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00:00Over 3,000 years ago, Ancient Egypt, one of the most powerful empires of all time, during
00:14its 18th dynasty, a young boy, just 9 years old, ascended the throne.
00:21His name was Tutankhamun.
00:25Being taught might have remained a minor footnote in history, but for an amazing discovery in
00:31the 1920s, British archaeologist Howard Carter made a remarkable find, a stunning tomb of
00:39golden artefacts, the trappings of a pharaoh whose people saw him as a living god.
00:49Tutankhamun inherited a country in disarray.
00:54Enemy empires threatened Egypt's borders.
00:58Dutch predecessor, the pharaoh Akhenaten, who may have been his father, created turmoil
01:04by replacing Egypt's many gods with only one, the Aten, or sun disk.
01:13Tutankhamun's plans to restore the traditional beliefs were cut short when he died unexpectedly
01:18at 19 years old.
01:22How he died is still a mystery.
01:26Now enter the world of Tutankhamun.
01:30See the objects that reveal the story of his royal ancestors, the glory of his golden age,
01:37his quest for eternal life.
01:41Come face to face with the boy king, the ruler, the commander, the god, the story of Tutankhamun.
01:58I am Omar Sharif.
02:00Welcome to Tutankhamun and the golden age of the pharaohs.
02:05We're about to begin an enthralling journey deep into the heart of ancient Egypt, a journey
02:14that culminates with a glittering array of riches from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
02:22King Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for just 10 years until his mysterious death at age 19.
02:32His life was but a very short chapter in the story of ancient Egypt, yet today his
02:37name is legendary.
02:38Why?
02:39Because his tomb, alone among the royal burial places, lay undiscovered for over 3,000 years.
02:48In 1922, when it was reopened, many of its amazing treasures were found intact.
02:59It is very rare for any of the treasures of Tutankhamun's tomb to leave Cairo where they
03:04are kept.
03:07This exhibition includes more than 50 treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb, alongside objects
03:14from some of the other tombs in Egypt's famed Valley of the Kings.
03:22Dr. Zahi Hawass is General Secretary of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and
03:28a world-renowned archaeologist.
03:31I will tell you, an exhibit like this, the 130 artifacts, 31 artifacts, are really telling
03:41us the story, the story of Tutankhamun and his family for the first time.
03:48You know the family connection here, you will find for the first time people to understand
03:54not only about King Tut, but about the people around him, his grandfather, Amenhotep III,
04:01his grandmother, the most beautiful, important, powerful lady, Quintin.
04:06You have Amenhotep II, you understand about his tomb, how they found a cachet of mummies,
04:1413 mummies inside this tomb, and you'll find this beautiful artifact that was discovered
04:20also from the tomb.
04:21You have Akhenaten, his father, you have the objects of daily life.
04:27Really I believe this will be a very important educational exhibit to the public for the
04:33first time to understand about the Golden King and the people around him.
04:39In the 70s, the King Tut exhibition featured objects only from King Tut's tomb.
04:45In this exhibition, we have objects from his predecessors and ancestors.
04:52Treasures from Tutankhamun's tomb were last displayed in the United States in the 1970s.
04:58Today we have a rare opportunity to meet the boy king of ancient Egypt again face to face.
05:06You know, like all Egyptians, I grew up with a great sense of pride knowing that my ancestors
05:15built the first true civilization and created one of the first nation states on earth.
05:20And of course, I knew all about the kings of Egypt, who were called pharaohs, from an
05:26ancient Egyptian word that meant great house, referring to the palace, sort of how the White
05:33House can refer to the residence of the president.
05:38But what most astonished me about ancient Egypt is how long it lasted as a dominant
05:44power.
05:45It started about 5,000 years ago and lasted over 30 centuries, compared with a few hundred
05:53years for Greece or Rome.
05:56And like all superpowers, Egypt was wealthy.
06:00There were plenty of natural resources such as gold, semi-precious stones, and all sorts
06:05of stone for sculpture and architecture, not to mention the craftsmen who fashioned them
06:10into some of the most distinctive works of art the world has ever known.
06:16So please, join me now and learn all about Tutankhamun and the golden age of the pharaohs.
06:26Our story begins with a discovery that is unique in modern history.
06:32When British archaeologists stumbled upon the final resting place of King Tutankhamun
06:36in 1922, it was the first and only time in modern history that a sealed pharaoh's tomb
06:44had ever been found.
06:48The treasures uncovered in the tomb's four chambers captivated the world.
06:56One room almost appeared like a wall of solid gold.
07:02There were games for the king to play, and things to help him in the afterlife, including
07:09ostrich feather fans to keep him cool.
07:13And one even shows the hunt the king led to secure the ostriches.
07:18Every item in the tomb displayed the skills of master craftsmen refining their art to
07:24sublime levels.
07:26The better to serve their king on his journey into the afterlife.
07:32The thinking of afterlife built ancient Egypt, built Egypt in my opinion.
07:39Without that, you will never see the pyramids.
07:43Without the afterlife, you will never see these great artifacts that you are seeing
07:46in this exhibit.
07:47It is the belief of the afterlife who made everyone in ancient Egypt to work for the
07:53national project.
07:54The national project was building a pyramid or building a tomb.
08:05This exhibition includes more than 100 priceless objects.
