The name Tutankhamun is known to all of us on account of the fabulous treasures found in his tomb, preserved nearly intact after 3,000 years. We know what he looked like - his face is familiar to us from its image on the golden coffins, and he and his wife Ankhesenamun are depicted on various objects found in the tomb. But who was this king, and when exactly did he reign?
In order to set Tutankhamun in the context of his times, we need to go back a generation or more before his time, to 1353 BC (roughly the middle of the 18th Dynasty), when the reigning pharaoh, Amenophis IV, changed his name to Akhenaten. He also changed the site of government from Thebes to Amarna far to the north; but more importantly he changed the official religion from a plethora of deities to the worship of Aten, the Solar Globe or Disk. This revolution understandably upset the priests at Thebes and threatened them with redundancy. The most powerful deity in Egypt, also threatened by the change, was Amun-Ra, whose cult was abolished. Osiris, the ruler of the netherworld, who was murdered, dismembered and restored to life, was also deprived of his status as the supreme god of eternal life. The exact details of the succession of rulers and the timing of their accession and decease in this troubled period are problematic for Egyptologists, but it seems that on the death of Akhenaten and the enigmatic Smenkhkare, the throne fell to the ten-year-old Tutankhamun, in 1336 BC.
Before long the young pharaoh, presumably under duress from the priests and people who wanted restoration of Amun worship, changed his name from Tutankhaten to Tutankhamun, transferred his capital from Akhetaten (Amarna) back to Thebes and that huge city was abandoned. It is interesting to note that the gardens of Amarna were a feature of the town and that it was connected by a canal to the Nile. There must have been powerful people behind the throne, in order to make such changes and set about restoring the buildings
A blue lotus waterlily supporting the wooden carved and painted head of the child pharaoh.
Of Thebes. One such person was Ay, the father of Nefertiti; another was Horemheb, commander-in-chief of the army. When Tutankhamun died in 1327 BC at the tender age of eighteen it is significant that he was succeeded by both of them in turn. Today, Tutankhamun is notable for what was revealed in his tomb, which was discovered almost intact in 1922, more than 3,000 years later. As in life, so in death: the pharaoh was buried with his treasures, for his enjoyment of them in the afterlife,
And also with the ingredients necessary to the survival of a wealthy man - bread, wine, fruits, ointments and other materials of plant origin - as we shall see in this book.
World History
