Speaker: Feel like who? Speaker: Art editor. Speaker: Who? Speaker: Artist. Speaker: Mr. wood. Speaker: Art editor. Speaker: Me? Speaker: Good either way. Speaker: It's ambiguous. Speaker: It works on so many levels. Speaker: I know that's off to a great start. Speaker: Welcome to wholehearted weekly art history for all ages. Speaker: I'm your host, Kyle Wood, and Speaker: today we're digging into King Speaker: Tut's tomb.
Speaker: On November twenty sixth, nineteen twenty two, Howard Speaker: Carter prepared to enter the tomb of a little known pharaoh. Speaker: Nobody had set foot inside the space for over three thousand Speaker: years, but as Carter held up his candle, his partner Lord Speaker: Carnarvon, who had financed the expedition, called out, asking Speaker: if he saw anything. Speaker: Carter responded yes, wonderful things.
Speaker: King Tutankhamun, often referred to as King Tut, ascended to the Speaker: throne at the tender age of nine during the eighteenth dynasty of Speaker: the New Kingdom in Egypt around thirteen thirty two BCE. Speaker: Workers hastily completed his tomb as the boy king appeared to Speaker: have died unexpectedly when he was just a teenager.
Speaker: While there are numerous theories as to how he passed, I Speaker: am inclined to believe those who say he likely died from malaria Speaker: or an infection. Speaker: There were theories that he died in a chariot crash because of Speaker: the chariots left in his tomb, along with numerous broken bones Speaker: and the skeleton.
Speaker: However, DNA analysis indicated that Tutankhamun had a severe Speaker: clubbed foot and other maladies, likely stemming from the Speaker: verticality of his family tree. Speaker: Tutankhamun was physically Speaker: frail, likely in a great deal of Speaker: pain during his short life, and Speaker: would not have been capable of Speaker: riding chariots. Speaker: The contents of the tomb also indicate Tut's disability.
Speaker: He was buried with one hundred and thirty canes and walking Speaker: sticks to aid him in getting around in the afterlife. Speaker: Now, as a ruler, King Tut really was not all that remarkable. Speaker: Probably his greatest achievement was restoring Speaker: traditional religious practices. Speaker: His predecessor Akhenaten, also King Tut's father.
Speaker: I guess Tutankhamun's initial name was Tutankhaten, but he Speaker: changed it as he took the throne as sort of a signifier that he Speaker: was getting away from his allegiance to his father, um, Speaker: who was considered to be sort of a heretical king and, um, sort Speaker: of symbolically getting back towards the old religions.
Speaker: Akhenaten had undergone some Speaker: drastic religious reforms, Speaker: pushing everyone to worship Speaker: Aten, the sun disk, as the Speaker: primary god. Speaker: Tutankhamun restored the Speaker: polytheistic tradition, bringing Speaker: back the priests and the temples Speaker: that had been out of favour Speaker: during that previous Speaker: administration. Speaker: He also moved the capital back to Thebes.
Speaker: He supported the arts and pushed to improve the economy, Speaker: revitalising trade networks that had suffered under Akhenaten. Speaker: The thing is, while all of this sounds like he was restoring Speaker: Egypt to normalcy after the radical reign of Akhenaten, he Speaker: was still Akhenaten son. Speaker: So people associated the two of them together. Speaker: He was likely just going along with his advisors plans.
Speaker: Remember, Tutankhamun was only Speaker: nine years old when he took the Speaker: throne, so people like Nefertiti Speaker: were likely just pulling the Speaker: strings. Speaker: When Tutankhamun died young, he left no children as heirs. Speaker: Military strongmen came in to grab power, and the Pharaoh AoNB Speaker: worked to erase Tut and Akhenaten from history.
Speaker: Horemheb actually continued Speaker: Tut's reforms and then took over Speaker: Tut's monuments, carving his own Speaker: name over Tut's wherever he Speaker: could. Speaker: Ironically, King Tutankhamun became a household name in the Speaker: twentieth century because he was almost entirely forgotten three Speaker: thousand years ago, because Tutankhamun wasn't spoken of and Speaker: essentially erased from history. Speaker: So shortly after his death.
Speaker: He was quickly forgotten by most Speaker: Egyptians, including would be Speaker: looters. Speaker: As a result, his was the most Speaker: fully intact tomb to be Speaker: excavated in the twentieth Speaker: century. Speaker: There were about five thousand Speaker: treasures in the tomb when Speaker: Howard Carter and his team came Speaker: in. Speaker: It actually took them about a decade just to catalogue and Speaker: carefully remove everything now from the looks of things.
