Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of the Pharaohs
Transcript
00:00Over 3,000 years ago, Ancient Egypt, one of the most powerful empires of all time, during
00:14its 18th dynasty, a young boy, just 9 years old, ascended the throne.
00:21His name was Tutankhamun.
00:25Being taught might have remained a minor footnote in history, but for an amazing discovery in
00:31the 1920s, British archaeologist Howard Carter made a remarkable find, a stunning tomb of
00:39golden artefacts, the trappings of a pharaoh whose people saw him as a living god.
00:49Tutankhamun inherited a country in disarray.
00:54Enemy empires threatened Egypt's borders.
00:58Tut's predecessor, the pharaoh Akhenaten, who may have been his father, created turmoil
01:04by replacing Egypt's many gods with only one, the Aten, or sun disk.
01:12Tutankhamun's plans to restore the traditional beliefs were cut short when he died unexpectedly
01:18at 19 years old.
01:21How he died is still a mystery.
01:26Now enter the world of Tutankhamun.
01:30See the objects that reveal the story of his royal ancestors, the glory of his golden age,
01:37his quest for eternal life.
01:40Come face to face with the boy king, the ruler, the commander, the god, the story of Tutankhamun.
01:58I am Omar Sharif.
02:00Welcome to Tutankhamun and the golden age of the pharaohs.
02:05We're about to begin an enthralling journey deep into the heart of ancient Egypt, a journey
02:14that culminates with a glittering array of riches from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
02:22King Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for just 10 years until his mysterious death at age 19.
02:32His life was but a very short chapter in the story of ancient Egypt, yet today his
02:37name is legendary.
02:39Why?
02:40Because his tomb, alone among the royal burial places, lay undiscovered for over 3,000 years.
02:48In 1922, when it was reopened, many of its amazing treasures were found intact.
02:59It is very rare for any of the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb to leave Cairo where they
03:04are kept.
03:06This exhibition includes more than 50 treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb, alongside objects
03:14from some of the other tombs in Egypt's famed Valley of the Kings.
03:22Dr. Zahi Hawass is General Secretary of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and
03:28a world-renowned archaeologist.
03:31I will tell you, an exhibit like this, the 130 artifacts, 31 artifacts, are really telling
03:41us the story, the story of Tutankhamun and his family for the first time.
03:48You know the family connection here, you will find for the first time people to understand
03:54not only about King Tut, but about the people around him.
03:59His grandfather, Amenhotep III.
04:01His grandmother, the most beautiful, important, powerful lady, Queen Tiye.
04:06You have Amenhotep II.
04:09You understand about his tomb, how they found a cache of mummies, 13 mummies inside this
04:16tomb.
04:17And you'll find this beautiful artifact that was discovered also from the tomb.
04:21You have Akhenaten, his father.
04:23You have the objects of daily life.
04:26Really, I believe this will be a very important educational exhibit to the public for the
04:33first time to understand about the Golden King and the people around him.
04:39In the 70s, the King Tut exhibition featured objects only from King Tut's tomb.
04:44In this exhibition, we have objects from his predecessors and ancestors.
04:52Objects from Tutankhamun's tomb were last displayed in the United States in the 1970s.
04:57Today, we have a rare opportunity to meet the boy king of ancient Egypt again face to
05:04face.
05:05You know, like all Egyptians, I grew up with a great sense of pride knowing that my ancestors
05:15built the first true civilization and created one of the first nation states on earth.
05:21And of course, I knew all about the kings of Egypt who were called pharaohs from an
05:26ancient Egyptian word that meant great house, referring to the palace, sort of how the White
05:33House can refer to the residence of the president.
05:38But what most astonished me about ancient Egypt is how long it lasted as a dominant
05:43power.
05:45It started about 5,000 years ago and lasted over 30 centuries compared with a few hundred
05:53years for Greece or Rome.
05:56And like all superpowers, Egypt was wealthy.
06:00There were plenty of natural resources such as gold, semi-precious stones, and all sorts
06:05of stone for sculpture and architecture, not to mention the craftsmen who fashioned them
06:10into some of the most distinctive works of art the world has ever known.
06:16So please, join me now and learn all about Tutankhamun and the golden age of the pharaohs.
06:26Our story begins with a discovery that is unique in modern history.
06:32When British archaeologists stumbled upon the final resting place of King Tutankhamun
06:36in 1922, it was the first and only time in modern history that a sealed pharaoh's tomb
06:44had ever been found.
06:48The treasures uncovered in the tomb's four chambers captivated the world.
06:56One room almost appeared like a wall of solid gold.
07:01There were games for the king to play.
07:06And things to help him in the afterlife, including ostrich feather fans to keep him cool.
07:13And one even shows the hunt the king led to secure the ostriches.
07:18Every item in the tomb displayed the skills of master craftsmen refining their art to
07:24sublime levels.
07:26The better to serve their king on his journey into the afterlife.
07:32The thinking of afterlife built ancient Egypt, built Egypt in my opinion.
07:39Without that, you will never see the pyramids.
07:43Without the afterlife, you will never see these great artifacts that you are seeing
07:46in this exhibit.