08:10Over 50 of them come from Tutankhamun's tomb, including a miniature coffin that held
08:15the pharaoh's liver and the crown that once adorned his head.
08:20Yet even at the time of this discovery, the life and death of the pharaoh, whose mummy
08:26lay encased in four outer shrines and three interlocking coffins, remained shrouded in
08:32mystery.
08:33And so the question arose, who exactly was King Tutankhamun?
08:40Why was his name virtually unknown for over 3,000 years?
08:46One of the things I think is so frustrating and yet intriguing at the same time is that
08:50we know so much about the materials in Tutankhamun's tomb, but we know so little about the person.
08:56We have very few historical documents.
08:58We don't know how he came to the throne.
08:59We don't know how decisions were made.
09:01We don't know any of the details of this time period.
09:04So that invites, I think, way too much speculation, and not just by scholars, but by lay scholars,
09:11amateurs, all kinds of people who want to get into the mix.
09:14When there's too little information, but there's a lot of stuff, materials to deal with, you
09:18can come up with all kinds of crazy and wild hypotheses.
09:20And it's encouraged, I think, more speculation than most time periods.
09:27King Tutankhamun ruled Egypt for just 10 years, until his mysterious death at age 19.
09:34Yet today his name is legendary.
09:37Why?
09:38Because his tomb, alone among the royal burial places, lay undiscovered for over 3,000 years.
09:46In 1922, when it was reopened, many of its amazing treasures were found intact.
09:52November 4, 1922, was a very important day in the field of archaeology.
10:01It is the first time, actually, that a major tomb to be discovered completely intact like this.
10:09Tutankhamun came to power in 1332 BC, when he was just nine years old.
10:16He mysteriously died before he reached the age of 20.
10:19It's hard to know exactly what caused Tutankhamun's death, but recent CAT scans that were done
10:25by the National Geographic Society have proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the damage
10:31to the back of his skull was not because of an attempted murder, and it seems to have
10:37been a post-mortem event.
10:39So did he die from another cause?
10:43It's hard to say.
10:45There is a possibility that there was a wound on his leg, which did not heal correctly,
10:49and he may have died of blood poisoning.
10:52I think the romantic version is that he fell off his chariot while hunting, or maybe on
10:56a campaign of some kind, but we have to keep in mind that his skeletal information is really
11:03all we have to go by.
11:05His soft tissue has been so fragmented and so decomposed by the amount of resins poured
11:11on him during the mummification that we really only have skeletal material to work with.
11:15So the cause of death is by no means clear, and for right now, maybe a break in the left
11:21thigh that caused massive infection and sepsimia, maybe not.
11:27Meet one of King Tutankhamun's ancestors, the pharaoh Thutmose IV, who may have been
11:33the boy king's great-grandfather.
11:36Seated on a double throne, Thutmose places his arm affectionately around his mother Tia,
11:42and she does likewise.
11:45He holds an Ankh, the Egyptian sign meaning life.
11:49The hieroglyphic inscription by his leg proclaims him as lord of Egypt and as a god.
11:56The royal Uraeus serpent coiling across his wig protects him from enemies.
12:02Tia's longer wig is shown covered by a feathered vulture headdress worn by queens and goddesses.
12:09Although Thutmose had several wives, his mother held a high rank amongst the royal women during
12:15his reign.
12:19Some scholars think this may be an image of Meritaten, King Akhenaten's eldest daughter.
12:26Her younger sister, Angsenamun, was married to Tutankhamun.
12:31The princess's expression is full of serenity, yet the subtle coloring of the eyes and the
12:36mouth with its shadowy dimples at each corner gives us a strong sense of life behind the stillness.
12:43Other images of the princess and her sisters show them with unnaturally elongated skulls,
12:49as you see here.
12:51This form was sometimes used in Egyptian art to indicate a child's age and status.
13:00This head likely portrays Queen Nefertiti, whose beauty is legendary.
13:05Nefertiti's face is a masterpiece of stone carving.
13:09Notice how the sculptor shaped the hard brown quartzite to give it the smooth surface and
13:15gentle curves and planes of a real human face.
13:18Look especially at the mouth.
13:21Between soft dimples at either side, its full lips are carved in bold relief, creating shadows
13:28that make them seem incredibly realistic.
13:32Nefertiti was chief among the wives of King Akhenaten, the man who was probably Tutankhamun's father.
13:39However, Tutankhamun's mother was probably one of Amenhotep's secondary wives.
13:46Nevertheless, the young Tutankhamun was raised and educated at Nefertiti's sophisticated court.
13:53It's difficult to be absolutely precise about Tutankhamun's parentage because we don't have
13:59all the information that we would like to have.
14:02It is very likely that Akhenaten was his probable father.
14:09Now, his mother was probably a minor wife of Akhenaten, whose name was Kia, and then
14:15his grandparents would have been Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye.
14:21Akhenaten was the father of King Tut, and this is why I believe that maybe he was born
14:29first in Thebes, and after that he moved to Amarna with his father.
14:35And his mother died, Kia, when she was delivering him.
14:40And he lived in Amarna.
14:42I think Nefertiti was the one really who raised him, and he stayed in the palace, running
14:49and playing with the six beautiful daughters of Queen Nefertiti, and he married one of them,
14:55Ank-S-N-Ba-Aten, and he changed her name to Ank-S-N-Amen.
