EGYPTIAN MUSEUM

Treasures found in the Tomb of King Tutenkhamen

Toward the end of Dynasty XVIII Amenhotep III, the builder of the two colossal statues on the west bank of the Nile at Luxor and the founder of the Temple of Luxor, was succeeded by Amenhotep IV, probably his son. Amenhotep IV, the "heretic" king, decreed that the ancient religions of Egypt should be replaced by a monotheistic worship of the Aten, the sun. He changed his name to Akhenaten.
He tried to encourage artists to adopt a naturalistic style like that of the Old Kingdom, rather than the imitative style that had been the rule since. Some of them appear to have succeeded in changing, but others seem to have learned only to imitate the new instead of the old.
Akhenaten was succeeded by two kings, probably his younger brothers. The second of these, Tutenkhamen, was very young and died very young, probably in his early twenties. He was buried in a very small tomb, which was entered by robbers soon after his burial. The robbers were interrupted before they could remove anything, and the tomb was resealed and apparently forgotten. The stone rubble from the large tomb of Rameses VI was thrown on top of the Tutenkhamen tomb. It was not entered again until it was unearthed by Howard Carter in 1923.

This New Kingdom tomb is the only ancient tomb in Egypt which was found with its contents undisturbed since ancient times. When you visit the small tomb in the Valley of the Kings opposite Luxor, as I did in 1964, and then see the display of its contents in the Egyptian Museum it is hard to believe that these treasures fit in this small space.

Gold or Gilt Falcon	Gilt Figurines	Hundreds of shabti figures
Deity Netjerankh	Sekhmet, the fierce lioness goddess of the sun and one of the eyes of Ra.	Innermost Coffin of Tutenkhamen
A different view	Gold Mummy Mask	A different view
Throne This work shows strong Atenist influence. During Tut's reign the old religion was reestablished.	A simpler throne-chair	God Anubis
Stone model of Boat, much gilded.	Canopic jars to contain the entrails of the deceased, removed in preparation for mummification.	Shrine which held the canopic jars
Chariot, found disassembled		Golden Hawk of Hierakonpolis Dynasty VI (not in Tut Tomb)

Thanks to Rev. Willow Polson for identifying of some of the objects

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