King Tut’s Treasures

History 8 Minutes

Today is the anniversary of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb and history.com had a wonderful article detailing just some of the amazing artifacts found in the tomb.

From history.com:

It was one hundred years ago on November 4, 1922, that British archaeologist Howard Carter and an Egyptian team discovered an ancient stairway hidden for more than 3,000 years beneath the sands of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Twenty-two days later, Carter descended those stairs, lit a candle, poked it through a hole in a blocked doorway and waited as his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light.

“[D]etails of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold, everywhere the glint of gold,” wrote Carter. “I was struck dumb with amazement.” When Carter’s patron, Lord Carnarvon, anxiously asked if Carter could see anything, the stunned archeologist replied, “Yes, wonderful things.”

Carter and the Egyptian team had found the lost tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king of Egypt, who was buried in a small and overlooked tomb in 1323 B.C. King Tut may not have been a mighty ruler like Ramesses the Great, whose tomb complex covers more than 8,000 square feet of underground chambers, but unlike Ramesses and other pharaohs, King Tut’s treasures hadn’t been looted or damaged by floods. They were nearly intact.

A century later, the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, which contained more than 5,000 priceless artifacts, remains the greatest archeological find of all time.

“I don’t think there’s anything that can hold a candle to it in terms of outright richness, and in terms of the cultural and archeological information that it contains,” says Tom Mueller, a journalist who wrote a National Geographic article about Carter’s historic discovery and the opening of Cairo’s Grand Egyptian Museum, the new home for King Tut’s treasures.

Most people would recognize the iconic objects from the collection, like King Tut’s solid gold coffin and funerary mask, but even the smallest items—alabaster unguent bowls, King Tut’s walking stick or his sandals—are “works of supreme artistry,” says Mueller, who spent days with museum staff as they restored King Tut’s artifacts for display. “It’s no wonder that these treasures have branded themselves in the international consciousness since 1922.”

Here are nine fascinating artifacts recovered from King Tut’s tomb, from the biggest finds to some hidden treasures.

1 An Iron Dagger

On the surface, this iron-bladed dagger doesn’t look like a spectacular find, but King Tut died several centuries before the start of the Iron Age, when advances in technology allowed for the forging of iron and steel from mineral deposits.

During King Tut’s time, the few iron objects on record were made from metals that literally fell from the heavens in the form of meteorites. “There were theories that the iron dagger was a gift from a foreign king who would have presented it as a ‘gift from the gods,’” says Mueller, “as an omen of something powerful. That really got my attention.” A solid-gold dagger with an ornately decorated sheath was also found in the folds of King Tut’s mummy placed ceremoniously on his right thigh.

2 A Scarf with a Surprise

Inside a small wooden chest made from ebony and cedar, Carter and his team found a gold-plated leopard head, and a gorgeous pair of ceremonial objects known as the pharaoh’s crook and flail, always depicted as held across his chest. But alongside these priceless items was something conspicuously commonplace—a knotted up linen scarf.

When the archeologists untangled the scarf, they found several gold rings inside. But how did they get in there? From other clues, it became clear to Carter that King Tut’s tomb hadn’t remained completely untouched. Thieves must have broken in soon after the tomb was sealed and made off with the smallest and most valuable items they could carry, like gold jewelry. Unlike other pharaonic tombs, which had been fully ransacked over the centuries, King Tut’s tomb “had only been lightly looted,” says Mueller. The scarf packed with gold rings was evidence that the thieves may have even been caught in the act or scared off by guards and left their loot behind. It was hastily packed into a box when the tomb was resealed, not to be opened for another 3,200 years.

3 A Game of Chance and Fate

A senet gaming board from Tutankhamun’s tomb, 14th century BC. Made from wood veneered with ebony and inlaid with ivory. From the collection of the Egyptian National Museum, Cairo, Egypt. Egyptians played board games and one of King Tut’s favorites (judging from the fact that there were four sets in his tomb) was a game called senet. Historians don’t agree on the exact rules of the checkers-like game, but it involved moving your game piece through a series of 30 squares by throwing knucklebones or casting sticks. The Egyptian Book of the Dead, which details the journey of the soul through the afterlife, says that playing senet is a popular pastime for the deceased. Eternal life may even have been at stake. “There’s evidence that it was a game played against the god of death,” says Mueller, “so it’s also a game of fate.”

4 King Tut’s Lost Daughters

One of the reasons why King Tut fell through the cracks of Egyptian history was that his reign was so short (around a decade) and he didn’t leave behind any heirs or offspring. But thanks to Carter’s discovery, we know that King Tut’s wife Ankhesenamun—whom he married at age 12—bore two stillborn daughters who were buried in their father’s tomb.