15:09This richly decorated chest was found in the tomb of a noble couple, Yuya and Chuya, who
15:15were probably King Tutankhamun's great-grandparents.
15:19The chest's decorations bestowed good fortune on the couple in the afterworld.
15:24Around its base are golden ankhs, flanked by signs of prosperity.
15:30The hieroglyphs above name Yuya and Chuya's daughter Queen Tiye, and her husband King
15:37Amenhotep III.
15:39Until the British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, the
15:45tomb of Yuya and Chuya, discovered by American explorer Theodore Davis in 1904, was regarded
15:52as the greatest discovery of ancient Egypt.
15:57The ancient Egyptians relied on boats for transportation along the Nile.
16:02Within the tomb, boats like the one you see here served to magically transport the deceased
16:08in the afterlife.
16:10You know, boats were very important in many things.
16:13We have evidence that the ancient Egyptians used to send boats to Lebanon to bring the
16:18cedar wood.
16:19And boats were very important for transportation in the Nile.
16:24The Nile was really the main transportation for the ancient Egyptians.
16:28And there are solar boats, one for the day and one for the night.
16:32This model represents an elegant royal riverboat with a central cabin and seating for 20 horsemen.
16:39It comes from the tomb of the pharaoh Amenhotep II, who died about 60 years before Tutankhamun
16:45was born.
16:48On the raised structure at one end of the boat, Amenhotep, as a crowned sphinx, tramples
16:55his enemy.
16:56Below him are protective deities and signs, including the wedged eye of the falcon god
17:02Horus, which protected against evil.
17:06During Egyptian funeral rituals, boats often carried the body across the Nile towards its
17:12final resting place.
17:14The ancient Egyptians believed that after death the pharaoh joined the sun god in his
17:20dayboat as he sailed across the sky.
17:23At night, they travelled by boat through the underworld until they rose gloriously into
17:29the sky once more at dawn.
17:33This is a shabti, or funerary figurine.
17:38A shabti represented the deceased person in the beyond, and could be called upon to act
17:43in his or her place when the gods required workers to assist them.
17:48Even kings needed shabtis in their tombs.
17:51We'll see some from Tutankhamun's tomb later in the exhibition.
17:56Inscriptions on this shabti identify it as belonging to Ptahmos, a mayor and high priest
18:02who died about 40 years before Tutankhamun became king.
18:06The shabti's blue skin and face indicate that it is divine.
18:12Beneath the crossed hands, a vulture representing the sky goddess Nut spreads her wings to protect
18:19Ptahmos's body.
18:22The hieroglyphs on the lower body contain the shabti spell from the Egyptian Book of the Dead,
18:27a sort of guidebook to the afterlife.
18:30It commands the shabti to act for the dead person when called by the gods, answering,
18:35I shall do it.
18:37Here I am.
18:42This colossal stone head bears the face of King Akhenaten, whom some credit with introducing
18:48monotheistic ideas to the world.
18:51Here, Akhenaten is shown wearing the double feather of Shu, god of air and sunlight.
18:59This image with a reference to another god is still early in his reign and represents
19:04the time of transition to the new beliefs.
19:08A poet and visionary as well as a king, Akhenaten believed that the disk of the sun, Aten, was
19:16the source of all life and therefore the only god worthy of being worshipped.
19:22His abnormally elongated face was probably a deliberate attempt on the pharaoh's part
19:28to depict himself as different from all previous kings.
19:34In this family portrait, Akhenaten depicts himself wearing the tall crown of Upper Egypt.
19:41Its elliptical shape dominates the image, but it is balanced by the curving lines of
19:46the king's body, and those lines are echoed in the forms of his wife Nefertiti and their
19:52daughter Meritaten.
19:54In return for their worship, the sun sends down rays dipped with hands, which offer only
20:02the royal angst, meaning eternal life.
20:07But not everyone was as pleased with Akhenaten as the sun.
20:12Akhenaten's religion is very, very unsatisfactory for the ancient Egyptian populace because
20:17he does not address the question of death and the afterlife.
20:21He ignores it utterly.
20:23And so when you die, you sleep and you cease to exist.
20:26This is not what the ancient Egyptians want to hear.
20:28They've been dealing with a religion that is all about encapsulating their soul in materiality,
20:34it's about their existence in the future, and if you just ignore one of the chief problems
20:39of humanity, which is death, that we're all going to die, your religion will not last.
20:46As Akhenaten continued his reign, he became more involved with his religious ideas and
20:53he began making more drastic changes.
20:56He changed his original name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten to focus on his new god.
21:04And then he relocated the center of his administration to a place not sacred to any other god, and
21:10he called it Akhetaten, the horizon of the sun.
21:15Soon he had the names of other gods removed from monuments around the country.
21:20Many people, including officials of the court, made the move northward with him.
21:26But it is clear the new beliefs were too unconventional for his subjects, who after 17 years rejected
21:33him and his religion and returned to Thebes.
21:38The biggest mistake in my opinion that Akhenaten did, that he made the Egyptians to worship
21:45the new god through him, is only Aten, the power behind the sun, is giving the hand to
21:54him and he's giving it to the people.
21:57When he died, the Egyptians could not find the connection between them and the god.
22:04Most of the ancient tombs in Egypt's famous Valley of the Kings were emptied by grave robbers.
