User:Joestormskool

King Tutankhamun By Joe Krivit 1/11/07 Introduction Do you know how King Tutankhamun died? Well at the end of this short research project, you will know just as much as anybody else in the world. You will also find out about King Tut’s life, his tomb, and his curse. King Tut is one of the most interesting pharaohs of ancient Egypt. Tutankhamun’s Life Tutankhamun was born in about 1323 B.C. and died about 1341 B.C. This cause of his death is unknown. Archeologists think that it might have been some sort of accident, because of Tut’s leg, which is broken. Maybe this was just an accident after he died. Even if it was before he died he couldn’t have died from a broken leg. If it was before he died it was only a few days before because it had no time to start healing. We also know that he died young at the age of 18. His parents are believed to be Akhenaton, the pharaoh who ruled before Tutankhamun, and Akhenaton’s lesser wife Kiya. (Akhenaton also had a wife named Nefertiti who birthed six daughters of Akhenaten’s) Tut later married one of these six daughters named Ankhesenamun. Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun’s names used to be Tutankaten and Ankhesenaten. While Tut was in power, Tut and his wife both changed their names. Tut’s full name means “the living image of Amun”. Amun was the Egyptian gods of the sun.

Tutankhamun’s Tomb When King Tut died in 1341 he was buried in a secret tomb in the Valley of Kings. The Egyptians wanted this to be secret because of tomb robbers. Tomb robbers were thieves who stole from rich peoples’ tombs. Tombs usually held gold and lots of riches for the dead persons’ afterlife. (I think this probably shows that King Tut was a good king because why would the Egyptians who buried him care so much if he wasn’t?). King Tut is famous today because he is the only deceased pharaoh finally found in modern times with most of the artifacts still intact in his tomb, some artifacts were stolen by tomb robbers, but generally the “secret” part of the tomb worked. When Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, found Tut’s tomb in 1922 he didn’t think it looked very big. This is probably because of Tut’s quick death and the hurried assembly to accompany and bury the dead pharaoh. Carter thought it might still be King Tut’s tomb. Either way, it was the last place he would search because Lord Carnarvon (a rich British man funding the 3 year search) would stop paying at the end of the month. Carter couldn’t find anyone else to fund the search either because others believed Tut’s body to be someplace else. Carter first saw the tomb site about a year earlier but searched on top instead of on the bottom. He saw only a hut, which was probably a trick of the ancient Egyptians. When he came back later to the site he searched under this hut, and found one stair after another until he finally found the door, to the likely tomb. This was his last chance. He got lucky because it was Tut’s tomb. The tomb was filled with gold, gold, gold, and more! Carter and Carnarvon shipped most of the contents off to museums in America and London, but kept Tut’s body in the tomb where it belonged. Tutankhamun’s Curse The idea of a bad “curse” associated with the opening of Tut’s tomb began to circulate, soon after its opening. This “curse” might have been the cause of Lord Carnarvon’s death five weeks after the tomb was opened. A mosquito bit Carnarvon and he died from the infected bite. Lord Carnarvon’s death was only the first of many tragedies involving the people who opened Tut’s tomb. Lord Carnarvon’s dog was said to die at about the same time as Lord Carnarvon. Carnarvon’s brother also died five months after Carnarvon. Howard Carter’s canary was said to have died right after the tomb was opened. It was eaten by a cobra, which just happens to be the sign of protection that was supposed to “spit fire” at Tut’s enemies. Different people believe in different variations of this “curse”. If there was a curse wouldn’t Howard Carter be the first one on Tut’s list? Howard Carter didn’t believe in a “curse” like so many others. Howard Carter died 14 years after the tomb was opened, right before his 65th birthday. Conclusion Tut’s body remains today in his famous tomb in the Valley of Kings. He lies in his tomb as people come and go observing the “secret” tomb, which explains so much about one of the most interesting pharaohs of Ancient Egypt

Bibliography Rugby, Mark. “Tutankhamun”, 1997, 12/10/06 http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/tut1.htm http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/curse.htm http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/tut2.htm http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~ancient/tut3.htm,

Donnelly, Judy. Tut’s Mummy Lost… and Found. New York: Random House, Inc. 1998

Hawass, Zahi. Tutankhamun, the Mystery of the Boy King. Washington D.C.: National Geographic. 2005.