Inside an unmarked box, Carter’s team found two tiny wooden coffins, each bearing a gilded inner coffin that contained the mummified remains of King Tut’s daughters. The fetuses appeared to be 25 and 37 weeks old and died from unknown causes.

Mueller says that there’s a tendency to paint King Tut’s tomb as macabre, given the fascination with things like King Tut’s curse. “Yes, this is a tomb with several dead people in it,” says Mueller, “but in a way, the Egyptian view of the afterlife—their obsession with it—softens all of that. It becomes death as a work of art. King Tut’s preparation for the afterlife becomes a museum.” Archeologists also found a lock of King Tut’s grandmother’s hair in the tomb, which may have been a family keepsake.

5 Gold Sandals

In one of the crowded antechambers, Carter found a painted wooden chest that he described as “one of the greatest artistic treasures of the tomb… we found it hard to tear ourselves away from it.” Inside were sequin-lined linens, an alabaster headrest and a very special pair of sandals. These were King Tut’s golden court sandals, ornately decorated footwear that he’s seen wearing in some of the statuettes found in the tomb. Made from wood and overlaid with bark, leather and gold, the eye-catching parts are the soles of the sandals, which depict the nine traditional enemies of Egypt. That wasn’t an accident. “He’d be symbolically walking on their faces all day,” says Mueller.

6 A Small Army of Servants

Thousands of years before King Tut, at the dawn of Egyptian civilization, powerful rulers were buried with their royal servants, who sacrificed their lives to serve their master in the eternities. By the late Middle Kingdom, human servants were replaced by small figurines called ushabti, who were inscribed with a magical spell to forever do the deceased’s bidding in the afterlife. For the average Egyptian burial, one or two ushabti were placed in the deceased’s tomb. In King Tut’s tomb, there were 413 ushabti, a small army of foot-tall figurines made from various materials including faience, a glass-like pottery with striking colors. Some of King Tut’s ushabti held copper tools like yokes, hoes and picks to do manual labor for the pharaoh in the afterlife.

7 King Tut’s Undergarments

Not every treasure in King Tut’s tomb was made of gold. The young pharaoh, who died at 19 after just nine or 10 years on the throne, was also buried with some of his clothing. Among the ancient textiles found in the tomb were 100 sandals, 12 tunics, 28 gloves, 25 head coverings, four socks (with a separate pocket for the big toe, so they could be worn with sandals) and 145 loincloths, triangular-shaped pieces of woven linen that both men and women wore as underwear. “I really like his underwear,” says Mueller. “King Tut was kitted out for the afterlife, right down to the undergarments. They’re quite spectacular, little loincloth-like things. They’re incredible.” King Tut’s undergarments were a step above non-royal underwear. According to textile historians, the weave of an ordinary Egyptian linen loincloth had 37 to 60 threads per inch, but King Tut’s underwear had 200 threads per inch, giving the cloth a silk-like softness.

8 A Dazzling Resting Place for the King’s Organs

The gilded shrine of canopic jars or canopic chest from King Tut’s tomb. This detail shows the goddess Selket. During the mummification process, Egyptian embalmers carefully removed the lungs, liver, intestines and stomach from the body, embalmed the organs, and placed them in vessels called Canopic jars. The final resting place for King Tut’s organs was one of the most exquisite objects in the entire tomb. Carter found Tut’s Canopic jars stored inside an alabaster chest, itself housed within a magnificent wooden funerary shrine covered in gold leaf. “Facing the doorway stood the most beautiful monument that I have ever seen,” wrote Carter, “so lovely that it made one gasp with wonder and admiration.”

What really struck Mueller when he saw the golden shrine in person were the four Egyptian goddesses of death guarding the young pharaoh’s embalmed organs on all sides. The goddesses Isis, Nephthys, Neith and Selket are depicted in naturalistic poses with form-fitting dresses that inspired flapper fashion in the 1920s. “Here are these gorgeous goddesses looking over his innards for all eternity,” says Mueller.

9 The Iconic Golden Mask

For Carter, the greatest prize among the 5,000 objects in the tomb was the mummy of King Tut himself. But to get to the mummy, Carter and his team had to slowly and painstakingly work through a series of nesting shrines and coffins that were never meant to be opened by human hands.

First there were four box-like golden shrines, each slightly smaller than the last. Inside the last shrine was the heavy stone sarcophagus. Once the stone lid was removed, it revealed the first of three coffins. The first coffin, as well the second one nested inside of it, were wooden coffins overlaid with gold foil and designed to look like the god Osiris lying in repose. The third and final coffin was a jaw-dropper: a solid gold casket weighing 296 pounds also depicting Osiris with the ceremonial crook and flail across his chest.

