Tutankhamun mask is made of gold decorated with colored glass and rich stone. The mask comes from the private mummy case in the pharaoh's tomb, and stands 54 cm high and weighs about 11kg.
The pharaoh is described in a classical manner, with a ceremonial beard, a broad collar processed of twelve concentric rows comprising of inlays of
turquoise,
lapis lazuli, carnelian and amazonite. The traditional nemes head-dress has yellow streaks of solid gold totaled by bands of glass paste, coloured dark blue. On the forehead of the mask are a crowned uraeus and a vulture's head, symbols of the two tutelary gods of
Lower and
Upper Egypt:
Wadjet and
Nekhbet. Higher Up his perfect golden cheeks, Tutankhamen has blue flower petals of lapis lazuli in imitation of the kohl makeup he would have endured in life.
Tutankhamun is likely the most famous of each other Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, however he was a short lived and fairly insignificant ruler during a transitional time in history.
Little was identified of
Tutankhamun prior to Howard Carters organized detective work, but the discovery of his tomb and the proud contents it held ultimately ensured this boy king of the Immortality he desired.
It is thought that
Akhenaten and a lesser wife called Kiya were the parents of Tutankhaten, as Tutankhamun was recognized at first.
Shortly after the deaths of Akhenaten and
Smenkhkare, Tutankhaten turned a Boy King at the age of about nine. He married a slimly older Ankhesenpaaten, daughter of
Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
After the ousting of the
Aten power base they transferred their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun to ponder the return to favor of the Amun hierarchy.
Credited to his young age, Tutankhamun would not have been trusted for the real decision making. This would have been treated by two high officials, Ay (perhaps the father of
Nefertiti) and
Horemheb, commander-in-chief of the regular army.
Sometime around the ninth year of Tutankhamun's rule, maybe 1325 B.C., he died. There is prove of an wound to the skull that had time to partially heal. He may have endured an accident, such as dropping from his horse-drawn chariot, or maybe he was murdered. No one knows. Ay oversaw Tutankhamun's burial arranging which lasted seventy days.
Credited to Tutankhamun having no heirs,
Ay became Pharaoh and got Ankhesenamun as his queen to legalized his rule. What occurred to her after that is not known. Ay reigned for only four years and afterward his death Horemheb caught power. He soon obliterated evidence of the rules of
Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay and exchanged his own name on many monuments.
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