Lion Funerary Bedhead:
Reminiscent of a royal throne, the first of 3 ritual couches discovered in the Antechamber was flanked by a pair of gilded wooden lions (or cheetahs). Its 2 magnificent bedheads, identically sculpted in leonine form, were elaborately inlaid in blue glass with eyes of painted crystal. The bed was assembled in 4 sections inside the tomb, this ornamental head still bearing the remains of black construction marks on its neck. Standing too high for practical use as a bed and inscribed with the epithet “The Osiris”, the Lion Couch was apparently employed as a ritual bier during the pharaoh’s 70 day process of mummification.
Alabaster Ibex Vase:
This graceful alabaster ibex, inscribed with the pharaoh’s cartouche, bears no magical formulas or spells, no sacred association with a deity, nor any apparent ritual function whatsoever. One of Tutankhamun’s personal possessions, this charming unguent vase reflects the innocent tastes of an adolescent whose fondness for hunting game was typical for his age. Decorated with an inlaid tongue of pained ivory and a single curving horn of genuine ibex, it held a small vase which was wrested from its back by the ancient robbers for its valuable aromatic contents. The first robbery penetrated the Antechamber and its sealed adjoining Annex, which were stripped of their most easily transportable treasure by thieves whose familiarity with the tomb suggested they had probably placed the objects there themselves. Although the necropolis guards re-secured the pharaoh’s tomb, it was soon violated again. Reaching the sealed Burial Chamber and the adjoining Treasury before they were finally caught, the sacrilegious intruders were most likely taken into the desert and impaled on stakes, the traditional penalty for such an offense. Throughout the centuries that followed, the desecration of the other pharaoh’s tombs resulted in the reburial of over 30 royal mummies together in a hidden underground sepulcher by the last rulers of Thebes (around 1000 B.C.) during the 21st Dynasty. Obliterated from memory and buried in the bedrock 13 feet beneath the grand entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI, Tutankhamun’s humble sanctuary alone was spared for over 3 millennial.
Bes Unguent Vessel:
Inscribed with the royal cartouches of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun, this whimsical alabaster unguent vase, with its inset ivory tongue, is fashioned in the form of the lusty household deity Bes. A divinity of the hearth with no temple of his own, this deformed dwarf spirit was revered in the humblest of homes. The god of marriage and domestic bliss, Bes was often portrayed as a lion. This vase was found in the Annex; its crown, torn off by the tomb robbers, still retained some of its original contents. Standing with one paw resting on the hieroglyph that represents protection, the figure was believed to possess the power to ward off evil influences. Besides the scheming vizier Ay, another treacherous element in the pharaoh’s court was the powerful general Horemheb, whose chief wife was Ay’s daughter Mutnodjme (Nefertiti’s younger sister), claimed the throne. With the help of the Amun priesthood he immediately embarked on a ruthless campaign to deface and usurp all monuments to the gods erected by the Amarnan royal family. Employing the faithful Maya as his overseer of finance, Horemheb (who was to succeeded by Ramesses I) proceeded to sack the tombs of his heretic predecessors with a vengeance, leaving only Tutankhamun’s treasures untouched.
Canopic Caskets:
Made of beaten gold inlaid with cloisonné rishi (or feather patterns), these 4 miniature anthropoid coffins held the mummified internal organs of the pharaoh. Appropriated from leftovers of another burial and refashioned for Tutankhamun’s funeral, the caskets were housed in the alabaster Canopic chest. Magic inscriptions chased on the gold interiors of the coffins revealed cartouches originally representing the names of Ankhkheprure Nefernefruaton (Nefertiti) which had been re-inscribed for Tutankhamun. Another small wooden casket found in the Treasury revealed the sentimental offering of a pleated lock of hair from the pharaoh’s grandmother, Queen Tiye. Nearby, a pair of small coffins of a less ornate design contained the mummies of the 2 stillborn daughters of Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun, one pitifully deformed by congenital spina bifida and scoliosis. “Had one of those babes lived,” Howard Carter was to speculate, “there might never have been a Ramesses.”.
Canopic Stopper:
In the Treasury, within the golden shrine guarded by the tutelary goddesses, was an alabaster Canopic chest in which the pharaoh’s mummified viscera were stored. Each of its 4 hollows held a miniature gold coffin, containing the embalmed liver, lungs, stomach, and intestines of Tutankhamun. These compartments were topped by detachable alabaster (calcite) stoppers, each in the form of a small bust wearing the pharaoh’s finely modeled portrait, his youthful features delicately highlighted with paint. Although these effigies bear him in a striking resemblance, it has been suggested that they were originally prepared for the burial of an enigmatic Ankhkheprure (or Smenkhkare) which now appears to have been ritual throne names referring to Nefertiti and not another individual.