With trembling hands, Carter opened the golden coffin and found himself face to face with the iconic funerary mask of Tutankhamun. The 22-pound, solid-gold mask rested directly on the head and shoulders of King Tut’s mummy, and portrayed the handsome young king as Osiris, complete with the pharaonic false beard. “The golden mask of King Tut is probably the best-known and most widely recognized archeological treasure ever,” says Mueller. King Tut’s mummy, when carefully removed and unwrapped, contained 143 different amulets, bracelets, necklaces and other priceless artifacts among its ancient bandages. 

SOURCE: HISTORY.COM

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Published by pat frederick

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138 thoughts on “King Tut’s Treasures”

  2. Just The News: “The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that Cobb County may not accept absentee ballots after Election Day.

    Last Thursday, the Cobb County Board of Elections said that it had not sent out more than 3,000 absentee ballots in a timely manner and would mail them via express shipping or overnight delivery the next day, according to Democracy Docket. Three voters sued, arguing that there was not enough time to ensure the ballots would be received in time to be counted. 

    They asked the deadline to be extended to Nov. 8, which is the deadline for overseas voters to return their ballots. The Republican National Committee and Georgia Republican Party intervened to prevent the extension of the absentee ballot receipt deadline.

    The Cobb County Board of Elections “may count only those absentee ballots received by the statutory deadline of 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024,” the state Supreme Court ruled.

    “The Board shall keep separate the absentee ballots of any ‘Affected Voters’ —as identified by the trial court’s November 1, 2024 order— that are received by the Board after 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, November 5, 2024, and on or before 5:00 p.m. on November 8, 2024, in a secure, safe, and sealed container separate from other voted ballots,” the court continued.

    RNC Chairman Michael Whatley announced the GOP court victory on X on Monday.

    “HUGE election integrity victory in Georgia. Democrat-run Cobb County wanted to accept 3,000 absentee ballots AFTER the Election Day deadline,” Whatley posted. “We took this case to the Georgia Supreme Court. We just got word that we WON the case. Election Day is Election Day — not the week after.”

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Healthcare Workers Reject COVID, Flu Shots Amid ‘Tremendous Erosion of Trust’ in Health Agencies

    Only 15.3% of acute hospital workers and 10.5% of nursing home personnel received a COVID-19 vaccine during the 2023-24 season — down from 17.8% and 22.8% respectively, according to the latest CDC data.

    by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., November 4, 2024

    healthcare worker and flu and covid vaccine bottles

    EXCERPT: “The number of healthcare workers receiving COVID-19 and flu vaccines declined during the 2023-24 cold and flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Only 15.3% of acute hospital workers and 10.5% of nursing home personnel received a COVID-19 vaccine during the 2023-24 season — down from 17.8% and 22.8% respectively, the CDC said in its Oct. 31 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

    Based on data from the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network, flu vaccine rates for the same healthcare worker groups were higher than COVID-19 vaccine rates — 80.7% for acute care hospital personnel and 45.4% for nursing home personnel. However, the rates remained “persistently below the levels during the prepandemic period.” For example, the flu vaccine rate for hospital workers in 2019-20 was 91%.

    The CDC figures also showed that nearly 1 in 100 healthcare workers reported “a medical contraindication” to receiving either the COVID-19 (0.71%) or flu (0.89%) vaccine. The CDC figures did not provide information on the rate of vaccine side effects reported by healthcare workers.

    The CDC said more research is needed “to identify effective strategies to improve vaccination at a time when health care personnel are susceptible to low vaccine confidence…..”

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/healthcare-workers-reject-covid-flu-shots-health-agencies/

    Liked by 1 person

  5. Damn that was the longest most insane line ever. Never have I see that many people to vote. Insane
    Line was snaking outside.
    When we got done to was going around a corner.

    Took 2 hours to vote. Two hours!
    We stood In The rain for an hour. Insanity

    Liked by 2 people

  6. Just The News: “A Pennsylvania judge on Monday ruled that Elon Musk’s $1 million giveaway can continue through Election Day, after attorneys for Musk’s political action committee said the results of the giveaway were not “random” like Musk had advertised.

    Musk launched the daily giveaway last month, which was organized to give $1 million to one voter from a swing state every day, if they signed a petition in support of the First and Second Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. 

    Common Pleas Court Judge Angelo Foglietta did not give a reason for his ruling, per the Associated Press, but it comes after Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his group last week, seeking to stop the contest because it allegedly violated state law by acting as a lottery. 

    The billionaire previously said his program would be “awarding a million dollars randomly to people who have signed the petition every day from now until the election.” 

    GOP lawyer Chris Gober indicated on Monday however that the phrasing was inaccurate because the winners were actually selected to be paid spokespeople for the group. “The $1 million recipients are not chosen by chance,” Gober said in court. “We know exactly who will be announced as the $1 million recipient today and tomorrow.”

    Gober said the recipient on Monday is from Arizona, and the recipient on Tuesday is from Michigan. They are selected after officials from Musk’s America PAC read the applicants’ personal stories. The recipients are then notified that they will be called on stage during a rally and are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement. 

    The PAC’s legal team asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, because no more winners have been selected from Pennsylvania, so the arguments are now moot. However, the first three winners came from the Keystone state.

    Krasner, who took to the witness stand on Monday, said the sweepstakes are now a scam. “This was all a political marketing masquerading as a lottery,” Krasner testified. “That’s what it is. A grift.”

    Liked by 1 person

  7. You’d have to be certifiable!!!

    Nice spot for a cabin!

    “The Oracle at Delphi” (Greece)

    Give me a cowboy any day of the week!!! (OK, well, not any more but….)

    Liked by 1 person

  9. “With JD Vance and Elon Musk, Suddenly Ideas Are Back in this Campaign”

    by Ron Paul | Nov 4, 2024

    “This presidential campaign season may be one of those turning points in history for reasons good and bad. Anyone watching the one debate between the Republican and Democratic Party candidates would not have come away with the view that this was a great battle of competing principles and visions for the future. It was a campaign of name-calling and bullets, where one candidate avoided discussing ideas at all costs – and even avoided the media at all costs. Where the other candidate dodged two attempted assassinations while throwing red meat rhetoric to an understandably angry population.

    It was a campaign where, more than ever, the mainstream media completely abandoned any idea of being a neutral source of information and instead jumped into the ring on the side of one candidate. In the one debate between presidential candidates, the mainstream media went so far as to “fact check” one candidate while giving the other a “pass.” The “fact check” turned out to be misinformation – something the mainstream media excels in – but they have long figured out that by the time the actual facts are in, people have already absorbed the falsehood.

    According to the conservative Media Research Center, mainstream media coverage of the Trump campaign was 85 percent negative while its coverage of the Harris campaign was 78 percent positive. If accurate, it explains why the public holds the media in such contempt.

    What felt missing in the campaign was a discussion of the real issues we are facing. The destruction caused by interventionism in our economy, in our lives, and in the rest of the world. There was no talk about the Federal Reserve and how it hurts the middle class, helps the wealthy, and greases the war machine.

    Then, at the tail end, things got interesting. Republican candidate for Vice President, JD Vance, mentioned last week that he had come to the view that the Federal Reserve was not the benevolent force for good that its supporters claim. He didn’t say it in those exact words, but that was his point. Then Trump surrogate campaigner Elon Musk made an announcement that no-doubt terrified the DC swamp: were he to get the government efficiency job Trump suggested, he’d start with a bang, cutting two trillion dollars from the Federal budget!

    We even had a little fun with it. After I posted some encouragement on Musk’s Twitter/X, he responded that he would be happy to have me join him looking for places to cut! While the last thing I am looking for is another job, I am encouraged by the outpouring of support and happy to help any effort to correct the wrong path we have been going down – a path toward total bankruptcy.

    Perhaps the most encouraging development this election cycle is the well-earned decline in the influence of the corrupt mainstream media. When Elon posted a funny meme of the two of us cutting government on his Twitter/X platform, it garnered some 50 million views! Compare that to the steady decline of mainstream media viewership. An alternative way of reporting and analyzing the events of our time is emerging on the ruins of the legacy media and it’s driving them insane. Good.”

    Liked by 1 person

  10. My goodness….Wheezer’s turning into a love bunny! He had returned earlier so I went outside just now and sat down in front of the door. He rubbed and rubbed against me and let me scratch behind his ears and under his chin. He stepped up with one foot on my knee and stretched his head up and back, purring while I scratched with both hands, under his chin, down his back and sides; when I stopped petting him, he butted me with his head and flopped down in my lap, on his back all 4 legs in the air, kneading the air with his front paws, purring full-tilt. What a surprise!!! I think I could have even picked him up!

    Liked by 2 people

      1. IKR? Maybe he was in an especially good mood after his latest tryst! LOL – he was gone all day and night yesterday and didn’t return until mid-day today!

        Liked by 2 people

  11. I am adding a short daily prayer to the board. I would invite each of you, if you wish, to also add one or maybe two of your own liking. I do not want to stifle anyone but please limit yourself to one or two religious postings. here’s one I found that I liked.

    Like

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