Speaker: While Carter's team was very careful and meticulous, removing Speaker: everything, the ancient Egyptians had to rush the job as Speaker: they filled the space. Speaker: The stone sarcophagus, for Speaker: example, has some unfinished Speaker: details. Speaker: Workers painted on some jewelry Speaker: pieces that would normally have Speaker: been carved. Speaker: The lid was granite, but the base was quartzite.
Speaker: Archaeologists say that something must have happened to Speaker: the original quartzite lid, and they simply made do with what Speaker: they had on hand. Speaker: A granite lid was carved and painted to look like quartzite, Speaker: but repair work also indicates that the granite cracked during Speaker: the rushed carving process. Speaker: Things breaking and being hastily repaired appears to be Speaker: the theme for King Tut.
Speaker: Probably the most famous Speaker: treasure from the tomb of King Speaker: Tutankhamun would be his burial Speaker: mask. Speaker: It's twenty two and a half pounds, constructed of gold and Speaker: precious jewels along stylized beard hung from the chin. Speaker: But when Carter opened the tomb, the beard had broken off. Speaker: They inserted a wood dowel rod to reattach the beard.
Speaker: But in twenty fourteen, some museum workers were cleaning the Speaker: glass case when they accidentally broke the beard Speaker: off, apparently in a move that seems way too relatable. Speaker: They just hastily tried to cover Speaker: their mistake by quickly gluing Speaker: it back on and hoping nobody Speaker: would notice.
Speaker: Unfortunately, the beard was Speaker: slightly off center and people Speaker: noticed some epoxy residue Speaker: around where the pieces were Speaker: connected. Speaker: In twenty fifteen, a team of Speaker: preservationists cleaned up the Speaker: mess and reattached the beard Speaker: using beeswax, which was kind of Speaker: surprising to me, but I guess it Speaker: was in line with ancient Speaker: Egyptian methods.
Speaker: And why all the significance Speaker: with the beard, you might be Speaker: wondering? Speaker: Great question. Speaker: Glad I asked myself. Speaker: The beard, like everything else about the mask, was symbolic. Speaker: It was intended to connect him to the image of a god. Speaker: The gold served the same Speaker: function as Egyptian gods were Speaker: described as having skin of gold Speaker: and bones of silver, hair of Speaker: lapis lazuli.
Speaker: The burial mask was not a Speaker: naturalistic depiction of the Speaker: king as he looked in life, but Speaker: rather an idealized depiction of Speaker: what he would look like in the Speaker: afterlife.
Speaker: He wears the nemes headdress, the striped headcloth typically Speaker: worn by ancient Egyptian pharaohs, and just above his Speaker: forehead we see the vulture and cobra, symbols of goddesses, Speaker: watching over him and symbolizing his rule over both Speaker: Upper and Lower Egypt. Speaker: While his innermost coffin was made of gold. Speaker: It did not appear shiny when Speaker: Carter and his team first Speaker: encountered it.
Speaker: Carter described the coffin as Speaker: being pitch black from the hands Speaker: to the toes, as it had been Speaker: covered in some liquid for a Speaker: ritual anointing. Speaker: In his hands were the crook and flail symbols. Speaker: The king's right to rule the goddesses Nekhbet, the vulture, Speaker: and Wadjet the cobra, are spreading across his torso, Speaker: inlaid in semi-precious stones.
Speaker: Beneath them we can see two more goddesses, Isis and Nephthys, Speaker: etched in gold. Speaker: All of these treasures. Speaker: Because the Egyptian pharaohs Speaker: spent most of their lives Speaker: planning for the afterlife from Speaker: the moment they ascended to the Speaker: throne, rulers would have crews Speaker: building tombs guarded by walls, Speaker: secret entrances, traps and Speaker: spells.
Speaker: In yet another great bit of irony, the tomb that appears to Speaker: have been the most hastily constructed also appears to have Speaker: been the best preserved. Speaker: Tutankhamun was allowed to rest Speaker: in peace for well over three Speaker: thousand years, until Howard Speaker: Carter came around to dig up the Speaker: King's remains.
Speaker: And though his reign may have Speaker: been short, the treasures found Speaker: in Tutankhamun's tomb have given Speaker: him an outsized place in the Speaker: history books and popular Speaker: culture. Speaker: If you want to learn a little bit more about ancient Egyptian Speaker: art, check out the episodes linked in the show notes.
Speaker: And as always, if you enjoy this Speaker: show, please tell a friend about Speaker: it or do me a favor and leave a Speaker: kind rating or review on Apple Speaker: Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever Speaker: you're listening. Speaker: This concludes this week's Speaker: episode of Who Arted, part of Speaker: the Airwave Media Podcast Speaker: Network. Speaker: If you found this tolerable, please leave a rating or review Speaker: on your favorite podcast app.
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