07:47It is the belief of the afterlife who made everyone in ancient Egypt to work for the
07:53national project.
07:54The national project was building a pyramid or building a tomb.
08:03This exhibition includes more than 100 priceless objects.
08:10Over 50 of them come from Tutankhamun's tomb, including a miniature coffin that held
08:15the pharaoh's liver and the crown that once adorned his head.
08:20Yet even at the time of this discovery, the life and death of the pharaoh whose mummy
08:25lay encased in four outer shrines and three interlocking coffins remained shrouded in
08:32mystery.
08:33And so the question arose, who exactly was King Tutankhamun?
08:40Why was his name virtually unknown for over 3,000 years?
08:46One of the things I think is so frustrating and yet intriguing at the same time is that
08:50we know so much about the materials in Tutankhamun's tomb, but we know so little about the person.
08:56We have very few historical documents.
08:58We don't know how he came to the throne.
08:59We don't know how decisions were made.
09:00We don't know any of the details of this time period.
09:03So that invites, I think, way too much speculation, and not just by scholars, but by lay scholars,
09:11amateurs, all kinds of people who want to get into the mix.
09:14When there's too little information, but there's a lot of stuff, materials to deal with, you
09:17can come up with all kinds of crazy and wild hypotheses.
09:21It's encouraged, I think, more speculation than most time periods.
09:27King Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for just 10 years, until his mysterious death at age 19.
09:34Yet today his name is legendary.
09:37Why?
09:38Because his tomb, alone among the royal burial places, lay undiscovered for over 3,000 years.
09:46In 1922, when it was reopened, many of its amazing treasures were found intact.
09:52November 4, 1922, was a very important day in the field of archaeology.
10:01It is the first time, actually, that a major tomb to be discovered completely intact like this.
10:09Tutankhamun came to power in 1332 BC, when he was just nine years old.
10:15He mysteriously died before he reached the age of 20.
10:19It's hard to know exactly what caused Tutankhamun's death, but recent CAT scans that were done
10:25by the National Geographic Society have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the damage
10:31to the back of his skull was not because of an attempted murder, and it seems to have
10:37been a post-mortem event.
10:39So did he die from another cause?
10:43It's hard to say.
10:45There is a possibility that there was a wound on his leg, which did not heal correctly,
10:49and he may have died of blood poisoning.
10:52I think the romantic version is that he fell off his chariot while hunting, or maybe on
10:56a campaign of some kind, but we have to keep in mind that his skeletal information is really
11:03all we have to go by.
11:05His soft tissue has been so fragmented and so decomposed by the amount of resins poured
11:11on him during the mummification that we really only have skeletal material to work with.
11:15So the cause of death is by no means clear, and for right now, maybe a break in the left
11:21thigh that caused massive infection and sepsemia, maybe not.
11:27Meet one of King Tutankhamun's ancestors, the pharaoh Thutmose IV, who may have been
11:33the boy king's great-grandfather.
11:35Seated on a double throne, Thutmose places his arm affectionately around his mother Tia,
11:42and she does likewise.
11:45He holds an Ankh, the Egyptian sign meaning life.
11:49The hieroglyphic inscription by his leg proclaims him as lord of Egypt and as a god.
11:56The royal Uraeus serpent coiling across his wig protects him from enemies.
12:02Tia's longer wig is shown covered by a feathered vulture headdress worn by queens and goddesses.
12:09Although Thutmose had several wives, his mother held a high rank amongst the royal women during
12:15his reign.
12:19Some scholars think this may be an image of Meritaten, King Akhenaten's eldest daughter.
12:26Her younger sister, Angsinamun, was married to Tutankhamun.
12:31The princess's expression is full of serenity, yet the subtle coloring of the eyes and the
12:36mouth with its shadowy dimples at each corner gives us a strong sense of life behind the
12:41stillness.
12:43Other images of the princess and her sisters show them with unnaturally elongated skulls
12:49as you see here.
12:51This form was sometimes used in Egyptian art to indicate a child's age and status.
13:00This head likely portrays Queen Nefertiti, whose beauty is legendary.
13:06Nefertiti's face is a masterpiece of stone carving.
13:09Notice how the sculptor shaped the hard brown quartzite to give it the smooth surface and
13:15gentle curves and planes of a real human face.
13:18Look especially at the mouth.
13:21Between soft dimples at either side, its full lips are carved in bold relief, creating shadows
13:27that make them seem incredibly realistic.
13:32Nefertiti was chief among the wives of King Akhenaten, the man who was probably Tutankhamun's
13:38father.
13:39However, Tutankhamun's mother was probably one of Amenhotep's secondary wives.
13:45Nevertheless, the young Tutankhamun was raised and educated at Nefertiti's sophisticated
13:51court.
13:53It's difficult to be absolutely precise about Tutankhamun's parentage because we don't have
13:59all the information that we would like to have.
14:02It is very likely that Akhenaten was his probable father.
14:09Now his mother was probably a minor wife of Akhenaten, whose name was Kia, and then his
14:15grandparents would have been Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye.
