funerary Mask of Tutankhamun, 14th century BC, Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo
100 years ago, Howard Carter, Archaeologist working then for Lord Carnarvon, while searching for months in the same spot near the tomb of Ramesses VI, discovered small steps going into the sands. When they were uncovered, Carter felt he had found what he had searched for for years. Could it be the Tomb of the boy King, Tutankhamun? On November 25, 1922, as soon as his patron, Lord Carnarvon arrived from England, Howard Carter put a candle into a hole in the entrance to a tomb, and reported seeing “Wonderful things.” Indeed over 5000 wonderful things would be found. By November 27, the Egyptian authorities had come and overseen to the security and archaeological examination of the tomb of the boy Pharaoh, Tutankhamun, had begun.
Since 1922 there has been controversy about Pharaoh Tutankhamun. Controversy over the cause of the death of Pharaoh Tutankhamun; loud controversy about his burial, controversy about his successors, and about his young beautiful wife, Queen Anhkhesenamun.
CR3MF3 Tutankhamun, King of Egypt, 1333 – 1323 BC, 18th Dynasty, with his wife Ankhesenamen, back side of an armchair, burial object,
And now there is recently added controversy about his burial chambers: about the location, and about who oversaw that hasty burial in such a small space.
Archaeologists are often Detectives, and so shall we be in uncovering the answers to these mysteries.
For several years now there has been controversy about the strange, and different-from-other royal tomb paintings found on the walls of only one room of Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. The paintings are few and seem out of place. Normally Pharaohs are depicted with the God Anubis “Opening his Mouth”, and then Anubis acts as guide to Pharaoh through the underworld as he voyages to the Sun. But in Tutankhamun’s tomb, the person depicted doing this ceremony was not the God Anubis, but a regular person.
Egyptologists decided this person was the vizier who had managed the courts of Akhenaten, and then those of his son, Tutankhamun. Ay, this vizier, had portrayed himself in the traditional role of the God – or indeed “The Successor” to the deceased Pharaoh. Ay, who had been, in effect, a servant of the Pharaoh, was now making himself successor to Pharaoh. How? Why? Ay was declaring himself Pharaoh. How could this man have reached this point of Powers?
There has been much detecting done in recent years and some learned archaeologists determined that Ay in fact murdered the young King in order to make himself Pharaoh.
Evidence was discovered in the form of a letter from Hittite King Suppiluliuma, replying to a request from Tutankhamun’s wife, Queen Ankhesenamun. She had sent to him a letter requesting he send her one of his sons as husband, and she would havea him declared Pharaoh. The King of the Hittites replied that he had been surprised by her request for a husband, but that when she told him a servant of hers was trying to force himself on her as her husband, he decided to send his son, Zananza, to marry her and become Pharaoh.
BUT then, as Zananza reached the border of Egypt, he was murdered, and his entourage.
Detective-Archaeologists believe this murder had to have been at the instigation of the seeming ally of Ay, General Horenheb. His army at the border had stopped and murdered the young Hittite Prince to prevent a “foreigner” from marrying into the Kingship of Egypt.
And then further damning evidence of foul play was found not far from the tomb of the young Pharaoh; evidence in the form of a traditional wedding ring souvenir, one that would have been presented to guests. A clay ring with the names of Ay and Ankhesenamun. Ay had forced Tutankhamun’s young widow to marry him. Her husband would automatically become Pharaoh. Ay was forcing her to make HIM Pharaoh, just as he had portrayed on the wall of her husband’s tomb some months before.
And then, to top that off, right after this sham marriage, never again is Ankhesenamun mentioned. Again Detective-Archaeologists determine she too had to have been murdered after this pretend marriage, undertaken at all great monetary and military expense, all so Ay could proclaim himself Pharaoh of Egypt.
However, murderers usually keep murdering. And not many years later, General Horenheb, who had been involved in thess detestable crimes, at the perhaps suspicious death of Ay, proclaimed himself Pharaoh. This Detective things Ay too was murdered by his partner in crime.
Obviously all those riches we see in this tomb of Young Pharaoh Tutahkhamun lured two men to commit murder most foul.
BUT, NOW, recently there have been other surprises found in the small cramped-with-gold tomb of young Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
That wall painting depicting Ay as the successor by showing him as Opening of the Mouth of Pharaoh, seems to have been superimposed over another wall painting, one that is older, one from the tomb of Pharoah Tutankhamun’s step-mother, the mother of his wife, Anknesenamun: the tomb of the beautiful Queen Nefertiti.
If this proves to be so, then it becomes quite clear why the tomb of this young Pharaoh was so cramped. Murder is sudden. And as soon as he was murdered, Ay wanted him buried. No waiting for years while his body received proper embalming, no waiting years for his proper grave goods to be created: just put all the stuff (wonderful stuff) from his palace. And no waiting for years while his tomb was properly carved out of the hills, and properly painted. There are no ancient texts painted on the few walls in the murdered boy King. Only the two walls with these few figures depicted.
AY, who murdered to become Pharaoh, was likely murdered by Horenheb. General Horenheb, when he’d had enough of Ay, murdered him.
After becoming Pharaoh, actually Horenheb served Egypt well.
BUT now, after 100 years, this new mystery discovered in King Tutankhamun’s tomb will be investigated by Archaeologist-Detectives.
Will they find – as they think – that Tutankhamun was hastily buried in some anti-chamber rooms of the tomb of the Great Queen Nefertiti? Her tomb has long been searched for. Will it prove to be right there hidden in plain sight, behind a wall that
Howard Carter uncovered for all to see on November 25, 1922?
What will they find then? More “Wonderful Things”, as Howard Carter found in November 1922 are truly likely to finally come to light.
Here below, Queen Nefertiti is depicted. These images were found in the tomb of her step-son, boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
BUT there is more happening now. Something very strange was shown on Television on three hours on this 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun.
Two perhaps-archaeologists from Cairo suddenly had devised another story which somehow they got PBS to show on the important date of November 25 2022.
This program was a mish-mash of nonsense, primarily noted for its total lack of script and lack of ideas. These two pretend archaeologists somehow made up silly stories about what no one could figure out while they wandered all over the same spots in the desert with pretend workers moving new baskets of sand from one spot in all that sane to another. The great mystery is WHY PBS was lured into allowing this amateurish program to take three important hours on the 100th anniversary of the discovery of King Tutankhamun’s tomb?
What will we Detective-Archaeologists discover about this program?