Golden Leopard Head:
The pharaoh’s ritual vestments included a sacred leopard skin mantle decorated with this ornamental head. Found in the antechamber, the object is fashioned of wood overlaid with gold, with features of inlaid colored glass and eyes of painted quartz. The ornament was worn hanging at the waist with the attached leopard skin over one shoulder whenever the pharaoh was called upon to officiate as high priest of all the gods. A painting on the north wall of the Burial Chamber depicts the aged Ay wearing an identically decorated leopard skin while performing his first act as Tutankhamun’s successor, the ritual restoration of the dead pharaoh’s senses with the symbolic touch of a sharpened adze to the eyes and mouth of the Osirine mummy. Known as “the opening of the mouth,” this ceremony was customarily executed by the dead pharaoh’s son to commemorate the participation of the god Horus in the resurrection of his father Osiris. As the great-grandfather of Tutankhamun’s 2 stillborn children, the “Divine Father” Ay was the young pharaoh’s heir; thus he was obliged to fulfill this priestly function at his predecessor’s funeral. Once banned by Akhenaton as barbarous, the possession and ritual use of such leopard skins suggests the extent to which his heretic influence had been abandoned during his son’s brief reign.
Golden Mummiform Coffin:
Lying within the stone sarcophagus, facing the sunrise, were 3 nesting anthropoid coffins, each more magnificent than the one preceding it. The 2 outmost coffins were made of wood (the first of them identified as cypress) overlaid with gold foil and inlaid with elaborate cloisonné work. Their sculpted covers (here represented by a traditional Pharaonic mummiform coffin lid) bear the reliefs portraying the recumbent pharaoh as Osiris, embraced by the protective wings of Isis and Nephthys. Nothing in their features suggests that they were originally intended for Tutankhamun. To Howard Carter’s astonishment, the third and innermost coffin was made of solid gold weighing 296 pounds, its ethereal gaze a result of the darkening of its inlaid alabaster eyes through the ages. Wearing the pleated false beard of divinity and the striped memes headdress crowned with the “Two Ladies” (the vulture and the cobra divinities), this dazzling mummy case is decorated in the classic Osirine style of the late New Kingdom.
Lion Unguent Jar:
The serene pose of this recumbent lion, unusual in its time, first appeared in a pair of granite lions intended for the monumental temple built in Nubia (Sudan) by the pharaoh Amenhotep III. For 20 years after his death one of the lions remained unfinished until his grandson, the pharaoh Tutankhamun respectfully had it completed along with a proud inscription. Found in the Burial Chamber near the doorway of the outermost shrine, this delightful alabaster unguent jar (suggesting the age-old association of royalty with lions) may have been a ritual or sentimental commemoration of the young pharaoh’s reverent act of devotion. Standing on 4 carved heads representing vanquished African and Asiatic enemies of Egypt (a recurrent motif among the sovereign’s possessions), the vase is incised and stained with scenes of lions and hounds hunting bulls and ibex, surmounted on its swivel lid by a recumbent lion inscribed with the pharaoh’s prenomen. The lion’s decorative tongue of painted ivory matches the traditionally depicted tongue of the dwarf god Bes, whose head is emerging from a pair of carved lotus columns supporting the lid.
Menkheret Carrying Tutankhamun:
The occult funeral rites, faithfully perpetuated by those who had long forgotten their remote origins, were primarily concerned with the various stages of the pharaoh’s rebirth as the living god. In the Treasury, sealed in small, black wooden shrines and undisturbed since the ancient burial day was a collection of gilded hardwood figures ritually associated with what the ancients referred to as “the divine ennead which is in the Netherworld,” of the 9 divinities of Heliopolis. Inscribed with the prenomen Nebkheprure on its black varnished base, this statue of the spirit Menkheret reverently bearing aloft the little pharaoh in his mummy shroud (wearing the red deshret crown) tenderly depicts the initial lethargy of the newborn divinity as he embarks, with the assistance of the gods, upon his journey beyond death.