14:20Akhenaten was the father of King Tut, and this is why I believe that maybe he was born
14:29first in Thebes, and after that he moved to Amarna with his father.
14:35And his mother died, Kia, when she was delivering him.
14:40And he lived in Amarna.
14:42I think Nefertiti was the one really who raised him, and he stayed in the palace running and
14:49playing with the six beautiful daughters of Queen Nefertiti.
14:53And he married one of them, Ank-S-N-Ba-Aten, and he changed her name to Ank-S-N-Amen.
15:09This richly decorated chest was found in the tomb of a noble couple, Yuya and Chuya, who
15:15were probably King Tutankhamun's great-grandparents.
15:19The chest's decorations bestowed good fortune on the couple in the afterworld.
15:24Around its base are golden ankhs, flanked by signs of prosperity.
15:30The hieroglyphs above name Yuya and Chuya's daughter Queen Tiye, and her husband King
15:37Amenhotep III.
15:39Until the British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, the
15:45tomb of Yuya and Chuya, discovered by American explorer Theodore Davis in 1904, was regarded
15:52as the greatest discovery of ancient Egypt.
15:57The ancient Egyptians relied on boats for transportation along the Nile.
16:03Within the tomb, boats like the one you see here served to magically transport the deceased
16:09in the afterlife.
16:10You know, boats were very important in many things.
16:13We have evidence that the ancient Egyptians used to send boats to Lebanon to bring the
16:18cedar wood.
16:19And boats were very important for transportation in the Nile.
16:24The Nile was really the main transportation for the ancient Egyptians.
16:28And there are solar boats, one for the day and one for the night.
16:32This model represents an elegant royal riverboat with a central cabin and seating for 20 horsemen.
16:39The boat comes from the tomb of the pharaoh Amenhotep II, who died about 60 years before
16:44Tutankhamun was born.
16:47On the raised structure at one end of the boat, Amenhotep, as a crowned sphinx, tramples
16:55his enemy.
16:56Below him are protective deities and signs, including the wet-jet eye of the falcon god
17:02Horus, which protected against evil.
17:06During Egyptian funeral rituals, boats often carried the body across the Nile towards its
17:11final resting place.
17:14The ancient Egyptians believed that after death the pharaoh joined the sun god in his
17:19dayboat as he sailed across the sky.
17:23At night, they travelled by boat through the underworld until they rose gloriously into
17:29the sky once more at dawn.
17:34This is a shabdi, or funerary figurine.
17:38A shabdi represented the deceased person in the beyond, and could be called upon to act
17:44in his or her place when the gods required workers to assist them.
17:48Even kings needed shabdis in their tombs.
17:52We'll see some from Tutankhamun's tomb later in the exhibition.
17:56Inscriptions on this shabdi identify it as belonging to Ptahmoos, a mayor and high priest
18:02who died about 40 years before Tutankhamun became king.
18:06The shabdi's blue skin and face indicate that it is divine.
18:12Beneath the crossed hands, a vulture representing the sky goddess Nut spreads her wings to protect
18:19Ptahmoos's body.
18:20The hieroglyphs on the lower body contain the shabdi spell from the Egyptian Book of
18:26the Dead, a sort of guidebook to the afterlife.
18:30It commands the shabdi to act for the dead person when called by the gods, answering,
18:35I shall do it, here I am.
18:42This colossal stone head bears the face of King Akhenaten, whom some credit with introducing
18:48monotheistic ideas to the world.
18:51Here, Akhenaten is shown wearing the double feather of Shu, god of air and sunlight.
18:59This image, with a reference to another god, is still early in his reign and represents
19:04the time of transition to the new beliefs.
19:08A poet and visionary as well as a king, Akhenaten believed that the disk of the sun, Aten, was
19:16the source of all life and therefore the only god worthy of being worshipped.
19:22His abnormally elongated face was probably a deliberate attempt on the pharaoh's part
19:28to depict himself as different from all previous kings.
19:34In this family portrait, Akhenaten depicts himself wearing the tall crown of Upper Egypt.
19:41Its elliptical shape dominates the image, but it is balanced by the curving lines of
19:46the king's body, and those lines are echoed in the forms of his wife Nefertiti and their
19:52daughter Meritaten.
19:53In return for their worship, the sun sends down rays sticked with hands, which offer
20:01only the royal angst, meaning eternal life.
20:07But not everyone was as pleased with Akhenaten as the sun.
20:12Akhenaten's religion is very, very unsatisfactory for the ancient Egyptian populace because
20:17he does not address the question of death and the afterlife.
20:21He ignores it utterly.
20:23And so when you die, you sleep and you cease to exist.
20:26This is not what the ancient Egyptians want to hear.
20:28They've been dealing with a religion that is all about encapsulating their soul in materiality.
20:34It's about their existence in the future, and if you just ignore one of the chief problems
20:39of humanity, which is death, that we're all going to die, your religion will not last.
20:46As Akhenaten continued his reign, he became more involved with his religious ideas, and
20:53he began making more drastic changes.
20:56He changed his original name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten to focus on his new god.