22:10In ancient times, those who came to rob the tomb of King Tutankhamun were deterred by
22:15gods assigned to protect the royal tombs.
22:18And later, during the building of the tomb of Ramses VI, rubble completely sealed off
22:25the tomb of Tutankhamun.
22:27As a result, when archaeologists tumbled on the tomb in 1922, it had been left undisturbed
22:34for nearly 3,000 years.
22:37And Tutankhamun, who was relatively short-lived and insignificant in the long history of Egyptian
22:43pharaohs, suddenly achieved an extraordinary degree of fame.
22:49In my opinion, King Tut was so lucky that thieves entered twice in the tomb.
22:56But when they were building the tomb of Ramses VI, all the stones came from up and down,
23:02completely sealed the tomb away from everyone.
23:08Look closely at the larger of the two masks in this case.
23:12At first, we might imagine this gold-leafed mask was simply a decorative item.
23:19But in fact, it is a miniature funerary mask made to cover the head of a five-month-old fetus.
23:27The golden mask lay in one of two fetus coffins found in Tutankhamun's tomb.
23:34Both fetuses were female and were probably the offspring of Tutankhamun and his wife,
23:39Angselamun.
23:41One of the most intimate and poignant pieces in the exhibition is the fetus mask that we
23:47think belonged to one of the children of Tutankhamun.
23:50Again, no genetic testing is really possible at this time period, so the parental link
23:55is insecure.
23:56But there were two fetuses buried in Tutankhamun's tomb, both of them buried in little miniature
24:01coffins, one still born at five months, one still born at eight months.
24:06One of the fetuses, the one still born at eight months, didn't have their mask on it
24:10when they found it in the tomb.
24:12And Howard Carter had already found that fetus mask some years before in a separate embalming
24:16cache.
24:17In fact, when he found that piece in the embalming cache, it was one of the clues that Tutankhamun's
24:21tomb may be intact and it may be close by.
24:24Tutankhamun married Angselamun around the time he became king, when he was just nine years
24:29old.
24:30Angselamun was a little older.
24:32Like all Egyptian royal marriages, it was no doubt carefully arranged for political
24:38and dynastic reasons.
24:41Nevertheless, images of the royal couple seem to show a close and loving bond.
24:49This mummy mask is one of the most elegant ever found.
24:53Being close to the royal family, Julia and her husband Yuya were buried in the Valley
24:59of Kings.
25:01This splendid type of golden mask, which would have been placed directly over the mummy's
25:06face in the coffin, was reserved for the royal family and the elite of ancient Egypt.
25:14The ancient Egyptians believed that the skin of the gods and their bones were fashioned
25:19of gold.
25:20And so when they made funerary masks and coffins, they made them in gold.
25:27They buried them in gilding and also in sheet gold.
25:30And therefore, they felt that in the afterlife, their bodies and their bones would also be
25:36made of gold, just like the gods they worshipped.
25:39Nearby, you can see Julia's dazzling golden coffin.
25:44The mummy of Julia was contained within two coffins, one inside the other.
25:49This dazzling golden coffin was the larger one.
25:53The embalmers packed the body inside and out with natrium, a mixture of salt and baking
25:58soda that occurs naturally in Egypt.
26:01The embalmers wrapped the body in linen bandages, placing amulets among them to protect the
26:07deceased in the afterlife.
26:09Meanwhile, a priest chanted spells for the dead.
26:13And finally, the newly mummified body was placed into its coffin.
26:20Mummification was a process that evolved over many generations.
26:25First, you had to dry out the body.
26:27But even before that, there was an incision made in the left flank.
26:32And then the internal organs were removed.
26:36Four of them, the lungs, the liver, the stomach, and the intestine, were considered extremely
26:40important.
26:41They were mummified separately and then put in their own containers.
26:46The heart was also considered important.
26:48And that was mummified.
26:49And usually put back into the body.
26:53The brain, however, was not considered particularly important.
26:56It was removed through a brain hook that was put into the nostril.
27:00And it was just thrown away.
27:03After this, the body was then dried out with different salts and resins.
27:08And eventually, it was wrapped with yards and yards of linen.
27:12And then the body was put into a coffin.
27:14And the coffin was put into a sarcophagus.
27:16And the sarcophagus was put into a tomb.
27:20Among the tomb treasures of Julia and Julia was this superb chair.
27:25It belonged to their grandchild, Princess Sitamon.
27:29Amazingly, the chair's woven string seat is original.
27:33And we can easily imagine the princess seated here over 3,000 years ago.
27:39What did she look like?
27:41We have only to look at the seat back to find out.
27:45There she is, in both left and right profile, with lotus flower ornaments on her headdress.
27:53She's sitting in a chair very like this one.
27:57Sitamon holds ceremonial items from the cult of Hathor, goddess of music and dance.
28:03And receives a jeweled collar on a platter from an attendant.
28:08At the top of the chair back, you see the winged sun disk that protected the royal family.
28:14The sides of the chair are decorated with deities designed to ward away evil spirits.
28:23This beautiful wooden sculpture of the head of a cow is more than 3,000 years old.
28:29It comes from the tomb of Amenhotep II.
28:33Some pharaohs of ancient Egypt, including Tutankhamun, had cow heads very similar to this one in their tombs.
