A century since Tutankhamun’s discovery: the unknowns that remain open

Was Tutankhamun killed?

No. The king of the XVIII dynasty died as a young man at the age of about 19 in 1324 BC and became king at the age of 9. rooms), unfit for the pharaoh and valuable grave goods were found to be hastily collected. According to the final analysis and computed tomography, the mummy had contracted malaria, with flat feet and a hole in the back of the skull, which supported the murder theory many years ago, but today the mummy turns out to have malaria. It is believed to have been made during the mummification process. Everything points to a broken left leg, probably from a car accident while hunting. This caused an infection that killed him.

In the tomb, royal, non-ceremonial armor with very efficient leather stitching was found against arrows, as the Egyptologist Nacho Ares noted in his book ‘The Wonderful Things’. because it is known that during his reign he expanded the lands of Egypt towards Nubia and the East.

Carter took the pieces of the tomb?

All Egyptologists agree that Howard Carter’s work on the tomb is a model of accuracy, cataloguing, documentation, and preservation. But recently new evidence has confirmed that, as always suspected, the archaeologist and also his patron, Lord Carnarvon, had secretly stolen some objects. It has also been known for years that Carter, Carnarvon, and their daughter, Lady Evelyn, entered the tomb at night and in betrayal, three weeks after the discovery, behind the Egyptian Antiquities Service. They dug a hole, filled it with a mortar and hid it with a basket in front of it. A behavior that some archaeologists describe as unethical. “Honestly, I would have done the same,” Ares admits, estimating that about 40 items may have been taken that day, but they were neither large nor overvalued: “they could be considered souvenirs.”

Here is a brief biographical sketch: Carter was a sickly boy who would become a man of strong and introverted character, a great cartoonist and watercolorist, and apprenticed to Egypt at age 17. At the age of 25, he was hired as inspector general of Upper Egyptian monuments by Gaston Maspero, who led the Egyptian Antiquities Service under French rule. One of his actions was to turn on electric lights at Abu Simbel and elsewhere to avoid the smoke from the torches spoiling the frescoes. He greatly appreciated the Egyptians, learned the language and treated the workers under him with friendship. However, an incident of drunken French tourists in Saqqara, which Carter expelled, did not please the consulate, which demanded an apology, which the archaeologist refused and later resigned. He survived as a guide and painting watercolors for tourists until Maspero introduced him to the wealthy Lord Carnarvon. After ten years of digging with no relevant results, the boss wanted to leave, but Carter persisted and won another season. On November 4, 1922, together with Tutankhamun, he found a step that took him to immortality.

Maternity issues… and family issues

Popular archaeologist and powerful ancient Egyptian Minister of Antiquities Zahi Hawass has long warned that Egypt is about to identify its mummies. Tutankhamun’s wife and half-sister Ankhesenamun and stepmother Nefertiti, in turn, Anjesenamón’s mother. Always a fan of the show when it comes to divulging discoveries, Hawass had announced that she would reveal the new DNA results to the mummies of her own lineage, coinciding with the centennial of the discovery of Tut’s tomb, but later denied that. , with the words ‘Independent’. Hawass believes Nefertiti is certain that mummy KV21B and Ankhesenamun are mummy KV21A, in tomb KV21 (excavated by Belzoni in 1817 and Donald Ryan in 1987). But we will have to wait.

DNA did indeed confirm that he was the father of two female fetuses (one seven months old, the other five) found mummified in Tutankhamun’s tomb. The mother was to be Anjesenamón, who was also his half-sister: they shared a father named Akhenaten.