21:04And then he relocated the center of his administration to a place not sacred to any other god, and
21:10he called it Akhetaten, the horizon of the sun.
21:16When he had the names of other gods removed from monuments around the country, many people,
21:21including officials of the court, made the move northward with him.
21:26But it is clear the new beliefs were too unconventional for his subjects, who after 17 years rejected
21:33him and his religion and returned to Thebes.
21:38The biggest mistake in my opinion that Akhenaten did, that he made the Egyptians to worship
21:45the new god through him, is only Aten, the power behind the sun, is giving the hand to
21:54him, and he's giving it to the people.
21:57When he died, the Egyptians could not find the connection between them and the god.
22:03Most of the ancient tombs in Egypt's famous Valley of the Kings were emptied by grave
22:08robbers.
22:10In ancient times, those who came to rob the tomb of King Tutankhamun were deterred by
22:15guards assigned to protect the royal tombs, and later, during the building of the tomb
22:21of Ramses VI, rubble completely sealed off the tomb of Tutankhamun.
22:27As a result, when archaeologists tumbled on the tomb in 1922, it had been left undisturbed
22:34for nearly 3,000 years.
22:37Tutankhamun, who was relatively short-lived and insignificant in the long history of Egyptian
22:43pharaohs, suddenly achieved an extraordinary degree of fame.
22:49In my opinion, King Tut was so lucky, the thieves entered twice in the tomb, but when
22:56they were building the tomb of Ramses VI, all the stones came from up and down, completely
23:04sealed the tomb away from everyone.
23:09Look closely at the larger of the two masks in this case.
23:13At first, we might imagine this gold-leafed mask was simply a decorative item.
23:19But in fact, it is a miniature funerary mask made to cover the head of a five-month-old
23:26fetus.
23:28The golden mask lay in one of two fetus coffins found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
23:34Both fetuses were female, and were probably the offspring of Tutankhamun and his wife,
23:39Aksinamu.
23:41One of the most intimate and poignant pieces in the exhibition is the fetus mask that we
23:46think belonged to one of the children of Tutankhamun.
23:50Again, no genetic testing is really possible at this time period, so the parental link
23:55is insecure, but there were two fetuses buried in Tutankhamun's tomb, both of them buried
24:00in little miniature coffins, one stillborn at five months, one stillborn at eight months.
24:06One of the fetuses, the one stillborn at eight months, didn't have their mask on it when
24:10they found it in the tomb, and Howard Carter had already found that fetus mask some years
24:14before in a separate embalming cache.
24:16In fact, when he found that piece in the embalming cache, it was one of the clues that Tutankhamun's
24:21tomb may be intact and it may be close by.
24:24Tutankhamun married Aksinamun around the time he became king, when he was just nine years old.
24:30Aksinamun was a little older.
24:32Like all Egyptian royal marriages, it was no doubt carefully arranged for political
24:38and dynastic reasons.
24:41Nevertheless, images of the royal couple seem to show a close and loving bond.
24:49This mummy mask is one of the most elegant ever found.
24:54Being close to the royal family, Julia and her husband, Yulia, were buried in the Valley
24:59of the Kings.
25:01This splendid type of golden mask, which would have been placed directly over the mummy's
25:05face in the coffin, was reserved for the royal family and the elite of ancient Egypt.
25:13The ancient Egyptians believed that the skin of the gods and their bones were fashioned
25:18of gold, and so when they made funerary masks and coffins, they made them in gold.
25:26They covered them in gilding and also in sheet gold, and therefore they felt that in the
25:33afterlife, their bodies and their bones would also be made of gold, just like the gods they worshipped.
25:39Nearby you can see Julia's dazzling golden coffin.
25:44The mummy of Julia was contained within two coffins, one inside the other.
25:49This dazzling golden coffin was the larger one.
25:53The embalmers packed the body inside and out with natrin, a mixture of salt and baking
25:58soda that occurs naturally in Egypt.
26:02The embalmers wrapped the body in linen bandages, placing amulets among them to protect the
26:07deceased in the afterlife.
26:09Meanwhile, a priest chanted spells for the dead, and finally, the newly mummified body
26:16was placed into its coffin.
26:20Mummification was a process that evolved over many generations.
26:25First you had to dry out the body, but even before that, there was an incision made in
26:30the left flank, and then the internal organs were removed.
26:36The four of them, the lungs, the liver, the stomach, and the intestine, were considered
26:40extremely important.
26:41They were mummified separately and then put in their own containers.
26:46The heart was also considered important, and that was mummified and usually put back into
26:52the body.
26:53The brain, however, was not considered particularly important.
26:56It was removed through a brain hook that was put into the nostril, and it was just thrown
27:01away.
27:03After this, the body was then dried out with different salts and resins, and eventually
27:09it was wrapped with yards and yards of linen, and then the body was put into a coffin, and
27:15the coffin was put into a sarcophagus, and the sarcophagus was put into a tomb.
27:20Among the tomb treasures of Julia and Julia was this superb chair.
27:25It belonged to their grandchild, Princess Sitamon.
27:29Amazingly, the chair's woven string seat is original, and we can easily imagine the
27:34princess seated here over 3,000 years ago.
