posted
King Tut's face to be shown for first timeFrom correspondents in Cairo
October 03, 2007 10:06am Article from: Reuters
EGYPT will put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display next month inside his tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings, allowing visitors to see his face for the first time, Egypt's chief archaeologist said overnight.
Zahi Hawass, head of the High Council for Antiquities, said he would place the mummy in a climate-controlled glass showcase in the tomb and cover the body with linen. Tutankhamun's bare face would be visible.
"You will enter the tomb and see for the first time the face of Tutankhamun ... This is the first time in history that anyone will see the mummy (in public). This will continue the magic of Tutankhamun," Mr Hawass said.
Tutankhamun, who died on the cusp of adulthood, ruled Egypt between about 1361 and 1352 BC. The 1922 discovery of his intact tomb, whose treasures included a now famous gold funerary mask, stunned the archaeological community.
Although the artefacts from Tutankhamun's burial tomb have toured the world, the mummified body of the king has been examined only a handful of times in detail since the tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter.
Mr Hawass said Tutankhamun's mummy was currently resting in a sarcophagus inside the tomb covered by a gilded coffin, but that the humidity caused by the breathing of thousands of visitors threatened to damage it.
"I thought that this will help tourists and at the same time help preserving the mummy. I think a mummy like this, the golden boy, it is time that people should really see it," he said.
Tutankhamun came to the throne shortly after the death of Akhenaten, the maverick pharaoh who abandoned most of Egypt's old gods in favour of the Aten sun disc and brought in a new and more expressive style of art.
During Tutankhamun's reign, advocates of the old religion were regaining control of the country and turning their backs on Akhenaten's innovations.
Tutankhamun was buried along with many other pharaohs of the period in the Valley of the Kings near the modern town of Luxor.
Mr Hawass had not yet set a date to display the mummy, but said he expected it to be shortly before a mid-November exhibit on Tutankhamun in London that is to include the pharaoh's royal crown but not the gold mask, which is too delicate to travel.
Mr Hawass described Tutankhamun as having "buck teeth" and pictures of the mummy show a face with high cheekbones and blackened, cracked skin and an intact nose.
Mr Hawass was also planning to shortly open 16 jars from Tutankhamun's tomb that were rediscovered in a storage area in Luxor. The jars were originally found by Carter but were forgotten about over the years.
He said he expected the jars would contain food, grain, beer and wine, items the king would have been expected to need in his afterlife. The jars were part of caches of artefacts whose rediscovery was announced last month.
Mystery has surrounded Tutankhamun ever since 1922. Lord Carnarvon, Carter's sponsor and among the first to enter the tomb, died shortly afterward from an infected mosquito bite.
Newspapers at the time said Carter had unleashed a pharaonic curse that killed Carnarvon and others linked to the discovery.
Scientists have in the past suggested a disease lying dormant in the tomb may have killed the British aristocrat.
Mr Hawass described Tutankhamun as having "buck teeth" and pictures of the mummy show a face with high cheekbones and blackened, cracked skin and an intact nose.
LOL at such nonsense!
Hawass and other Egyptologists agree that "buckteeth" is common trait among members of the 18th dynasty.
But what they don't say (either out of ignorance or agenda) is that this trait is actually a form of prognathism called alveolar prognathism which is common among peoples of North and East Africa. Hence people like Ethiopians and Somalians are also stereotyped as having "buckteeth".
Posts: 26267 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
In fact, I have seen pictures of Masai from Kenya who resemble Tut's mummified skull moreso than the latest reconstructed white fantasy from National Geographic. Posts: 26267 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Shriveled mummy tells us little about how the healthy living Tut looks; some people comically tend to make too much out of dried-up and chemically-infested mummies. Sure the cranio-morphometrics of his skull can help us determine preponderance of affinities with other specimens, but it doesn't really tell us how the healthy living individual, with all the soft parts [skin and muscles] of the skull intact, actually looked like in person. Case in point, is the different facial manipulations [reconstructions] of a *single* skull. However, it is never too much to repeat: We have several of his 'likeness' renditions from antiquity, by artists who were familiar with the young man as a *living* person.
Posts: 1947 | Registered: Sep 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Agreed, i almost laughed when I read Djehuti's post. Thanks for bringing back reality. But some Africans might just look like Tut's skulls like this Tutsi: Posts: 919 | From: AFRICA | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ And I did laugh when I saw YOUR post with that same old (kind of ugly looking) photo!! LMAO
Whenever there is thread with just the mention of an African appearance or features, 'AFRICA I' just has to appear to indulge in his obsession!
But to Mystery, you are right. My point was that I find it funny that the same cranial features these 'experts' point out are the same ones that are common among Africans.
Posts: 26267 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ LOL 'AFRICA' If you want to post pics of African peoples at least find yourself some good quality ones.
Posts: 26267 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic