Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 1)

- Treasures of Tutankhamen -

1- Tutankhamun 3rd anthropoid coffin :

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Burial Chamber. 3rd (innermost) anthropoid coffin, head wearing nemes. (Carter number 255). Handbeaten solid gold inlaid with semi-precious stones.

2- Portrait bust of Tutankhamun:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Antechamber. Upper part of the portrait bust of Tutankhamun, of uncertain purpose, perhaps a mannequin for the King's clothes or jewellery. Wood overlaid with painted gesso.

3- Statuette of Tutankhamun with leopard:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Treasury. Statuette of Tutankhamun wearing the white crown and holding staff and flail, carried upon the back of a black leopard. Wood decorated with gilded gesso and bronze inlays.

4-Throne:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Antechamber. Back of the ceremonial throne showing Tutankhamun's cartouches and four uraei crowned with sun-disks. Wood overlaid with sheet gold inlaid with faience, glass and calcite.

5- Tutankhamun's mask:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Burial Chamber. Tutankhamun's funerary mask covered the head and shoulders of the King's mummy. It is the most instantly recognizable object from his tomb. Gold inlaid with lapis lazuli, calcite, carnelian, felspar, quartz and obsidian.

6- Tutankhamun 2nd anthropoid coffin:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Burial Chamber. Detail of head of Tutankhamun from the 2nd (middle) anthropoid coffin with nemes headdress bearing the royal insignia (Nekhbet-vulture and Buto-uraeus). Wood covered with gold foil inlaid with red, blue and turquoise glass.

7- Tutankhamun Burial Chamber:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Burial Chamber. View of the Burial Chamber showing sarcophagus and outer coffin. The scenes on the north wall have been especially illuminated for this photograph. There are three scenes, starting from right, Tutankhamun's sucessor King Ay performing Opening the Mouth ceremony before mummified Tutankhamun, Tutankhamun before Nut making nini (a welcoming gesture), and, with his ka, embracing Osiris.

8- Cow-headed couch:

Valley of the Kings. KV 62, the tomb of Tutankhamun (1336-1327 BC). The Antechamber. The cow-headed couch. Three animal-headed couches were found lined up behind one another against the western wall of the Antechamber. Wood overlaid with gilded gesso and paste decoration.

9- Alabaster sculpture of Tutankhamun: 

This alabaster sculpture of King Tutankhamun (1332 to 1323 B.C.)

10- Ancient Egyptian Jewel Chest:

Ancient Egyptian Jewel Chest from the Tomb of Tutankhamun's possible great grandparents, Yuya and
Tjuya, is made of wood, decorated with gilding, ivory, faience and ebony. The colors are so fresh it looks like it was made yesterday.

11- Crown of King Tutankhamun:

Crown found on King Tutankhamun’s head when he was discovered

12- The Anubis Shrine:

The Anubis Shrine, lord of the west and protector of “secret things,” this majestic guardian of the royal necropolis was found at the entrance to the Treasury of Tutankhamun's tomb, mounted on a carry sledge. Recumbent on a gilt pylon richly decorated with a motif of hieroglyphic symbols associated with Isis and Osiris, the shrine contained the pharaoh’s ritual embalming equipment. The image of Anubis was carved from wood and varnished with black resin, the ears and collar detailed in gold leaf, and the nails of solid silver. The eyes, made of alabaster and obsidian, were inlaid in gold fittings. The jackal god of the netherworld (known as “He Who Belongs to the Mummy Wrappings”), Anubis was evocative of the wild scavenging dogs that roamed the burial grounds of the Theban desert at night. According to legend Anubis was conceived when Osiris and his sister Nephthys (who was married to their jealous, vengeful brother Seth) accidentally mistook each other for their spouses in the dark.

13- Netjerankh: 

Netjerankh, From the western horizon to the east, the sun god’s nightly journey through the subterranean Netherworld was divided into twelve dangerous regions, each representing one of the hours of the night. The guardian of the entrance to the 6 the region was Netjerankh ("The Living God":), a divinity in serpent form associated with the goddess Neith whose emblem is borne on its dilated hood. Aided by this mysterious minor deity, the pharaoh (as the sun god) always emerged on the eastern horizon every morning after his perilous passage. Found in the Treasury, this gilded wooden cobra with eyes of painted quartz bears an inscription proclaiming Tutankhamun "beloved of Netjerankh" .

14- Ushabti Figure:

From time of the late Middle Kingdom (2040-1640 B.C.) funerary mummiform figurines with a visible head were commonly buried in tombs to serve as substitutes for the deceased in the next world. This custom appears to be remnant from the dawn of Egyptian civilization when royal servants were buried with the potentates who owned them. Whereas the average burial included 1 or 2 ushabti (or shawabti) figures, 413 were found in Tutankhamun's tomb, most of them adorned with the archaic tripartite wig. Vertically inscribed on the body, a formula from The Book Of The Dead implores: O ushabti provided to me! If I be summoned to do any labor in the realm of the dead…you shall present yourself on every occasion: “Here am I,” you shall say.

15- Tutankhamun tomb entrance: 

Sign in the entrance of king Tutankhamun's tomb

Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 2)
Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 3)
Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 4)
Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 5)
Tutankhamen Treasures (Part 6)
Pectoral of Tutankhamun

Ancient Egyptian Burial Masks

The death mask was part of the elaborate rituals that were held upon the death of an individual. For the Egyptians the preservation of the death mask was believed to be a necessity to ensure that that the individual would have a blissful afterlife.

