhamun was dug in the traditional burial place of Egyptian royals, the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile across from modern Luxor (Thebes).

It was discovered, nearly intact, in 1922 by the British archaeologist Howard Carter, having not been touched for more than 3,000 years. Even when, at the end of the 19th century, the valley was examined by archaeologists his tomb was overlooked because some workers' huts had been built over the entrance. Carter, who stumbled upon it as much by luck as judgement, found scores of artifacts, including Tutankhamun's gold crown (diadem), the golden mask which covered his mummified face, amulets, jewels, a knife and sheath and the king's games box.

It took Carter and the Egyptian authorities a decade to catalogue the 120 priceless objects removed from the tomb. Although Tutankhamun was of little historical interest, the find caused a sensation and made him one of the most famous pharaohs of all. In 1972, an exhibition of some of the treasures was held at the British Museum.

THE CURSE

Following the discovery of Tutankhamun, there were rumours of a deadly curse surrounding those who had helped open the coffin. Lord Carnarvon, the wealthy amateur archaeologist and dilettante who funded the expedition, died less then a year after the opening of the tomb. He was found dead on 5 April 1923 in a room at the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor, giving credence to the "Mummy's Curse". It is thought he had contracted blood poisoning from an infected mosquito bite which developed into pneumonia. His room at the hotel has not been made available to guests since.

Up to six other people involved in the dig died over the next decade, including two of Lord Carnarvon's relatives and Howard Carter's secretary. Carter himself died, aged 64, from natural causes 17 years after the tomb was opened.

Read the article and view the pictures by clicking here.

The discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 was very significant because until its discovery, little was known about Tutankhamun. The tomb contained ancient furniture and many beautiful objects. The most famous of these objects was the golden death mask which covered his face. Tutankhamun was the 12th ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty and the son of Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (also known as Akhenaten). Because King Tut died at a young age (according to estimates, he was 18 when he died), he is also known as the Boy King.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, Egypt, King Tut, Tutankhamun

Queen Nefertiti and the War Between Egypt and Germany

Photo: Queen Nefertiti



Zahi Hawass, Egypt's chief archaeologist, said that if Germany does not return the bust of Queen Nefertiti, there will be a war between Egypt and Germany.

The following is an excerpt of the news report published in The New Zealand Herald:

More than 3000 years after her reign as queen to a mysterious pharaoh, Nefertiti has sparked a row between Egypt, which wants her bust returned for an exhibition, and Germany, which is refusing to let it leave Berlin, where it is the city's greatest treasure.

The painted limestone sculpture of the great queen is one of the most famous depictions of beauty and female power, showing a woman with exquisite features in the prime of life.

After lying in sand on the banks of the Nile for more than three millennia, the life-size bust was brought back into daylight in 1912 by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt

"I really want it back," Egyptian chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass told the Egyptian Parliament last week.

"If Germany refuses the loan request, we will never again organise exhibitions of antiquities in Germany ... it will be a scientific war."

Read the news report here.

Nefertiti ruled Egypt with her husband in the 14th century BC. Nefertiti was the wife of Amenhotep IV, Pharaoh of Egypt. Amenhotep changed his name Akhenaten in honor of the god Aten during his religious reform which established the worship of the sun god as the only official religion in Egypt. This religious reform occurred in a historical period called the Amarna Age.

Nefertiti was stepmother of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut. Her name means “The Beautiful One Has Arrived.” The bust was discovered at the ruins of Amarna in Egypt, by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchardt, in December 1912.

Claude Mariottini
Professor of Old Testament
Northern Baptist Seminary

Tags: Archaeology, King Tut, Nefertiti