27:39What did she look like?
27:41We have only to look at the seat back to find out.
27:45There she is, in both left and right profile, with lotus flower ornaments on her headdress.
27:53She's sitting in a chair very like this one.
27:57Sitamon holds ceremonial items from the cult of Hathor, goddess of music and dance, and
28:03receives a jeweled collar on a platter from an attendant.
28:08At the top of the chair back, you see the winged sun disk that protected the royal family.
28:14The sides of the chair are decorated with deities designed to ward away evil spirits.
28:23This beautiful wooden sculpture of the head of a cow is more than 3,000 years old.
28:29It comes from the tomb of Amenhotep II.
28:33Some pharaohs of ancient Egypt, including Tutankhamun, had cow heads very similar to
28:38this one in their tombs.
28:40It's remarkable that the wood sculpture, decorated with paint, has survived in nearly perfect
28:46condition thanks in part to Egypt's dry climate.
28:50Mehet represents the goddess, Mehet-Weret.
28:54According to ancient Egyptian religion, Mehet-Weret saved the god Ra, who lived among humankind
29:01as a king until his people turned against him.
29:05Mehet-Weret carried him up to the heavens, and the gods were never seen on earth after
29:10that.
29:12The placement of the cow head in the tomb of the pharaoh represents the wish that the
29:16king may rise into the sky each day, rejuvenated like Ra on the back of the celestial cow.
29:26In these two cases, you see two very similar gilded figures depicting King Tutankhamun.
29:33Notice that one of the figures has a flat, angular crown.
29:37This represents Tutankhamun as a king of Lower Egypt, the Delta region.
29:43The other wears a different, more conical crown.
29:47This is Tutankhamun as the king of Upper Egypt, the Nile Valley.
29:53In both figures, he holds a flail, emblem of royal power, and a curved staff, symbolizing
30:00the king's role as his people's shepherd.
30:05Both of these magnificent works of art are part of the treasury of objects found inside
30:10Tutankhamun's tomb.
30:11But it's strange that the faces do not look like other images of Tutankhamun.
30:17They were probably made for someone else, another ruler.
30:22Tutankhamun died suddenly at the age of 19, and his court was no doubt unprepared for
30:28his burial.
30:29His tomb itself is small, and was probably never intended for a king, but it had to make
30:37And the various objects placed within the tomb had to be hastily assembled to ensure
30:42his well-being in the afterlife.
30:46Tutankhamun's tomb was located in a remote area of the Valley of the Kings, which would
30:51not usually have been used for royalty.
30:55And when it was found, it was much smaller than those of his predecessors and his successors.
31:02The decoration on the walls also was very unusual for a royal figure.
31:09And because of all of these reasons, it is likely that this tomb was not actually created
31:15for him at first, and was probably being prepared for someone else.
31:20Because his death was unexpected, he was put into the smaller tomb, which could be completed
31:27very quickly, and then buried with many artifacts and objects that he would have used in life.
31:34This large wooden shield from Tutankhamun's tomb was probably used on ceremonial occasions,
31:41since its delicate openwork decoration would offer no protection in battle.
31:47Here, Tutankhamun appears as a sphinx, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
31:54Below the creature's paws, Nubian captives struggle, symbolizing Egypt's domination
32:01of that land.
32:04The ancient Egyptians spent much of their lives preparing for their own deaths and whatever
32:10followed it.
32:11And because they thought they were dealing with eternity, they believed that anything
32:16put in a tomb must be designed to last forever.
32:20This beautiful miniature shrine from Tutankhamun's tomb is covered and lined with gold, and rests
32:26on a silver-plated sledge.
32:29Through its open doors, we can see a golden back support and an ebony plinth, with two
32:36carved footprints that probably mark the spot where a divine statue of solid gold once stood.
32:44I like this piece for a number of reasons.
32:45First, I like this piece because it shows that the very people who buried Tutankhamun
32:52were responsible for stealing a number of objects.
32:55That shrine held a solid gold or solid silver statuette that is now missing.
32:59So the people who buried him then closed that shrine, sealed it up, no one was to know the
33:03wiser and somebody pocketed the statue.
33:05And you have these little empty footprints on a plinth that was placed inside of that
33:09shrine and that was how Carter found it.
33:11This shrine is one of the most beautiful pieces of goldsmithing that I've seen.
33:20The shrine's exterior is decorated with scenes depicting Angsinamun as a perfect wife and
33:26queen to Tutankhamun.
33:28She pays homage to her husband, hands him flowers and religious artifacts, participates
33:35in ritualized activities, and accompanies him hunting in the marches.
33:40The other thing about this shrine that I really love is that it's not clear what it's
33:45meant to do.
33:46Every piece in Tutankhamun's tomb had a function.
33:49Every piece had a religious function.
33:51The function of this shrine is not clear to me.
33:54We don't have the statue that belongs inside of it and we don't know is it meant to bring
33:58Tutankhamun and Angsinamun together in the afterlife so that they'll always have that
34:01companionship?
34:03That's one theory.
34:04Or is it meant to make sure that he always has a kind of sexual companionship in the
34:12afterlife?
34:13She is depicted in a very nubile, young, feminine, beautiful way.
34:18I really like that this object brings up more questions than it answers and I like that
34:23about the exhibition as a whole.
34:25Fans were essential in Egypt's hot climate.
34:29Fan bearers would have accompanied Tutankhamun wherever he went and the post of chief fan
34:34bearer was a prime one at court, partly because he always stood close to the king.
34:41This fan, found in Tutankhamun's tomb, once had luxuriant brown and white ostrich feathers
34:47all around its arched top.
34:50The golden fan plate depicts Tutankhamun hunting ostriches.
34:56The king stands in his chariot drawn by two galloping horses.
35:00He pulls his bow taut, aiming at an ostrich.
35:05For me, when I really look at the fan, and you look at how the artist in the gold draw
35:15this scene of King Tut hunting the wild animals, and that is, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.
35:28Archaeologists had long searched in vain for Tutankhamun's tomb.
35:33In November 1922, Howard Carter, funded by British nobleman Lord Carnarvon, was working
35:40in the Valley of the Kings.
35:42The area had already been heavily excavated by others.
35:47Disappointed by Carter's meager discoveries so far, Carnarvon was about to stop funding
35:52the excavations.
35:54But suddenly, their luck turned.
35:59After several seasons, Lord Carnarvon began to get a little bit anxious about how long
36:04it was taking Howard Carter to find something really significant.
36:09And so by the end of the sixth season, Lord Carnarvon had felt that he really had spent
36:14enough money without any significant finds.
36:18So he had told Howard Carter at that time that this would be the last season, and Howard
36:24Carter was very upset about it.
36:26Carter and Carnarvon sat down, and Carnarvon, who had gone to Egypt because he was in ill
36:31health, who had gone to Egypt because he couldn't stand the cold English winters, and wanted
36:36to entertain himself, and so started to fund a dig, and it got out of control.
36:41And by this season, before the 1922 season, he was going to pull the plug.
36:45It had become much too expensive for him to continue, and Carter said, look, I'll fund
36:52it if you don't find anything, but fund it.
36:55And I think I have a place to look where we haven't looked yet.
36:59That day, November 4, 1922, was a very important day.
37:07In the field of archaeology, it is the first time, actually, that a major tomb to be discovered
37:13completely intact like this.
37:15After Howard Carter discovered the tomb, he really wasn't able to open it because he had
37:22to contact his financial supporter, Lord Carnarvon, in order to have him come and be present at
37:30the opening.
37:31So he sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon saying, at last have made discovery.
37:40He had to have guards there daily and during the night until Lord Carnarvon arrived in
37:46Egypt with his daughter later, Lady Evelyn Herbert, and Carter met them at the station
37:52and then brought them over to the tomb in order to make the first breakthrough and see
37:59what would be beyond the door.
38:03A few weeks later, the rubble filling the tomb's entry had been cleared away, with Carnarvon
38:09beside him.
38:11Carter made a small hole in the plaster wall that sealed the tomb.
38:15When everyone was assembled at the door of the tomb, Howard Carter poked a hole into
38:23the plaster that had sealed the door.
38:27And it was he, and only he, who was looking through, and it took a while.
38:34And maybe it was a little bit longer than he should have, but he was waiting to make
38:40sure that all of the air, the ancient air, escaped from inside the tomb.
38:46But Lord Carnarvon was at the other side and couldn't see in, and it took a while for Howard
38:52Carter to be able to see what was there.
38:55And finally, Lord Carnarvon couldn't stand it anymore, and he said, can you see anything?
38:59Can you see anything?
39:01And Howard Carter said, yes, wonderful things.
39:05What he saw in the antechamber took his breath away.
39:10He later wrote, as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged
39:17slowly from the mist.
39:20Strange animals, statues, and gold everywhere, the glint of gold.
39:27As soon as Howard Carter discovered the tomb, it was opened, and the world press found out
39:32about the amazing discovery.
39:33They just really converged on the area.
39:36They came from the United States.
39:38They came from Europe.
39:39They came from the Far East, all corners of the world, to see the wonders that were in
39:46this tiny tomb.
39:49Howard Carter, in my opinion, was a very unique man, because he was so patient, and he was
40:00sure that he was going to discover the tomb.
40:02We have to give him a credit because of that.
40:05Even when Lord Carnarvon did not want to give him money to continue, he was going to do
40:11this from his own.
40:13But Lord Carnarvon told him, I will give you the last season.
40:18About his work in the tomb after the discovery, it was very important that he recorded everything
40:25in a very scientific way, carefully, scientifically.
40:30His explanation and recording was really wonderful.
40:35People are drawn to the Howard Carter story, where he really did pull himself up by his
40:39bootstraps.
40:40He doesn't have a proper education.
40:41He doesn't have a PhD.
40:42He has an artist's training, and yet he's the one that found that tomb.
40:46He had to beg for all of the funding that he ever got, and he found it right at the
40:50last minute.
40:51This is Ptah, patron god of artisans and protector of Memphis, Egypt's ancient capital.