Tut’s father Akhenaten, known as the heretical pharaohBeginning his reign as Amenhotep IV, but arguing that Amun’s powerful clergy renounce his polytheistic religion, he changed his name to establish a single cult of the sun god Aton. He was married to his main wife Nefertiti, with whom he had six daughters, whose beautiful bust is preserved in the Neues Museum in Berlin (which Egypt claims forever). The most likely theory is that Tutankhamun was the product of Akhenaten’s affair with a second wife, as well as his sister (in the Egyptian monarchy, incest was the order of the day): the mysterious Kiya, whose mummy was recently identified and who suddenly disappeared. It was discovered in 1898. The end of Akhenaten’s reign, who could die at the age of 35, is uncertain, possibly caused by a boy Tutankhamun who became pharaoh and the priests of Amun who were able to regain control of power. Akhenaten’s name was erased from the lists of the pharaonic dynasties because of Set I and Ramses II, who thought he should not be mentioned, and his monuments were destroyed or damaged.

Also known from Tutankhamun. her grandmother was Tiye: More than 3000 years later, his mummy still has long hair. A lock of her hair (DNA certified) was found in a mini sarcophagus with her name on it, in her famous grandson’s grave. Tiye III, Akhenaten’s father and Tut’s grandfather. She is the wife of Amenophis and had a brilliant reign of 38 years.

A dowager princess in danger

There are still doubts as to whether Ankhesenamun was the hero, or his mother Nefertiti, a fact confirmed by the written sources of the enemy of Egypt: The wife of a recently widowed pharaoh wrote a dramatic letter to the Hittite king Supiluliuma, pleading with him for help. He read the clergy of Amun and other plotters who wanted to send one of his sons to him, a prince to marry, to rein in internal enemies, regaining power after the end of Akhenaten’s monotheism. The Hittite ruler agreed and sent one of his sons, but he never reached his destination, as he was killed during the journey, possibly as a victim of a conspiracy.

controversial successor

After Akhenaten disappeared, it is believed that a pharaoh named Semenkare reigned about three years before Tutankhamun. There are Egyptologists who believe that it was actually Nefertiti who changed her name to reign (long ago, Queen Hatshepsut had already ruled with masculine qualities). Others believe that Semenkare may have been Tutankhamun’s brother.

After Tutankhamun’s death, elder Ay, a high official of the royal family since the time of Amenophis III, who took the young widow Anjesenamón as his wife, came to power. Four years later, General Horemheb reigned.

Nefertiti’s tomb is next to Tutankhamun?

British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves claims that since 2015, Tutankhamun’s tomb has been facing a secret chamber that will actually be the largest tomb. Nefertiti’s tomb. His theory was supported, among other indications, by the fact that the young pharaoh’s premature death led to his hasty burial in an improvised hypogeum, which was too small for a pharaoh and may have been an addition to the place that housed his stepmother. A Japanese team surveyed the area with a georadar and pointed to possible organic and metal material behind the north wall. However, subsequent scans of the tomb by teams from National Geographic and the University of Turin concluded that it was nothing. Hawass argues that Nefertiti is in another region of the Valley of the Kings.

And damn?

Although common in other tombs, Tut’s tomb does not have an inscription with a clear curse. But it is true that Lord Carnarvon died on April 5, 1923, at the age of 57, in his luxury room in a Cairo hotel, from an infection caused by a mosquito bite he cut while shaving. Ares recalled Tutankhamun’s name and “I heard… his call… At the same time as his death, but in England, the family dog ​​”howled and died,” according to legend, in England. He stated that his then-inspector, Arthur Weigall, half-jokingly commented that if Carnarvon descended into the tomb, it would give him “six weeks of life”… Make calculations.

All this unleashed the imagination of the press of the time, who were eager for news about the discovery. legends about the curse of the mummyadded Arthur Conan DoyleIn addition to giving life to Sherlock Holmes, he surrendered to the occult and spirituality. it didn’t help Photos of carter in Instagram Account canaryA bird that Egyptian workers associated with good luck ended up in the belly of a cobra, a symbol of bad omen for the ancient Egyptians. It is true that there have been deaths of people more or less connected with the discovery, but most of those directly involved did not fall victim to any deadly curse: its main ‘culprit’, Howard Carter, died in London in 1939. At age 65, after being diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma.