King Tutankhamen (Encore)
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The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled upon one of the most pristine tombs of an Egyptian pharaoh ever found, the tomb of King Tutankhamen. That discovery became a pop culture sensation and revolutionized our understanding of ancient Egypt. Learn more about King Tutankhamen, aka King Tut, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Intro

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King Tutankhamen was born in the year 1341 BC, the son of the pharaoh Akhenaten, and was one of the last pharaohs of the 18th dynasty. The 18th dynasty probably had more notable pharaohs than you might have heard of from any other dynasty. This includes all of the Amenhotep's, Thutmose's, Akhenaten, and the only female rulers in Egyptian history, Hatshepsut and Nefertiti.

To understand the significance of Tutankhamen, it's necessary to understand the man widely considered to be his father, the pharaoh Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten. Akhenaten completely upended the entire Egyptian social and religious order by introducing monotheism, or something very close to monotheism. Akhenaten abandoned Egyptian polytheism and its collection of gods and replaced it with the worship of an entity he called the Aten.

The Aten was basically the sun, and it was based on the Egyptian god Ra. That in and of itself wasn't that big of a deal to the Egyptian elite. However, Akhenaten basically got rid of all the other gods and put all of the focus on the Aten. He was really into the Aten.

He changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, which meant effective for the Aten. He moved the capital of Egypt to a new city called Amarna, which was dedicated to the Aten. He also named his son at birth Tutankhaten, which meant the living image of the Aten. These changes were a lot for the rest of the Egyptian ruling class to digest. Akhenaten disbanded all the other priesthoods and temples that worshipped other gods and diverted all of their money to his Aten cult.

Needless to say, the priestly class wanted things to go back to normal. When Akhenaten died, two rulers either ruled jointly or in very quick succession, Smenkhare and Nefertiti, who were the son-in-law and wife of Akhenaten.

It's also possible that they may simply have served as regents for the young pharaoh who wasn't yet of age. Either way, the young Tutankhaten ascended to the throne at the age of nine. His reign was notable for completely undoing all of the massive religious changes made by his father. For starters, he changed his name to Tutankhamen. He moved the capital from Amarna back to Thebes, and he brought back the worship of the pantheon of Egyptian gods, reopened all the temples, and legalized all the priesthoods which had been banned.

This had been a massive social and cultural whipsaw for Egypt. The powerful class of priests probably influenced the young and impressionable pharaoh to reverse all of his father's changes. While Tutankhamen ushered in many large changes to Egyptian society, his rule wasn't a long one. He died at the age of 19 and was then buried with the full rights of an Egyptian pharaoh. However, Tutankhamen's reversal of religious policy in the 19th century BC is not the reason why most people know about King Tutankhamen today.

For that, we have to fast forward about 3,200 years where we are introduced to one Howard Carter. Carter was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who had worked in Egypt for years looking for an intact, undiscovered tomb in the Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Kings is basically a cemetery located outside of Luxor, Egypt, which held the tombs of many Egyptian pharaohs. For a period of about 500 years, from the 16th to the 11th century BC, almost all of the Egyptian rulers were buried in this location.

It actually isn't that big, and you can easily walk most of it today, with one tomb only being a few meters away from the next tomb. The location of the tombs was well known, and they were already being plundered by grave robbers just a few centuries after the tombs were constructed. Carter was one of several British Egyptologists who was looking for a lost royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

One of his predecessors, Theodore Davis, searched in the valley for a decade and found nothing. He concluded eventually, quote, I fear the Valley of Tombs is exhausted. Carter began excavating in 1907, but he had to search in another area until 1915 due to not having the rights from the Egyptian government. He finally got permission to search in the Valley of the Kings in 1915. He searched for years and also found nothing.

Eventually, his financial sponsor, Lord Carnarvon, threatened to throw in the towel, and they both agreed that 1922 would be their last season searching for a tomb. By total chance, on November 4th, one of the local water boys stumbled on a stone which turned out not to be a stone at all. It was the top stone of a flight of stairs which went down into a tomb. They had found the antechamber of King Tutankhamen's tomb.

The reason why Tutankhamen's tomb was so well hidden was really just a matter of chance. The entrance had been covered by debris which had been carried from a flood, and then was further covered with debris with the construction of the tombs for Ramses V and VI almost 200 years later. Nobody could find it, so it was never robbed. They cleaned out some of the antechamber and knew that they had stumbled upon something incredible.

Just the antechamber was filled with statues and chests. As they documented everything and cleared out the antechamber, they found a sealed door to the tomb. Carter contacted Lord Carnarvon to tell him about his discovery and invited him to Egypt so he would be there when they opened the sealed door. Carter drilled a small hole in the door to peer inside, and he was able to tell that there was gold. On November 29th, in the presence of representatives from the Egyptian government, they opened the door to the tomb.

It was incredible, and unlike anything else which had ever been found before. There was another door inside which led to the actual burial chamber that had the mummy of Tutankhamen himself. There were 5,398 artifacts found inside the tomb and the antechamber. This included a solid gold coffin, face mask, statues, as well as samples of food and clothing which hadn't been touched in over 3,000 years.

Many of the items made of organic materials had rotted significantly due to the moisture and water leakage into the tomb over time. Nonetheless, this was the most incredible find in the history of Egyptology. Word of this discovery soon spread around the world, and the media soon dubbed King Tutankhamen as King Tut.

Not surprisingly, there was a legal tussle regarding the ownership of the contents of the tomb. Lord Carnarvon claimed that he owned at least half, but the Egyptian government claimed everything. And to be honest, the contract that Lord Carnarvon signed with the government pretty much acknowledged as much. Lord Carnarvon died just five months after the tomb was opened, spawning the legend of the Curse of the Pharaohs. In reality, he had been in ill health for years, and a subsequent study of everyone who entered the tomb showed that they lived beyond average life expectancies.

The next several years were spent documenting and removing the over 5,000 objects. The coffin and mummy were removed in 1925, and the last objects were removed in 1930. Carter himself worked on cataloging all of the objects until 1932. He eventually died in 1939 of lymphoma at the age of 64.

Interest in King Tut, however, was far from over. The objects found a home at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, which, if you ever had a chance to visit, was truly one of the greatest museums in the world. In the early 1960s, the Egyptian government began putting some of the King Tut collection on tour as both a source of revenue and cultural promotion.

The first tour, known as Tutankhamun's Treasures, was on tour from 1961 to 1967. This tour consisted of 34 smaller pieces found in the tomb. The tour which really boosted the popularity of King Tutankhamun was the Treasures of Tutankhamun tour, which took place from 1972 to 1981. This tour displayed 50 items, including the gold burial mask, which was the highlight of the collection. The

The U.S. exhibit was on display from November 1976 through September 1979 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Over 8 million people attended the exhibit, making it one of the most popular museum exhibits in history. Other traveling exhibits have been on tour almost every year since then, with the number of items increasing over time. The most recent tour, titled The Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, had 150 items and it ended in 2021 due to the pandemic.

The majority of the collection can be found at the brand new Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza. This museum is the replacement for the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and it's scheduled to open sometime in late 2022. But what did we actually learn about Tutankhamen himself from his tomb and his mummy? Well, actually quite a bit.

For starters, he had a problem with his leg. He had a bone disease that resulted in a clubbed left foot. He probably had difficult walking, and this is confirmed by the artwork which was discovered showing him engaging in various activities in a sitting position. No other pharaoh has ever been depicted this way.

DNA analysis was done on the mummy, and it was revealed that his mother and father were brother and sister, which might have had something to do with his health condition. It was also revealed that he had an overbite, a slightly cleft palate, and mild scoliosis. His cause of death is unknown, but it appears he had a broken leg that was infected, and that might have been part of what did him in. The discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb was arguably the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century.

Next to the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, it was probably the greatest advance in our knowledge of ancient Egypt. The discovery turned what was rather a minor unknown Egyptian pharaoh into the best known pharaoh in the world. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day.

And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere Daily merchandise is available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.