28:40It's remarkable that the wood sculpture, decorated with paint, has survived in nearly perfect condition,
28:47thanks in part to Egypt's dry climate.
28:50It represents the goddess Mehet-Weret.
28:53According to ancient Egyptian religion, Mehet-Weret saved the god Ra,
28:59who lived among humankind as a king until his people turned against him.
29:05Mehet-Weret carried him up to the heavens, and the gods were never seen on earth after that.
29:11The placement of the cow head in the tomb of the pharaoh represents the wish that the king may rise into the sky each day,
29:19rejuvenated like Ra on the back of the celestial cow.
29:26In these two cases, you see two very similar gilded figures depicting King Tutankhamun.
29:33Notice that one of the figures has a flat, angular crown.
29:37This represents Tutankhamun as the king of Lower Egypt, the delta region.
29:43The other wears a different, more conical crown.
29:46This is Tutankhamun as the king of Upper Egypt, the Nile Valley.
29:52In both figures, he holds a flail, emblem of royal power,
29:58and a curved staff, symbolizing the king's role as his people's shepherd.
30:04Both of these magnificent works of art are part of the treasury of objects found inside Tutankhamun's tomb.
30:12But it's strange that the faces do not look like other images of Tutankhamun.
30:18They were probably made for someone else, another ruler.
30:21Tutankhamun died suddenly at the age of 19, and his court was no doubt unprepared for his burial.
30:29His tomb itself is small, and was probably never intended for a king.
30:34But it had to make do.
30:36And the various objects placed within the tomb had to be hastily assembled to ensure his well-being in the afterlife.
30:43Tutankhamun's tomb was located in a remote area of the Valley of the Kings,
30:48which would not usually have been used for royalty.
30:53And when it was found, it was much smaller than those of his predecessors and his successors.
31:00The decoration on the walls also was very unusual for a royal figure.
31:06And because of all of these reasons, it is likely that this tomb was not actually created for him at first,
31:13and was probably being prepared for someone else.
31:17Because his death was unexpected, he was put into the smaller tomb,
31:22which could be completed very quickly and then buried with many artifacts and objects that he would have used in life.
31:29This large wooden shield from Tutankhamun's tomb was probably used on ceremonial occasions,
31:36since its delicate openwork decoration would offer no protection in battle.
31:42Here, Tutankhamun appears as a sphinx, wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
31:49Below the creature's paws, Nubian captives struggle,
31:54Below the creature's paws, Nubian captives struggle,
31:59symbolizing Egypt's domination of that land.
32:04The ancient Egyptians spent much of their lives preparing for their own deaths and whatever followed it.
32:11And because they thought they were dealing with eternity,
32:15they believed that anything put in a tomb must be designed to last forever.
32:20This beautiful miniature shrine from Tutankhamun's tomb is covered and lined with gold,
32:26and rests on a silver-plated sledge.
32:29Through its open doors, we can see a golden back support and an ebony plinth,
32:35with two carved footprints that probably mark the spot where a divine statue of solid gold once stood.
32:44I like this piece for a number of reasons.
32:46I like this piece because it shows that the very people who buried Tutankhamun
32:52were responsible for stealing a number of objects.
32:55That shrine held a solid gold or solid silver statuette that is now missing.
32:59So the people who buried him then closed that shrine, sealed it up,
33:02no one was to know the wiser, and somebody pocketed the statue.
33:05And you have these little empty footprints on a plinth that was placed inside of that shrine,
33:09and that was how Carter found it.
33:11This shrine is one of the most beautiful pieces of goldsmithing that I have seen.
33:20The shrine's exterior is decorated with scenes depicting Angsinamun as a perfect wife and queen to Tutankhamun.
33:28She pays homage to her husband, hands him flowers and religious artifacts,
33:34participates in ritualized activities, and accompanies him hunting in the marches.
33:40The other thing about this shrine that I really love is that it's not clear what it's meant to do.
33:46Every piece in Tutankhamun's tomb had a function.
33:49Every piece had a religious function.
33:51The function of this shrine is not clear to me.
33:54We don't have the statue that belongs inside of it.
33:56And we don't know, is it meant to bring Tutankhamun and Angsinamun together in the afterlife
34:00so that they'll always have that companionship?
34:03That's one theory.
34:04Or is it meant to make sure that he always has a kind of sexual companionship in the afterlife?
34:12She is depicted in a very nubile, young, feminine, beautiful way.
34:17I really like that this object brings up more questions than it answers,
34:22and I like that about the exhibition as a whole.
34:25Fans were essential in Egypt's hot climate.
34:28Fan bearers would have accompanied Tutankhamun wherever he went,
34:32and the post of chief fan bearer was a prime one at court,
34:36partly because he always stood close to the king.
34:40This fan, found in Tutankhamun's tomb,
34:43once had luxuriant brown and white ostrich feathers all around its arched top.
34:50The golden fan plate depicts Tutankhamun hunting ostriches.
34:55The king stands in his chariot, drawn by two galloping horses.
35:00He pulls his bow taut, aiming at an ostrich.
35:05For me, when I really look at the fan,
35:11and you look at how the artist in the gold
35:15drew this scene of King Tut hunting the wild animals,
35:20and that is, in my opinion, is a masterpiece.