Ritual Couch:
This spectacular piece of furniture was probably the first thing that Howard Carter saw when he broke the seal of the tomb. Associated with Mehetweret, goddess of “the great flood,” its matching heads were fashioned in the form of the revered cow goddess Hathor, their tall horns framing a pair of solar discs. The matching bodies, however, with their inlay of blue glass trefoils, evoke the celestial canopy associated with the sky goddess Nut. An inscription from The Book of the Divine Cow found in the Burial Chamber alludes to its sacred function as a solar barque for bearing the pharaoh to the heavens. Although commonly depicted in Egyptian tomb paintings, Tutankhamun’s was the only furniture of this sort ever to be found intact. The individual ceremonial purpose of each of the 3 ritual couches was associated with a different animal deity. The careless mismatching of parts between them suggests that they were erected in haste. Hieroglyphs carved on the footboard promise the protection of Isis and the endurance of Osiris.
Royal Mummy of Pharaoh Tutankhamun and Funerary Bier:
The much anticipated opening of the third coffin, delayed by the sudden death of Lord Carnarvon, revealed the pharaoh’s mummy which measured 5 ft. 4 in. in length. Wrapped in linen bandages enfolding over 150 carefully placed sacred jewels and amulets and liberally anointed with consecrated lustrations, his body had been badly damaged, its brittle tissue withered and blackened by excessive application of the very resins intended to preserve it. His face, protected by the gold mask suffered the least. Encircling his head was a splendid royal diadem (bearing a simple, knotted ribbon design) of gold inlaid with cloisonné and semiprecious stones. His fingers and toes were individually capped with plain gold sheaths and his feet were fitted with a pair of ornamental sandals made of gold. As the priceless treasures on Tutankhamun’s person were removed by Carter, the youthful pharaoh’s fragile remains were senselessly torn to pieces. A second examination of the mummy in 1968 revealed possible evidence of a fatal blow to the skull behind the left ear.
Sacred Udjat Amulet:
Charms fashioned from stone, gold, glass, or faience, amulets were cherished possessions believed to provide magical protection. Often worn as jewelry, they were buried with the dead, usually wrapped within the bandages of the mummy. These talismanic objects took the form of hieroglyphs, emblems, figurines, and even vessels, however the 2 most favored forms were the scarab and the udjat (“that which is in a good state”). In the shape of a human eye (adorned with kohl) resting on a sign which represents the markings on a falcon’s head, this amulet was identified with the magical protection of Horus, the falcon-headed son of Osiris. Symbolizing the eye lost by Horus while avenging his father’s murder, the sacred image was widely associated with filial devotion.
Scarab Amulet:
To the ancient Egyptians the ubiquitous sight of the scarab beetle rolling a ball of dung along the ground suggested the routine journey of the sun globe across the sky, thus it was adopted as the sacred symbol of their god Khepri, the rising sun. The word kheper, which meant both scarab and existence, provided 1 of the 3 hieroglyphic symbols for the pharaoh’s prenomen, Nebkheprure. Decorated with inlay of lapis lazuli, this traditional scarab amulet bears the same ornate design as a magnificent personal bracelet of the pharaoh’s found in the cartouche-shaped box.
Statue of Tutankhamun on a Leopard:
This mysterious image of the pharaoh, wearing the hedjet white crown of Upper Egypt and riding on the back of a leopard represents his passage through the dark Netherworld. That these figures, as Howard Carter observed, “were supposed to have some form of magic inherent in them is evident, although their exact meaning in this burial is unclear to us.” On his funerary pilgrimage the dead pharaoh would be transported on the head of a goddess, carried through the swamps on a papyrus barque to battle a demon god, and borne above his adversaries on the back of a guardian leopard. Having crossed the various thresholds of his journey he would emerge along with the rising sun, reborn as the new pharaoh. Discovered in the Treasury, draped in a linen shawl and sealed beside its twin in a black varnished wooden shrine, the ritual statue portrays the pharaoh walking with a long staff in one hand and a flail in the other.
The God Ptah:
During the Old Kingdom when the pyramids were built, Memphis was the royal capitol of the pharaohs. Long before Amun-Re became the local tribal god of Thebes, the patron deity of Memphis was Ptah. Among the oldest of Egyptian gods, Ptah was traditionally the protector of artisans and craftsmen. By proclaiming the names of everything that exists, this most ancient and supreme divinity conjured the universe and the gods into being. Predating the ingenious creation concept of a solar deity issuing forth from the primordial lotus, the enduring Ptah encompassed the other gods within his divine essence. Found in the Treasury, this gilded wooden figure is shrouded in feathers and holding a staff bearing the hieroglyphic symbols for life and stability.
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