40:59Ptah's skullcap of brilliant blue faience contrasts with his face and body of glowing
41:06gilded wood.
41:08His tight-fitting costume has a delicate pattern of feathers.
41:12Ptah is often linked with a falcon funerary deity, and this identification may account
41:17for both the feathers and the mummy-form shape.
41:21This statuette was one of many ritual figures placed in Tutankhamun's tomb to help ensure
41:26the king's welfare in the afterlife.
41:28Ptah had an especially important role to play in the funerary ritual.
41:34When a body arrived at its tomb, it was set upright and purified with libations.
41:40The mummy's mouth was then touched with special implements, while spells to restore its senses
41:46were recited.
41:48This ritual, known as the opening of the mouth, was linked with Ptah, and the ancient Egyptians
41:55believed that it helped revitalize the dead.
42:00After the young king's sudden death, one of the first steps in preparing Tutankhamun's
42:05body for burial would have been removing his inner organs and preserving the lungs,
42:11liver, stomach and intestines.
42:15Each had its own container.
42:17This one, made of sheet gold beaten into the shape of a miniature coffin and inlaid with
42:23precious stones and glass, held the pharaoh's liver.
42:30The coffin's splendid appearance shows how important it was to give full honor to the
42:35internal organs as well as the body itself.
42:40You know, when the person died, they began to do the mummification.
42:46The mummification takes first 40 days, and the 40 days when actually they take the organic,
42:54they open an area here, and they take from that the organics, and they put it in the
42:59four carobic jars.
43:01And after that, in the 18th dynasty, the time of King Tut, they had a hole in the back of
43:06the head.
43:08That hole made many people to believe that this is indication of a murder, but that's
43:13not true.
43:14That is an evidence of mummification.
43:17And after that, they continue, after the 40 days, to go to 70 days, they dry the body
43:24with natron, and they cover the mummy with linen, and after that, they take the mummy
43:30to the ceremonies, opening the mouth, and the priest will say, I open your mouth, then
43:37you can drink and eat.
43:40I open your nose, then you can smell.
43:43I open your eyes, then you can see.
43:45And he will go with these artifacts to live forever in the afterlife.
43:51The heart was the place of knowledge to the Egyptians.
43:56That heart will answer the questions in the afterlife.
43:59When they do the judgment, and they have in one side Ma'id, the goddess of justice and
44:05truth, and in the other side, his heart.
44:09If it doesn't balance, he will be eaten by a huge animal around him.
44:14If it balance, he will go and meet Osiris to accept him in the afterlife.
44:20If you make that transition, then you start on the journey into the next life, which is
44:24actually a very dangerous journey, and there are a number of texts, known as the Book of
44:28the Dead, known as the Omduat, there's dozens of underworld texts that describe this very
44:32dangerous journey that's often compared to the journey that the sun god takes when he
44:38sets below the horizon, the western horizon, and he moves through the hours of night.
44:44Every hour brings on new dangers, every hour brings on new trials and new demons and new
44:50dangers to be faced, and the deceased has to be prepared for all of those.
44:55This granite statue of Tutankhamun is the very image of a dynamic young king.
45:01The statue is one of a pair found at Karnak, a state temple dedicated to the god Amun-Ra
45:07across the Nile from Thebes.
45:12An inscription on the figure's back calls Tutankhamun, Beloved of Amun-Ra, King of the
45:20Gods.
45:23This bears testimony to Tutankhamun's return to tradition.
45:27Akhenaten had established his own new city and worshipped the disk of the sun as his
45:32only god, but early in Tutankhamun's reign, the court returned to Memphis and Amun, along
45:39with the other traditional gods, was restored to favor.
45:44The reign of Tutankhamun had a very serious effect on ancient Egyptian traditions, religion,
45:52and culture because he was responsible for the restoration of the traditional religion,
46:00traditional ideas, and the way the monarchy had been before.
46:05You have to know that King Tut, when he became a king, he was nine years old.
46:10He could not know a thing.
46:12He did not know really that he could believe in the religion of his father, of the one
46:18god.
46:19And that's why I believe that I became smart and they were planning to take the throne.
46:27And the first time that someone who doesn't have the royal blood will become a king, that
46:32as I.
46:32And that's why they wanted to go back in the hands of the strong people, the priestess
46:39of Amun, who controlled the country.
46:43And they moved King Tut from Amarna to Thebes and he became, he changed his name to Tutankhamun,
46:52or as Carter used to say, Tutankhamun.
46:58In some places on this statue, Tutankhamun's name has been replaced with that of Horem
47:03Hemp, one of his chief advisors, who became pharaoh not long after the young king died.
47:13Look for the small ivory box in this case.
47:16It was used to play the ancient Egyptian games of Jahal and Senet.
47:22You played one of these games on the top of the box, then flipped it over and played the
47:27other game on the underside.
47:30The drawer contains ten playing pieces and a bone-shaped dice.
47:35The hieroglyphic inscriptions list the king's names and praise his power and might.
47:40Rather off-putting if you're playing against him.
47:44Tutankhamun's tomb contained other game boards, some knuckle bones used as dice and gaming
47:50chips.