35:25Archaeologists had long searched in vain for Tutankhamun's tomb.
35:30In November 1922, Howard Carter,
35:34funded by British nobleman Lord Carnarvon,
35:37was working in the Valley of the Kings.
35:40The area had already been heavily excavated by others.
35:44Disappointed by Carter's meagre discoveries so far,
35:47Carnarvon was about to stop funding the excavations.
35:51But suddenly, their luck turned.
35:55After several seasons, Lord Carnarvon began to get a little bit anxious
36:00about how long it was taking Howard Carter to find something really significant.
36:05And so by the end of the sixth season,
36:07Lord Carnarvon had felt that he really had spent enough money
36:12without any significant finds.
36:15So he had told Howard Carter at that time
36:17that this would be the last season,
36:19and Howard Carter was very upset about it.
36:22Carter and Carnarvon sat down,
36:24and Carnarvon, who had gone to Egypt because he was in ill health,
36:28who had gone to Egypt because he couldn't stand the cold English winters,
36:32and wanted to entertain himself,
36:34and so started to fund a dig, and it got out of control.
36:37And by this season, before the 1922 season,
36:40he was going to pull the plug.
36:42It had become much too expensive,
36:44and Carter said, look, I'll fund it,
36:47if you don't find anything, but fund it.
36:50And I think I have a place to look where we haven't looked yet.
36:54That day, November 4, 1922,
36:58was a very important day in the field of archaeology.
37:03It is the first time, actually,
37:05that a major tomb to be discovered completely intact
37:09After Howard Carter discovered the tomb,
37:12he really wasn't able to open it,
37:15because he had to contact his financial supporter,
37:20Lord Carnarvon, in order to have him come
37:23and be present at the opening.
37:25So he sent a telegram to Lord Carnarvon,
37:29saying, at last, have made discovery.
37:32He had to have guards there daily,
37:35and during the night, until Lord Carnarvon
37:38arrived in Egypt with his daughter,
37:40later Lady Evelyn Herbert,
37:42and Carter met them at the station,
37:45and then brought them over to the tomb
37:48in order to make the first breakthrough
37:51and see what would be beyond the door.
37:54A few weeks later,
37:56the rubble filling the tomb's entry
37:58had been cleared away.
38:00With Carnarvon beside him,
38:02Carter made a small hole in the plaster wall
38:05that sealed the tomb.
38:07When everyone was assembled at the door of the tomb,
38:11Howard Carter poked a hole into the plaster,
38:16and he said,
38:19Howard Carter poked a hole into the plaster
38:24that had sealed the door,
38:26and it was he, and only he,
38:30who was looking through,
38:32and it took a while,
38:33and maybe it was a little bit longer
38:36than he should have,
38:38but he was waiting to make sure
38:40that all of the air, the ancient air,
38:42escaped from inside the tomb.
38:45But Lord Carnarvon was at the other side
38:48and couldn't see in,
38:49and it took a while for Howard Carter
38:52to be able to see what was there,
38:54and finally Lord Carnarvon couldn't stand it anymore,
38:57and he said,
38:58Can you see anything?
38:59Can you see anything?
39:00And Howard Carter said,
39:02Yes, wonderful things.
39:04What he saw in the antechamber
39:07took his breath away.
39:09He later wrote,
39:11As my eyes grew accustomed to the light,
39:15details of the room within
39:17emerged slowly from the mist.
39:19Strange animals, statues, and gold everywhere,
39:23the glint of gold.
39:26As soon as Howard Carter discovered the tomb
39:29and it was opened,
39:30and the world press found out
39:32about the amazing discovery,
39:33they just really converged on the area.
39:36They came from the United States,
39:38they came from Europe,
39:39they came from the Far East,
39:41all corners of the world
39:43to see the wonders that were in this tiny tomb.
39:49Howard Carter, in my opinion,
39:53was a very unique man
39:56because he was so patient
39:59and he was sure that he was going to discover the tomb.
40:02We have to give him a credit because of that.
40:05Even when Lord Carnarvon
40:07did not want to give him money to continue,
40:10he was going to do this from his own.
40:13But Lord Carnarvon told him,
40:15I will give you last season.
40:17About his work in the tomb after the discovery,
40:21it was very important
40:23that he recorded everything
40:25in a very scientific way.
40:27Carefully, scientifically,
40:30his explanation and recording
40:32was really wonderful.
40:35People are drawn to the Howard Carter story
40:37where he really did pull himself up by his bootstraps.
40:40He doesn't have a proper education,
40:41he doesn't have a PhD,
40:42he has an artist's training,
40:44and yet he's the one that found that tomb.
40:46He had to beg for all of the funding that he ever got
40:49and he found it right at the last minute.
40:53This is Ptah, patron god of artisans
40:56and protector of Memphis, Egypt's ancient capital.
41:00Ptah's skullcap of brilliant blue faience
41:03contrasts with his face and body
41:05of glowing gilded wood.
41:07His tight-fitting costume
41:09has a delicate pattern of feathers.
41:12Ptah is often linked with a falcon funerary deity
41:15and this identification may account
41:17for both the feathers and the mummiform shape.
41:21This statuette was one of many ritual figures
41:24placed in Tutankhamun's tomb
41:25to help ensure the king's welfare in the afterlife.
41:28Ptah had an especially important role
41:31to play in the funerary ritual.
