Saturday, Nov. 26, 2011
THEN
November 26, 1922, the burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian king Tutankhamen is discovered in good condition by British archeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. The discovery is a tremendous breakthrough in ancient Egyptian archeology. The tomb of Tutankhamen is found undisturbed after 3,000 years and Carter and Carnarvon become the first people in modern times to see the untouched burial chamber which contains thousands of artifacts reflective of royal life during ancient Egypt’s 18th dynasty. The mummified remains of King Tut are found in a solid gold sarcophagus. Tutankhamen becomes king of ancient Egypt in 1333 B.C. at the young age of 8 years and dies ten years later at age 18. The cause of Tutankhamen’s death has been the source of considerable debate with some experts claiming that the boy may have died of trauma to the head as the result of a murder plot. In 2005, Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities (now dissolved by the current Egyptian government on grounds of corruption) announced that CT-scans of Tutankhamen’s body reveal no evidence of death by head trauma.
NOW
Today, most of the priceless artifacts found in the burial chamber of King Tut, including his chariot, gold throne, and jewelry among other items are on display at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Last week, museum officials announced that the Egyptian Museum and its contents were unharmed after two days of violent clashes between police and the military. However in January, during violent clashes in the Egyptian revolution, 54 items including some artifacts from the Tutankhamen exhibit, were stolen from the museum by vandals. According to the report last week, more than half of the stolen items have been returned. A statement on the museum’s website also said that at the time of the vandalism, a large group of young protesters formed a human chain around the museum in to protect Egypt’s priceless antiquities from further damage and pillaging.
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