Remembering The Treasures of Tutankhamun

The golden mask of Tutankhamun has become iconic – and I have seen it in the “flesh”... it is now back at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo

The mysterious Egyptian king Tutankhamun is back in the news this week as the archive of Howard Carter goes on line thanks to the work of Oxford University archaeologist Jaromir Malek.

Howard Carter spent years documenting the thousands of artefacts from the tomb he uncovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. At the time, after making a small hole in the door of the tomb and shining a candle light through, he was asked by his patron Lord Carnarvon if he could see anything. He famously said “Yes… wonderful things!”

On the fiftieth anniversary of this discovery, just 50 of the thousands of “wonderful things” from the tomb came to London to go on display at the British Museum. I was lucky enough to visit the exhibition and I still have the catalogue, so I thought I would share a few of the images of the most beautiful objects from the book.

The unprepossessing cover of the catalogue for the 1972 exhibition of Tutankhamun’s treasures at the National Gallery in London shows just one panel from the gold-sheet covering a small wooden shrine from the king’s tomb

Tutankhamun was an Egyptian 18th dynasty ruler from around 1341 BC – 1323 BC, at the time of the New Kingdom, as it is now called.

In his youth he was called Tutankhaten, “living image of Aten” (his later name means “living image of Amun”). In February 2010, the results of DNA tests confirmed he was the son of Akhenaten and Akhenaten’s sister/wife, whose name is unknown. It is likely the limited gene pool of the Pharaohs led to a weak constitution, to say the least.

His father Akhenaten was a character, too. He tried to change his country’s religion from the worship of many gods (polytheism) to that of one god (monotheism). His chosen god was Aten, the sun god. But straight after Akhenaten’s death his religion was abandoned and the old beliefs returned.

But back to the exhibition. In 1972 I was on the verge of going to university to study archaeology and one of my interviews was at University College London.

My older brother drove me there and we decided to combine the interview with a visit to the Tutankhamun exhibition, which was all over the popular press at the time. It was my first visit to the capital.

A polished block of lapis lazuli

I don’t remember too much about it, except that we queued for a long time to go in and once inside the museum we were kept moving, so had all too short a time to take in the wonderful treasures on show. I recall the gallery was in darkness with brightly illuminated glass display cases.

I do remember making a special point of standing awhile in front of the cabinet containing the famous solid-gold mask of the child king. What surprised me most was that it was not gold and black as I had expected, but gold and blue – the deep blue of lapis lazuli. Having said that, the blue stripes on the nemes headdress are actually made of blue glass in imitation of the precious stone.

The mask would have been placed over the head and shoulders of the king’s mummy, outside the linen bandages in which the whole body was wrapped.

This gold ankh pendant is much nicer than the cheap one I wore around my neck in the 1970s

One of the things that drew me to archaeology was the possibility of holding history (or prehistory) in your hand – and the various materials artefacts are made from.

Although Egypt was not my special subject, I could not help being attracted by the precious materials and the recurring symbols of the ancient Egyptians, and even just the words for these things – gold, lapis lazuli, marble, alabaster, bronze and obsidian; scarab, lotus, ankh. In fact I wore a big, cheap gold-coloured ankh around my neck at the time. I expect that was because King Tut had made it fashionable.

Here are a few of my favourite things from the catalogue, with a brief description…

Annoyingly, this glorious pectoral (chest decoration) with solar and lunar emblems was cropped badly in the 1972 catalogue, so apologies for the ends being clipped off...

There’s another wonderful word – cloisonné. That’s the technique used in the pectoral pictured above. In later times the little compartments with raised walls of gold would have been filled with enamel, but in this piece carnelian, lapis lazuli, calcite, obsidian, turquoise, red, blue, green, black and white glass were inlaid.

This piece has symbols of the sun (the scarab) and the moon (the left “eye of Horus” and the lunar crescent and disc of silver at the top). Perhaps most beautiful is the fringe of blue lotus-flowers, poppies, complex buds and papyrus flowers along the bottom edge.

The necklace of the sun on the eastern horizon.