41:34When a body arrived at its tomb,
41:36it was set upright and purified with libations.
41:40The mummy's mouth was then touched
41:42with special implements
41:44while spells to restore its senses were recited.
41:48This ritual, known as the opening of the mouth,
41:52was linked with Ptah
41:54and the ancient Egyptians believed
41:56that it helped revitalise the dead.
42:00After the young king's sudden death,
42:02one of the first steps in preparing Tutankhamun's body
42:05for burial would have been removing his inner organs
42:08and preserving the lungs, liver, stomach and intestines.
42:14Each had its own container.
42:17This one, made of sheet gold
42:19beaten into the shape of a miniature coffin
42:22and inlaid with precious stones and glass,
42:25held the pharaoh's liver.
42:30The coffin's splendid appearance
42:32shows how important it was to give full honour
42:35to the internal organs as well as the body itself.
42:41You know, when the person died,
42:44they began to do the mummification.
42:46The mummification takes first 40 days
42:50and the 40 days when actually they take the organic,
42:54they open an area here
42:56and they take from that the organics
42:58and they put it in the four carobic jars.
43:00And after that, in the 18th dynasty,
43:02the time of King Tut,
43:04they had a hole in the back of the head.
43:07That hole made many people to believe
43:10that this is indication of a murder.
43:12But that's not true.
43:14That is an evidence of mummification.
43:17And after that, they continue,
43:19after the 40 days to go to 70 days,
43:22they dry the body with natron
43:25and they cover the mummy with linen
43:27and after that, they take the mummy
43:30to the ceremony of opening the mouth
43:33and the priest will say,
43:35I open your mouth, then you can drink and eat.
43:40I open your nose, then you can smell.
43:43I open your eyes, then you can see.
43:45And he will go with these artefacts
43:48to live forever in the afterlife.
43:51The heart was the place of knowledge to the Egyptians.
43:56That heart will answer the questions in the afterlife.
43:59When they do the judgment,
44:01and they have in one side Ma'ad,
44:03the goddess of justice and truth,
44:06and in the other side, his heart.
44:08If it doesn't balance,
44:10it will be eaten by a huge animal around him.
44:13If it balances, he will go and meet Osiris
44:17to accept him in the afterlife.
44:19If you make that transition,
44:21then you start on the journey into the next life,
44:24which is actually a very dangerous journey.
44:26There are a number of texts,
44:28known as the Book of the Dead, known as the Omduat.
44:30There's dozens of underworld texts
44:32that describe this very dangerous journey
44:34that's often compared to the journey that the sun god takes
44:38when he sets below the horizon, the western horizon,
44:42and he moves through the hours of night.
44:44Every hour brings on new dangers.
44:46Every hour brings on new trials and new demons
44:49and new dangers to be faced.
44:51And the deceased has to be prepared for all of those.
44:54This granite statue of Tutankhamun
44:57is the very image of a dynamic young king.
45:00The statue is one of a pair found at Karnak,
45:04a state temple dedicated to the god Amun-Ra
45:07across the Nile from Thebes.
45:13An inscription on the figure's back
45:15calls Tutankhamun
45:18Beloved of Amun-Ra, king of the gods.
45:23This bears testimony to Tutankhamun's return to tradition.
45:27Akhenaten had established his own new city
45:30and worshipped the disk of the sun as his only god.
45:33But early in Tutankhamun's reign,
45:35the court returned to Memphis,
45:38and Amun, along with the other traditional gods,
45:42was restored to favour.
45:44The reign of Tutankhamun had a very serious effect
45:48on ancient Egyptian traditions, religion, and culture
45:52because he was responsible for the restoration
45:57of the traditional religion, traditional ideas,
46:01and the way the monarchy had been before.
46:05You have to know that King Tut, when he became a king,
46:08he was nine years old.
46:10He could not know a thing.
46:12He did not know really that he could believe
46:15in the religion of his father, of the one god.
46:18And this is why I believe that I became smart,
46:23and they were planning to take the throne.
46:27And the first time that someone who doesn't have
46:29the royal blood would become a king, that is I.
46:32And this is why they wanted to go back
46:36in the hands of the strong people,
46:39the priestess of Amun, who controlled the country.
46:42And they moved King Tut from Amarna to Thebes,
46:47and he became, he changed his name to Tutankhamun,
46:52or as Carter used to say, Tutankhamun.
46:57In some places on this statue, Tutankhamun's name
47:01has been replaced with that of Horemheb,
47:04one of his chief advisors, who became pharaoh
47:07not long after the young king died.
47:12Look for the small ivory box in this case.
47:15It was used to play the ancient Egyptian games
47:18of Jah and Senet.
47:21You played one of these games on the top of the box,
47:24then flipped it over and played the other game
47:27on the underside.
47:29The drawer contains ten playing pieces
47:32and the bone-shaped dice.
47:35The hieroglyphic inscriptions list the king's names
47:38and praise his power and might.
47:40Rather off-putting if you're playing against him.
47:44Tutankhamun's tomb contained other game boards,
47:47some knuckle bones used as dice and gaming chips.
47:51The games would accompany him into the afterlife
47:54to keep him entertained.
47:57The ancient Egyptians believed that anything
48:00you put in your tomb would last forever.
