When was Tutankhamun born?<\/h2>\n
We don\u2019t have any record of Tutankhamun\u2019s birth, and we don\u2019t even know who his parents were (a subject that is hotly disputed by Egyptologists). This is therefore an opportunity for some archaeological detective work. His mummy shows us that Tutankhamun died when he was about 18 years old. Wine-jars stored in his tomb are labelled with the years of his reign. As the oldest of these jars is dated to \u201cyear 10\u201d, we can deduce that Tutankhamun inherited his throne as an eight-year-old boy in c1336 BC. He was almost certainly born at Amarna, the new royal city built by his predecessor and probable father, the \u201cHeretic Pharaoh\u201d Akhenaten.<\/p>\n
Akhenaten had been a highly unusual king. He had turned his back on the traditional gods and goddesses, choosing instead to worship just one god: a sun-disk known as \u201cthe Aten\u201d. Following Akhenaten\u2019s death, Tutankhamun (and his advisors) reversed the religious experiment, restored the traditional pantheon, and repaired the state temples which had been allowed to fall into disrepair. Tutankhamun seemed set for a glorious reign: but then he suddenly died.<\/p>\n
How did Tutankhamun die?<\/h2>\n
It is not known exactly how Tutankhamun died. His body suffered damage at various stages \u2013 immediately before or immediately after death; during the curiously hasty mummification process; within the tomb (where a chemical reaction caused it to ignite in its coffin); and while being extracted from the coffin.<\/p>\n
Obvious damage to Tutankhamun\u2019s chest and legs suggests an accident \u2013 perhaps a chariot or hunting accident, or death on the battlefield. Others have suggested that Tutankhamun may have been murdered<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Titles:<\/strong> Nebkheperure Tutankhamun was Pharaoh, or King, of Egypt.<\/p>\n Born:<\/strong> c1344 BC<\/p>\n Died:<\/strong> c1327 BC<\/p>\n Parents:<\/strong> It seems likely that his father was Pharaoh Akhenaten: his mother is unknown, but could have been Queen Nefertiti<\/a><\/p>\n Siblings:<\/strong> At least six full- or half-sisters: Meritaten, Meketaten, Ankhesenpaaten (who was also his wife), Neferneferuaten, Neferneferure, Setepenre: at least one full- or half-brother, Smenkhkare.<\/p>\n Known for:<\/strong> The discovery of his near-intact tomb by Howard Carter<\/a>, packed with grave goods.<\/p>\n Tomb discovered:<\/strong>\u00a0In November 1922.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> We have many images of Tutankhamun, ranging from colossal stone statues to small golden figures. These show him as a fit, handsome and vigorous young man confidently driving a chariot or hunting in the desert. However, these are not portraits: they are royal propaganda which presents all of Egypt\u2019s kings in the same idealised way. We cannot assume that Tutankhamun actually looked like his official images.<\/p>\n Tutankhamun\u2019s mummy shows that he had a damaged foot. Some experts believe that this is proof the living Tutankhamun had mobility problems: others believe that the damage to his foot\u00a0was caused by the application of tight bandages during his mummification. Because of this difference of opinion, modern reconstructions of Tutankhamun vary. Some show him leaning on a walking stick, others as an athletic young man.<\/p>\n Tutankhamun\u2019s is the only near-intact royal tomb to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings. The mummified king was found lying in a nest of golden coffins, surrounded by more than 5,000 precious grave goods. Nothing like this had ever been seen before. Instantly, Tutankhamun became an ancient world celebrity.<\/p>\n Tutankhamun\u2019s mummy still lies in his original tomb in the Valley of the Kings<\/a>, Egypt.<\/p>\n Read on for eight fascinating facts about the young pharaoh\u2026<\/strong> Tutankhamun was originally named Tutankhaten. This name, which literally means \u201cliving image of the Aten\u201d, reflected the fact that Tutankhaten\u2019s parents worshipped a sun god known as \u201cthe Aten\u201d. After a few years on the throne the young king changed his religion, abandoned the Aten, and started to worship the god Amun [who was revered as king of the gods]. This caused him to change his name to Tutankhamun, or \u201cliving image of Amun\u201d.<\/p>\n Tutankhamun was not, however, the name by which his people knew him. Like all of Egypt\u2019s kings<\/a>, Tutankhamun actually had five royal names. These took the form of short sentences that outlined the focus of his reign. Officially, he was:<\/p>\n (1) Horus Name: Image of births His last two names, known today as the prenomen and the nomen, are the names that we see written in cartouches (oval loops) on his monuments. We know him by his nomen, Tutankhamun. His people, however, knew him by his prenomen, Nebkheperure, which literally translates as \u201c[the sun god] Re is the lord of manifestations\u201d.<\/p>\n Introducing a brand-new podcast series exploring the life and legacy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun<\/p>\n Listen to all episodes now<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> The first pharaohs built highly conspicuous pyramids in Egypt\u2019s northern deserts. However, by the time of the New Kingdom (1550\u20131069 BC), this fashion had ended. Most kings were now buried in relative secrecy in rock-cut tombs tunnelled into the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of the Nile at the southern city of Thebes (modern-day Luxor). These tombs had inconspicuous doors, but were both spacious and well decorated inside.