Tutankhamun's mummy was discovered by English Egyptologist Howard Carter and his team on 28 October 1925 in tomb KV62 in the Valley of the Kings. Tutankhamun was the 13th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt, making his mummy over 3,300 years old. Tutankhamun's mummy is the only royal mummy to have been found entirely undisturbed.
The burial chamber was found in 1922, but was not opened until a year later. Two years passed between the discovery of the tomb and that of the mummy and its famous death mask. The discovery of the tomb was one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in modern times. There has been much speculation about the king's life and cause of death since very little about him is known.
King Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun was the 13th pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom and ruled for about a decade BCE. A majority of his reign was devoted to restoring Egyptian culture, including religious and political policies; his predecessor and father Akhenaten had altered many Egyptian cultural aspects during his reign, and one of Tutankhamun's many restoration policies included changing the political capital from Akhenaten's Amarna back to Memphis. After an initial examination of the 3,300-year-old mummy, it was estimated that Tutankhamun was a teenager of approximately 19 years of age when he died. Since it was believed that Tutankhamun became king as a child no more than ten years old, many refer to him as the "Boy-King" or "Child-King". Following the discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy, much debate has arisen as to his exact cause of death. This has led to numerous medical studies and procedures performed on his remains. As medical technology has advanced throughout the years, new techniques have been utilized on the mummy to discover the true age, genealogy, and cause of death of the young pharaoh, speculated by some to be from a blow to the head, battle wound, or a chariot accident, so that some of the mysteries surrounding the "Boy-King" might finally be resolved.
Discovery of tomb and mummy
In 1914 Howard Carter and his sponsor George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon obtained the concession to excavate in the Valley of the Kings. Carter believed the Valley contained at least one more royal tomb, that of Tutankhamun. Excavators working for Theodore M. Davis, the previous holder of the concession, had discovered artefacts bearing his name clustered in the centre of the Valley, including the small pit tomb KV58, which Davis declared to be Tutankhamun's tomb. However, Carter believed that the king's tomb was still undiscovered, hidden under piles of debris from earlier excavations. Following a systematic clearance that began in 1917, Carter's team would discover the real tomb of Tutankhamun on 4 November 1922.
The tomb was robbed twice in antiquity but much was left intact and some areas appeared to be unscathed. Ancient robbers had entered the burial chamber and unsealed the doors of the outermost of the series of shrines that surrounded Tutankhamun's sarcophagus. However, the doors of the second and third shrines were intact, sealed with stamped cords; the doors of the innermost shrine were left unsealed in antiquity. These unbroken seals, with no evidence of re-sealing, indicated that the 3,300 year old burial of the king was intact. Over the course of 80 days, the shrines were dismantled and removed from the chamber. On 3 January 1924, the doors of the third and fourth (innermost) shrines were opened, revealing the king's sarcophagus, of yellow quartzite with a granite lid tinted to match.
On 12 February 1924, the lid of the sarcophagus was raised in the presence of Egyptian government officials and Egyptologists. Within lay the long outermost mummiform coffin of gilded wood, covered by linen shrouds. The shrouds were rolled back, revealing the coffin bore the portrait of the king, his face and hands of a lighter-coloured gold alloy than the rest of the coffin, said by Carter to convey "an impression of the greyness of death". Around the vulture and uraeus on his brow was a small floral wreath. The sarcophagus lid was left suspended, as a tour was scheduled for reporters the following day, along with the wives of Carter's collaborators. The visit of the wives was refused by government officials, a note from Mohammed Pasha Zaghlul informed Carter that the wives would need permission to visit. Carter and his team, citing "impossible restrictions and discourtesies" resigned in protest, closing the tomb and suspending work. Under the direction of the Egyptian government, Pierre Lacau was ordered to cut the locks on the tomb and secure the sarcophagus lid. After a series of events, including the cancellation of the excavation permit, his unsuccessfully suing of the Antiquities Service, and a lecture-tour of America, Carter would return to the excavation in late January 1925 after reaching a new agreement regarding the continued clearance of the tomb.
The nested coffins were opened the following excavation season, in late 1925. The lid of the outermost coffin, secured by silver pins with gilded heads, was raised on its silver handles to reveal a second mummiform coffin, extensively inlaid with coloured glass, wreathed with floral garlands and shrouded in fine linen. This coffin showed signs of exposure to moisture, something that Carter found "disconcerting" as it indicated humidity within the coffins, suggesting the king's mummy would not be as well-preserved as hoped. This middle coffin fitted tightly within the outermost, lacked handles and was very heavy. The silver pins securing the lid were withdrawn as far as possible, wrapped with copper wire, and the basin of the outermost coffin was lowered back into the sarcophagus, leaving the middle coffin free, quickly being supported by a wooden tray. The pins were removed, and the lid raised by means of four metal eyelets screwed on to serve as handles. The innermost coffin, made of solid gold, was covered with a red shroud, save for the face, and wore a large floral collar. It was covered from chest to ankles with unguents, which filled the space between the two coffins and stuck them firmly together. The narrow space between the coffins meant the gold nails that secured the lid could not be withdrawn, and were instead removed in pieces with screwdrivers. On 28 October 1925, the lid was lifted, revealing the royal mummy.
The wrapped mummy
Tutankhamun's wrapped mummy, measuring tall, fit exactly inside the innermost coffin. The life-like curves of the body were reproduced with layers of padding beneath the tight outer shroud. Covering the head and shoulders of the mummy was a gold mask which had fallen back slightly. Characterised by Carter as a "beautiful and unique specimen of ancient portraiture" it depicts the king as the god Osiris with a curled divine beard and wearing the striped nemes-headdress with vulture and uraeus emblems at the brow. Over the shoulders, the mask takes the form of a broad collar with falcon-headed terminals. At the throat was a separate triple stranded necklace of faience, red and yellow gold disc beads. The mask is extensively inlaid with coloured glass, faience, and stones including lapis lazuli, carnelian, feldspar, and obsidian. The back of the mask is inscribed with Chapter 151b of the Book of the Dead.
Sewn onto the shroud immediately below the mask were a pair of separate gold hands, holding a decayed crook and flail. Between the hands sat a large resin scarab, bearing the image of the Bennu-bird and inscribed with Chapter 29b of the Book of the Dead, suspended on flexible straps. Below these were gold mummy bands with inlaid text, originating from a large gold ba-bird with outstretched wings. The mummy bands were constructed of separate gold plaques linked together along the sides by strings of tiny beads. They overlaid the vertical and horizontal fabric bands that secured the shroud at the centre front, biceps, hips, knees, and ankles. The text of the single central vertical band has speeches by Nut and Geb while the four horizontal bands declare the deceased king is "honoured before" the funerary deities Anubis, Osiris, Hapi, Qebehsenuef, and Duamutef. Along the sides were ornate straps attached to the horizontal bands and made of inlaid plaques in the forms of djeds, tyets, uraei, and cartouches. The bands were originally prepared for Tutankhamun's predecessor Neferneferuaten and later altered to fit Tutankhamun.
Carter estimated that "something like two bucketsful" of unguents had been poured over the mummy; the mask and feet had been carefully avoided. The body lay at a slight angle within the coffin. The level of dark unguents differed between the right and left sides, suggesting that the coffin had tilted, presumably while being lowered into the sarcophagus. The liquids were a source of humidity within the closed coffins. Additionally, they had undergone a chemical reaction, characterised by Carter as "a kind of slow spontaneous combustion", which carbonised the linen wrappings. The combination of heat and humidity had negatively affected the trappings of the mummy too. The crook and flail had disintegrated, the resin scarab was cracked, and the threads securing the separate hands and mummy bands were decayed, rendering the whole assemblage very fragile. Furthermore, the unguents had hardened over the millennia, sticking the mummy and mask to the bottom of the coffin. Attempts were made to separate the mummy from the inner and middle coffin troughs by placing them in the midday sun for several hours, with the temperature reaching . However, the mummy remained stuck to the coffin so the initial examination was carried out in situ.
Initial examination
The unwrapping and examination of Tutankhamun's mummy began at 9:45am on 11 November 1925 in the outer corridor of tomb KV15. Carter had intended the examination to take place at the start of the excavation season in October but it had been delayed by a month to allow Pierre Lacau to attend. It was conducted by the anatomists Douglas Derry, the professor of anatomy at Cairo's School of Medicine, and Saleh Hamdi Bey, the former head of the same school. Those present on the first day included government officials, Egyptologists, and members of Carter's team. The external ornaments of the mummy had been removed, except for the firmly-stuck mask. This examination was an unprecedented opportunity to study the methods and techniques used in the wrapping of a royal mummy. However, the outermost layers of linen were very fragile making it immediately apparent that "no orderly unwrapping was possible". Instead, the fabric was stabilised with a very thin layer of liquid paraffin wax before a central incision was made from the edge of the mask to the ankles, and the fabric was peeled back and removed in pieces.
The first part of Tutankhamun's mummy to be exposed was his lower legs and feet, with the examination being carried out from the feet upwards. The removal of the top layers of bandages exposed the first of the many objects included within the wrappings of the king's mummy. The examination slowed to allow the careful exposure, recording, and photographing of the items.