48:04Artists in ancient Egypt created many works of art
48:07that never saw the light of day, like this game board.
48:10They were intended for the magical transition
48:13from life to afterlife.
48:16Every one of those objects that's placed in Tutankhamun's tomb
48:19has a magical significance as well.
48:22So if he places a board game, Senet, into his tomb,
48:25yes, that means he can play it in the afterlife,
48:28but it's also an analogy of the problems
48:31that he's going to face in the afterlife,
48:33that he's not going to get through in one go.
48:35Sometimes you're going to land on a bad square,
48:37sometimes you're going to land on a good square.
48:39In the treasury of Tutankhamun's tomb
48:42lay this chest containing earrings, amulets and pectorals
48:46and two pairs of the royal crook and flail
48:49that he would need for adornment in the afterlife.
48:52Every aspect of the chest celebrates Tutankhamun as king.
48:56For a start, it's made in the shape of a cartouche.
49:00This is an oval form with a short bar at its base
49:03which often surrounded the king's name in inscriptions.
49:06The shape of the cartouche symbolized
49:09the sun's everlasting path around the world.
49:13The ancient Egyptians believed that their pharaohs
49:16reigned over all the earth, not just Egypt.
49:19The chest's lid is filled with oversized hieroglyphs
49:23against a gold-leaf background.
49:26They spell out Tutankhamun,
49:29ruler of Upper Egyptian Heliopolis.
49:32Tutankhamun's name is made of three parts.
49:36Tut meaning image,
49:39Ankh meaning living
49:42and Amun, the name of the chief deity.
49:45So together the name means image of the living god.
49:51150 superb pieces of jewelry
49:55amulets and other precious objects
49:58were carefully placed into the mummy wrappings
50:01that surrounded Tutankhamun's body.
50:04The golden dagger you see here was among them,
50:07found stuck into a golden girdle around his hips.
50:11The dagger, with bands of inlaid colored glass
50:14and granulated gold, is a masterpiece
50:17of the Egyptian goldsmith's art.
50:20Its ornate case is covered with an inlaid feather pattern
50:24and the head of a desert fox at the tip.
50:27Tutankhamun's mummified body
50:30rested within no less than seven opulent cases,
50:34one placed inside another.
50:36The outermost layer, a gilded and inlaid wooden shrine,
50:40measured over 16 feet long and 9 feet high.
50:44Inside it were three more shrines,
50:47then a sarcophagus carved of golden-colored quartzite.
50:51Next came three mummy-shaped coffins
50:54and then, finally, the mummy itself,
50:57its face covered by a mask of solid gold.
51:04At the front of the diadem,
51:06the solid gold vulture's head represents Nehbet
51:10and the lapis lazuli cobra symbolizes Wachit,
51:14the goddesses of the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt.
51:17It's very likely that Tutankhamun
51:20actually wore the diadem in life as well as death,
51:24probably at important religious ceremonies.
51:27In order to fit Tutankhamun's funeral mask
51:30over the diadem on his mummy,
51:32these two elements were detached and placed on his thighs.
51:36In this way, the diadem's powerful protectors
51:39would retain contact with the king.
51:44The excavators of Tutankhamun's tomb
51:47claimed that the young king had been murdered.
51:50But was it true?
51:52In January 2005, Dr. Zahir Awas
51:56carried out a CT scan on Tutankhamun's mummy.
52:00I went in January 5, 2005, to the Valley of the Kings.
52:04I took the CT scan and I took the mummy out
52:07and I put it inside.
52:09The CT scan is very important
52:11because it gives three dimensions of the mummy.
52:16When we studied the images of the mummy,
52:20we found out that King Tut died at the age of 19.
52:24He was well-fit.
52:26He had no childhood diseases.
52:28And after that, they found, the radiologists,
52:31that there is no evidence of a blow on the back of the head
52:35or indication of a foul play.
52:38The only thing they found, actually,
52:40is that fracture on the left leg
52:44that they believe that this happened one day before his death
52:49and this caused infection and made him to die.
52:53The exact cause of death is impossible to determine.
52:58But the fracture suggests a new theory.
53:01The mystery of Tutankhamun lives on
53:03as an inherent part of his legacy.
53:09Inside Tutankhamun's alabaster canopic chest,
53:13four deep hollows held the miniature coffins
53:16containing the king's inner organs.
53:19This head is one of four that acted as lids or stoppers
53:22to seal the hollows.
53:24During Tutankhamun's funeral,
53:26the canopic chest was placed inside a six-foot-high gilded shrine
53:31and brought to his tomb in the funeral procession.
53:35And finally, we come face to face with Tutankhamun himself.
53:41The king wears a flat-topped golden crown on his head
53:45decorated with a protective cobra.
53:48This life-sized wooden figure may have been used as a mannequin
53:52to help the king's tailors fit his clothes,
53:55though it's more likely it was used in rituals
53:58as a stand-in for the king.
54:02His eyes gaze toward you, but somehow always through you,
54:08signaling that he not only has majesty and presence,
54:12but that his focus is not on the present.
54:16I believe, in my opinion, now we know a lot about King Tut,
54:21especially after we did the CT scanning
54:24and the examination of the mum of King Tut,
54:26we really know now a lot about this mysterious golden king.
55:26Transcribed by ESO, translated by —
55:56Transcribed by ESO, translated by —