47:52The games would accompany him into the afterlife to keep him entertained.
47:58The ancient Egyptians believed that anything you put in your tomb would last forever.
48:04Artists in ancient Egypt created many works of art that never saw the light of day, like
48:09this game board.
48:10They were intended for the magical transition from life to afterlife.
48:16Every one of those objects that's placed in a Tutankhamun's tomb has a magical significance
48:21as well.
48:22So if he places a board game, Senet, into his tomb, yes, that means he can play it in
48:27the afterlife, but it's also an analogy of the problems that he's going to face in the
48:32afterlife that he's not going to get through in one go.
48:35Sometimes you're going to land on a bad square, sometimes you're going to land on a good square.
48:39In the treasury of Tutankhamun's tomb lay this chest containing earrings, amulets and
48:45pectorals, and two pairs of the royal crook and flail that he would need for adornment
48:50in the afterlife.
48:53Every aspect of the chest celebrates Tutankhamun as king.
48:56For a start, it's made in the shape of a cartouche.
49:00This is an oval form with a short bar at its base, which often surrounded the king's name
49:05in inscriptions.
49:07The shape of the cartouche symbolized the sun's everlasting path around the world.
49:13The ancient Egyptians believed that their pharaohs reigned over all the earth, not
49:18just Egypt.
49:20The chest's lid is filled with oversized hieroglyphs against a gold-leafed background.
49:26They spell out Tutankhamun, ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis.
49:33Tutankhamun's name is made of three parts, Tut meaning image, Ankh meaning living, and
49:42Amun, the name of the chief deity.
49:46So together the name means image of the living god.
49:52150 superb pieces of jewelry, amulets and other precious objects were carefully placed
49:59into the mummy wrappings that surrounded Tutankhamun's body.
50:03The golden dagger you see here was among them, found stuck into a golden girdle around his
50:09hips.
50:10The dagger, with bands of inlaid colored glass and granulated gold, is a masterpiece of the
50:16Egyptian goldsmith's art.
50:21Its ornate case is covered with an inlaid feather pattern and the head of a desert fox
50:26at the tip.
50:28Tutankhamun's mummified body rested within no less than seven opulent cases, one placed
50:35inside another.
50:36The outermost layer, a gilded and inlaid wooden shrine, measured over 16 feet long
50:42and 9 feet high.
50:45Inside it were three more shrines, then a sarcophagus carved of golden-colored quartzite.
50:52Next came three mummy-shaped coffins, and then, finally, the mummy itself, its face
50:58covered by a mask of solid gold.
51:05At the front of the diadem, the solid gold vulture's head represents Nehbet, and the
51:11lapis lazuli cobra symbolizes Wachit, the goddesses of the crowns of Upper and Lower
51:17Egypt.
51:18It's very likely that Tutankhamun actually wore the diadem in life as well as death,
51:24probably at important religious ceremonies.
51:27In order to fit Tutankhamun's funeral mask over the diadem on his mummy, these two elements
51:33were detached and placed on his thighs.
51:37In this way, the diadem's powerful protectors would retain contact with the king.
51:45The excavators of Tutankhamun's tomb claimed that the young king had been murdered.
51:50But was it true?
51:53In January 2005, Dr. Zahi Hawass carried out a CT scan on Tutankhamun's mummy.
52:00I went in January 2005 to the Valley of the Kings.
52:05I took the CT scan, and I took the mummy out, and I put it inside.
52:10The CT scan is very important because it gives three dimensions of the mummy.
52:16When we studied the images of the mummy, we found out that King Tut died at the age of
52:2319.
52:24He was well-fit.
52:25He had no childhood diseases.
52:28And after that, they found, the radiologists, that there is no evidence of a blow on the
52:34back of the head or indication of a foul play.
52:38The only thing they found, actually, is that fracture on the left leg, that they believe
52:45that this happened one day before his death, and this could cause infection and made him
52:51to die.
52:53The exact cause of death is impossible to determine, but the fracture suggests a new
53:00theory.
53:01The mystery of Tutankhamun lives on as an inherent part of his legacy.
53:09Inside Tutankhamun's alabaster canopic chest, four deep hollows held the miniature coffins
53:15containing the king's inner organs.
53:18This head is one of four that acted as lids or stoppers to seal the hollows.
53:24During Tutankhamun's funeral, the canopic chest was placed inside a six-foot-high gilded
53:29shrine and brought to his tomb in the funeral procession.
53:37And finally, we come face-to-face with Tutankhamun himself.
53:43The king wears a flat-topped golden crown on his head decorated with a protective cobra.
53:49This life-sized wooden figure may have been used as a mannequin to help the king's tailors
53:55fit his clothes, though it's more likely it was used in rituals as a stand-in for the
54:00king.
54:02His eyes gaze toward you, but somehow always through you, signaling that he not only has
54:10majesty and presence, but that his focus is not on the present.
54:17I believe, in my opinion, now we know a lot about King Tut, especially after we did the
54:23CT scanning and the examination of the mummy of King Tut, we really know now a lot about
54:29this mysterious golden king.