In essence, the death masks were constructed to give the dead individual a face in his eternal life. Thus as the soul would leave the dead body and enter into the dimension of eternity it would assume the face of the death mask. It was also believed that the death mask would help the spirits to identify the dead and it will also act as a means of identification for the other people that had already entered into the next dimension.

The design of Egyptian death masks was relative to the status of the individual that had passed away. In general the higher the status of the dead the more elaborate the death mask design would be.

The basic method of construction employed for creating the death mask was to develop a plaster cast of the actual face of the dead body. Then depending on the status they would make a copy of this cast in gold or some other material that was in line with the status of the deceased individual.

After the cast had been developed in the material of choice it was then painted to make it appear as close to the actual face of the deceased individual. The royalty always had their death mask made out of pure gold and to top it off they would be studded with a wide variety of precious gemstones such as lapis lazuli and the like.

If the deceased individual was a man the Egyptians would make use of red paint to indicate this fact. On the other hand yellow paint tones were used for female deceased.

Since mummification had its own specific rules in order to ensure that the dead body lasts as long as possible the details were carved onto the death mask keeping these rules in mind. The death masks would have all kinds of details including the shape of the nose, eyebrows, lips and hairstyles according to the social status of the individual.

Tutankhamen Mask, New Facts

One of the best-known objects to be brought out of Tutankhamun's tomb was his life-size golden death mask. Made from sheets of beaten gold and decorated with semi-precious stones, it is so valuable that it is considered to be one of the greatest treasures in the whole world. The mask was fitted over the young pharaoh's mummified head to protect him once the priests had finished their work. Further protection was added in the form of a magic formula, which was engraved on the shoulders and on the back of the mask.

Tutankhamun's body, complete with the death mask, was then placed inside a nest of three exquisitely decorated coffins, carved to this body and each one complete with a different face mask.

The first coffin was made out of gold, and the second and third were carved from wood, inlaid with gold. The world-famous golden death mask is said to represent an idealised face of the young pharaoh – and pays tribute to Tutankhamun's great position and power. On the mask, Tutankhamun wears the divine plaited beard, made from colored glass, expertly worked into a golden framework.

His wide necklace collar, made from lapis lazuli, quartz, amazonite and colored beads, is attached at each shoulder to a gold falcon’s head. Around his forehead he wears a vulture and cobra worked from gold, inlaid with semi-precious stones and colored glass. His eyes are made from obsidian and quartz and lined with inlaid blue glass.

The mask takes pride of place in the Tutankhamun collection at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and is seen by thousands of visitors every year.  

The Solar Boat Museum

It is situated to the south of the Great pyramid. It was established by Kamal El - Mallakh who was born in Assuit, Egypt , on October 26, 1918. He was a dedicated scholar of Egyptology and culture died in October 1987. It was built to contain the Solar Boat of the great king Cheops which was discovered by Kamal El Mallakh in 1954.

The museum is a humidity-controlled pavilion, containing a 141 feet long boat, one of the five boat pits sunk around Cheops's pyramid . The boat, made entirely of cedar wood, is over 120 feet long and is about 40 tons displacement.

It should be mentioned that there are boat pits near the pyramid of Cheops, 5 pits to the east of the Great Pyramids and 2 pits to the south. The reconstruction of the solar boats took 14 years, but was helped by U-shaped holes, allowing the boat to be stitched together by ropes or vegetable fibers. The boat is an impressive 141 feet long and 20 feet wide.There are many suggestions about the function of the solar boats, first it was used for the soul of the dead accompanied the sun on its eternal journey in the heavens around the world , so a boat or at least a model of a boat was included in every tomb. Moreover; it was used in religious events like pilgrimages and transporting the statue of a god.

Khufu Sun Boat

More than fifty years ago, boat pits were found next to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Entombed in the pits were ancient wooden boats that experts believe were intended to ferry Khufu, the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid, into the afterlife. Soon, archaeologists will excavate the fragments of the second of these boats and try to reassemble it. In doing so, experts hope to learn more about the boat, which is one of the oldest vessels to have survived from antiquity.

The 4500 year old vessel is the sister ship of a similar boat that was removed in pieces from a pit in 1954. That boat was painstakingly reconstructed and is now on display in a museum built above the pit. The unexcavated boat is thought to be of a similar design to its sister ship, a narrow craft measuring 142 feet, with a rectangular deckhouse and long, interlocking oars that soar overhead. The cedar timbers of the boat's curved hull are lashed together with rope. While the unexcavated boat is believed to be smaller and less well preserved than the reconstructed ship, the two boats are considered to be among the most significant finds on the Giza Plateau.

Excavation of the second boat will begin in November, said professor Sakuji Yoshimura of Japan's Waseda University, who is helping to lead restoration efforts. He said that 600 pieces of timber from Lebanese cedar and Egyptian acacia trees are expected to be removed from the pit, and once the pieces of wood have been extricated, Yoshimura and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities will begin reconstructing the boat.

John Darnell, an Egyptologist at Yale University, said that new research into the second boat could fill in some blanks about the significance of the two ancient vessels and could help to resolve a debate over their true purpose, which has remained somewhat enigmatic. Experts have been unable to determine whether the boats ever actually plied Nile River waterways or were of purely spiritual, figurative import.

"In Egypt, almost everything real had its counterpart meaning or significance in the spiritual world. But there's a lot of debate as to whether these vessels ever were used or not," Darnell explained.

Some experts believe that the boats were used in the water. It is possible, they say, that these were the funerary boats used to bring the pharaoh Khufu's embalmed remains up the Nile from the ancient capital of Memphis for burial in the Great Pyramid, his mausoleum. As evidence, they point to rope marks on the wood, which could have been caused by a rope becoming wet and then shrinking as it dried.