There were many beautiful necklaces among the Tutankhamun treasures. Many feature scarab beetles. The scarab represents the sun-god pushing its ball of dung (the sun) through the sky.

The necklace of the sun on the eastern horizon, pictured above, is made of gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, feldspar and turquoise. It was found in the same casket as the necklace of the rising sun, which features baboons either side of the main scarab on its shallow boat at the bottom, while this one has two uraei (snakes).

Gilded wooden statue of Tutankhamun harpooning from a small boat made of papyrus stems.

Statues in the round of Egyptian king and queens rarely shows them in action, but this one shows Tutankhamun harpooning from a small boat made of papyrus stems bound together. It’s made of gilded wood with some bronze or copper around the eyes. The boat is painted green with gilded trimmings.

The king wears the red crown of Lower Egypt, a bead collar, a pleated kilt with apron and sandals. In his right hand he holds the harpoon and in his left a coil of rope. The uraeus (snake on his brow), sandals, harpoon and rope are made of bronze, all except the rope being gilded.

He was probably hunting a hippopotamus, a common pursuit among Egyptian nobles.

This gilded wooden statue of the king is similar to the previous one of him harpooning from a papyrus boat. Only this time he wears the white crown of Upper Egypt, carries a staff with a papyrus-flower hand rest and a flail and is standing on the back of a leopard.

This was one of two life-size (5ft 6in) statues of Tutankhamun on pedestals either side of the entrance to his burial chamber...

The black wooden statue is one of two life-size (5ft 6in) figures of Tutankhamun on pedestals either side of the entrance to his burial chamber.

The king holds a long staff with a hand-rest in the shape of a papyrus flower and a mace in the other hand. On his head is the royal head-cloth or afnet, which tapers into a tail like a falcon’s at the back. The head of the royal cobra on his brow is of gilded bronze. The king’s eyes are of crystalline limestone and obsidian.

Parts of the wooden statue are gilded, other areas are painted with a black resin. Black was the colour of regeneration for the Egyptians, associated with the fertile black soil of their country, which they called Kemi, the black land.

A chalice made of alabaster and inlaid with blue pigment, in the shape of a single bloom of the white lotus...

The chalice made of alabaster and inlaid with blue pigment, in the shape of a single bloom of the white lotus, has the figure of Heh, god of eternity, on each handle. As well as a inscription saying it belonged to Tutankhamun, it wishes: “May thy Ka live and mayest thou spend millions of years, thou who lovest Thebes, sitting with they face to the north wind, thy two eyes beholding happiness.”

A very modern-looking cabinet of ebony and cedarwood, trimmed with bronze and gold. Its practical but elegant design is timeless. Note the black ankh 'life' symbols, combined with gold 'prosperity' symbols, resting on gold baskets, which signify 'all'...

The gilded wooden head of a cow, symbol of Hathor, who was goddess of Thebes as well as having other roles...

Tutankhamun came to the throne as a boy and ruled for just nine years before he died, aged about 18. His early death has spawned a host of theories.

When his mummy was x-rayed by Ronald Harrison in 1968, signs of a head injury and a broken leg led to speculation about an accidental fall or murder.

Then in 1990 archaeologist Nicholas Reeves suggested the young king was murdered by his advisor Ay, who succeeded Tutankhamun as king.

In 2010, after x-rays and genetic analysis, Egypt’s chief archaeologist Zahi Hawass concluded an inherited bone disorder had weakened the king, before an attack of malaria finished him off.

But German geneticists suggested in June 2010 that the bone damage might have been caused by sickle cell disease.

However, inherited disease does not account for the broken bones. Robert Connolly, an anatomist who worked on Harrison’s 1968 study, still believes Tutankhamun died in a hunting accident.

Alabaster lid of a jar containing one of King Tutankhamun’s organs, perhaps the lungs, after they were removed in order to mummify the body...

For the record, the 1972 Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition was sponsored by the Trustees of the British Museum, The Times and the Sunday Times. The catalogue was produced by George Rainbird Ltd of London.

And you will find Howard Carter’s archives online here:
Tutankhamun: Anatomy of an Excavation

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