<\/p>\n Cemeteries carried their own potent magic, and dead kings were thought to have powerful spirits that might benefit others. Burial amongst his ancestors would have helped Tutankhamun to achieve his own afterlife<\/a>. It therefore seems likely that Tutankhamun would have wished to be buried in a splendid tomb in either the main valley or in an offshoot, the Western Valley, where his grandfather, Amenhotep III, was buried. But, whatever he may have intended, we know that Tutankhamun was actually buried in a cramped tomb cut into the floor of the main valley.<\/p>\n It may be that Tutankhamun simply died too young to complete his ambitious plans. His own tomb was unfinished, and so he had to be buried in a substitute, non-royal tomb. However, this seems unlikely, as other kings managed to build suitable tombs in just two or three years. It seems far more likely that Tutankhamun\u2019s successor, Ay, a king who inherited the throne as an elderly man, made a strategic swap. Just four years after Tutankhamun\u2019s death, Ay himself was buried in a splendid tomb in the Western Valley, close by the tomb of Amenhotep III.<\/p>\n The unexpectedly small size of Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb has led to recent suggestions that there may be parts as yet undiscovered. Currently Egyptologists are investigating the possibility that there may be secret chambers hidden behind the plastered wall of his burial chamber. Tutankhamun\u2019s mummy lay within a nest of three golden coffins, which fitted snugly one inside another like a set of Russian dolls. During the funeral ritual the combined coffins were placed in a rectangular stone sarcophagus. Unfortunately, the outer coffin proved to be slightly too big, and its toes peeked over the edge of the sarcophagus, preventing the lid from closing. Carpenters were quickly summoned and the coffin\u2019s toes were cut away. More than 3,000 years later Howard Carter<\/a> would find the fragments lying in the base of the sarcophagus.<\/p>\n All three of Tutankhamun\u2019s coffins were similar in style: they were \u201canthropoid\u201d, or human-form coffins, shaped to look like the god of the dead, Osiris, lying on his back and holding the crook and flail in his crossed arms. But the middle coffin had a slightly different style and its face did not look like the faces on other two coffins. Nor did it look like the face on Tutankhamun\u2019s death mask.\u00a0 Many Egyptologists now believe that this middle coffin \u2013 along with some of Tutankhamun\u2019s other grave goods \u2013 was originally made for the mysterious \u201cNeferneferuaten\u201d \u2013 an enigmatic individual whose name is recorded in inscriptions and who may have been Tutankhamun\u2019s immediate predecessor. We do not know what happened to Neferneferuaten, nor how Tutankhamun came to be buried in his or her coffin. Tutankhamun\u2019s ostrich-feather fan was discovered lying in his burial chamber, close by the king\u2019s body. Originally the fan consisted of a long golden handle topped by a semi-circular \u2018palm\u2019 that supported 42 alternating brown and white feathers. These feathers crumbled away long ago, but their story is preserved in writing on the fan handle. This tells us that that the feathers were taken from ostriches captured by the king himself while hunting in the desert to the east of Heliopolis (near modern-day Cairo). The embossed scene on the palm shows, on one face, Tutankhamun setting off in his chariot to hunt ostrich, and on the reverse, the king returning in triumph with his prey.<\/p>\n Ostriches were important birds in ancient Egypt, and their feathers and eggs were prized as luxury items. Hunting ostriches was a royal sport that allowed the king to demonstrate his control over nature. It was a substitute for battle and, as such, was a dangerous occupation. We can see that Tutankhamun\u2019s body was badly damaged before he was mummified. Is the placement of his ostrich fan so close to his body significant? Is this, perhaps, someone\u2019s way of telling us that the young king died following a fatal accident on an ostrich hunt?<\/p>\nWho was Tutankhamun? A brief biography<\/h4>\n
Do we know what Tutankhamun looked like?<\/h2>\n
Why is King Tut so famous?<\/h2>\n
Where is Tutankhamun now?<\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2017\/01\/GettyImages-50690040-6392a61.jpg?quality=90&resize=278%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>His original name was not Tutankhamun<\/h3>\n<\/div> <\/div>\n
Tutankhamun: Life, Death & Legacy<\/a><\/h4>\n
![\""Tutankhamun's\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2019\/10\/tut-b2eb9e4.jpg?quality=45&resize=556,556"\" "\\"\"Tutankhamun's\\"")
<\/div><\/div> <\/div> <\/section>Tutankhamun has the smallest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/Opening20Tutankhamun27s20tomb-63e5653.jpg?quality=90&resize=300%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>He was buried in a second-hand coffin<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/Tutankhamun20coffin-8c53163.jpg?quality=90&resize=566%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Tutankhamun loved to hunt ostriches<\/h3>\n<\/div>
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2017\/01\/GettyImages-463915605-9f8c1f0.jpg?quality=90&resize=537%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/GettyImages-52257219-b1680d2.jpg?quality=90&resize=583%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/GettyImages-505925295-59642df.jpg?quality=90&resize=287%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2018\/01\/Tutankhamun20daggers-8f806bd.jpg?quality=90&resize=578%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>