From solid gold burial sandals and a sarcophagus for a royal cat to a canopic jar that held Tut’s tummy, Denver has been rejoicing in all things Egyptian since the recent opening of Tutankhamun: The Golden King and the Great Pharaoh. The exhibition, which features more than 100 artifacts from Tut’s tomb and other sites, makes its sole regional appearance at the Denver Art Museum through Jan. 9. The museum has dedicated two large galleries in the Hamilton Building for the teenage Egyptian king and his worldly treasures, along with memorabilia from other dynasties.
On board to launch the Denver show, Dr. Zahni Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and a familiar face to fans of National Geographic, seemed pleased by the exhibition, which gives visitors a glimpse into the everyday lives in Egypt. At a media preview June 24, Hawass detailed some of the latest findings in Egyptology, which have been greatly clarified by modern technology. He also noted that more is being discovered about the lives of ordinary people.
Amenhotep IV was the first king of a major power in history to worship only one god. The double crown atop the headdress alludes to the living king as a representative of the sun god.
“We once thought that the men who built the pyramids were poorly fed – virtually slaves, but we now know that they ate meat every day. Building the pyramids was a community project, and people donated food and supplies along with labor,” he said.
Hawass seemed particularly pleased that all revenue from the exhibit would go back into Egyptian coffers “to protect and preserve Egyptian monuments and to construct a grand museum in the shadow of the pyramids.” He also praised the American government and Homeland Security for assisting with the return of artifacts that have been stolen from Egypt over the decades.
Apparently organizers chose Denver for the show partly because of the success of Ramses II: The Great Pharaoh and His Time, featured at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science more than 20 years ago. Hawass noted sardonically that Egypt made no money from that particular exhibit, and when museum officials took him to dinner at a steak house during his visit, one of them jokingly snipped off his tie. (Apparently the restaurant has a reputation for very casual dining.) He must have forgiven us since he’s back with even more treasures from the tombs.
Most of the objects in the exhibition were excavated in the Valley of the Kings on the West bank of the Nile, where many Egyptian pharaohs and nobles were interred. The exhibit is in two parts, the first examining earlier pharaohs and life in ancient Egypt and the second dedicated to Tutankhamun’s tomb. The latter exhibit attempts to simulate archaeologist Harold Carter’s experience when he first beheld the tomb and its riches back in 1922. Tut’s tomb had been ransacked at least twice, but thieves must have been frightened away before stealing anything of value.
A fan found in the king's burial chamber was inlaid with multicolored glass and includes two cartouches of Tutankhamun at its center. Fans were a symbol of kingship and were carried behind the pharaoh to protect him from the sun.
King Tut’s life, death, burial and rediscovery are all fraught with drama. Since ancient Egypt spans nearly 2,000 years – as long as the Roman Empire and 10 times longer than U.S. history – placing him in the grand scheme of things can be a bit tricky since he reigned only nine years. Archeologists have dated his birth sometime around 1343 B.C., during the late 18th Dynasty. He was born in the new capital city of Armana, built by his father Ankhetaten IV, partly to escape the bubonic plague and also to make a clean break from the old religion, the cult of Amun.
Ankhetaten IV became history’s first monotheistic ruler of a superpower when he declared the sun god Aten the only true god. When he commanded his soldiers to destroy temples of other deities and deface their images, his popularity with both nobility and the general populace took a downward plunge. After Ankhetaten died, the perennial scramble for the throne was complicated by religious squabbling. At age 8 or 9, Tut was handed the keys to the kingdom and his advisor, Ay, moved the boy to Memphis. The new pharaoh’s name changed from Tutenkhaten (the living image of Aten) to Tutankhamun (the living image of the god Amun). The Egyptians believed that pharaohs were representatives of the gods and would become gods themselves when they died, provided the proper procedures were followed and rituals performed.
To solidify his claims to the throne, Tutankhamun married Ankhetaten’s third daughter and his own half-sister, Ankhesenamun, Nefertiti’s daughter. Due to inbreeding, popular with Egyptians royalty because it solidified power, Tut had genetic problems, including a bone disorder and an abnormal foot that forced him to walk with a cane. Although the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death at age 19 led some to suspect that he had been murdered, recent findings indicate he died from an infected leg, likely due to an accident, and a severe case of malaria.
According to earlier research, Tut stood about 5-foot, 6-inches tall and was in reasonably good health, all things considered. The royal couple likely spent their time in Memphis, at a hunting lodge near Giza or a temple near Thebes, where they presided over festivals and ceremonies. They had no children, although two daughters died before birth. The pharaoh’s tomb contains six chariots, 50 bows, swords, shields, daggers and slingshots, but it’s unlikely his infirmity allowed him to participate in combat. When hunting with a bow and arrow, he was pictured seated.
Tut’s hurried burial may be have been politically motivated, since others later claimed credit for the restoration of Amun and his temples. Rather than the grand tomb being built for him when he died, Tut would be buried in a relatively small tomb and his name stricken from the records. Afterward, his elderly advisor, Ay, married Ankhesenamun and would be buried in the tomb meant for Tut. Nearly 200 years later, when workers digging a crypt for Ramses IV covered over Tut’s tomb, both the boy king and his riches were saved for posterity.
The spectacular exhibit now being hosted by the DAM includes the largest image of King Tut ever unearthed, a 10-foot statue found at the funerary temple of two high officials. Much of the original paint remains. The Golden Mask that traveled during a 1970s tour is now in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo, deemed too fragile to travel by the Egyptian government. Tut’s mummy and inner sarcophagus remain in his tomb in Egypt and the outer sarcophagi and shrines are at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Neither has ever left Egypt.
