Pharaonic Period in History - Essay Example

?Although it is without question that Tutankhamen was not the most important Pharaoh to have lived, his legacy has captured the attention and the imagination of munch of the world due to the discovery of his nearly entirely intact tomb in 1922. As a function of seeking to briefly understand this historical and notable Pharaoh, the following brief analysis will examine the brief reign, death, and burial of King Tutankhamen as well as providing a level of discussion with regards to Princess Ankesenpaaten, Vizier Aye, General Horemheb, the discovery of the tomb and the dawn of modern Egyptology, as well as the Curse of the Pharaohs. Through all of these interrelated and codependent factors, it is the hope of this author that the reader will gain a further level of inference and understanding with regards to the life-and-death burial of King Tutankhamen as well as some of the possible precipitating factors for his untimely death. Moreover, by understanding the dynamics of a young king guided and directed by a team of time tested advisers, the reader can come to the understanding of what it truly next to the of Pharaoh and to what degree and extent King Tutankhamen was ultimately in control of his own Empire or to what extent the viziers, generals, and advisers ultimately contributed to the key decisions that ran the structure. To document was something of an extraordinary figure not necessarily due to the fact of what he accomplished during his brief reign but due to the fact that he was the descendent and son of Pharoah Akhenaten. This is of importance due to the fact that Akhenaten (formerly known as Amenhotep IV), was most notable for having started a cult of the sun. As such, Akhenaten was something of a controversial figure due to the fact that he deviated from the traditional understanding of the Egyptian deities and promoted cult of the sun as well as built a new capital for the religion which minimized importance of Luxor. Many individuals have pointed to the fact that Akhenaten’s enemies, in retribution for diminishing the role that traditional addiction religion had within the lives of the people, had in fact taken vengeance upon King Tutankhamen and ultimately have to him murdered. Although this is unproven, strong speculation exists as well as circumstantial forensic evidence that helps to point to such a conclusion. Ultimately, King Tutankhamen ascended the throne at the age of nine. According to tradition, he married immediately upon taking the throne. It has been able to be determined by scholars that came to document along with his wife, his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten, had to stillborn daughters. However, besides this, the two of them had no further children. Pharaoh served as the supreme leader of all of Egypt for approximately 9 to 10 years. In approximately the year 1323 BC, King Tutankhamen died. Whether this death was the result of natural causes or if Phelps play was involved is of course the fundamental question that continues to entertain and confound modern-day Egyptologists, forensics experts, and specialists of various other fields. Due to the young and tender age of which King Tutankhamen ascended to the throne, the reality of the situation demanded that he have a team of skilled and powerful advisers in order to maintain his grip on power. However, maintaining such advisers may very well have been a causal factor that ensured King Tutankhamen’s early demise. Immediately upon Tutankhamen’s death, Vizier Ay took the throne and directed the affairs of Egypt for a further 3 years until his own death. At such a time, it was General Horemheb who ultimately assumed the title of pharaoh (though he was not of royal blood). As has been mentioned previously, and appreciation for an understanding of Tutankhamen’s father’s creation of and believe in the sun cult was a cause for great irritation for many within Egyptian society. Although it cannot be definitively stated that General Horemheb was responsible working to doctrines that, he is a likely culprit due to the fact that he took power in Egypt Vizier Ay had died and proceeded to destroy all bested his of the sun cult that came Tutankhamen’s father had built. The memory and recollection of King Tutankhamen was ultimately lost from the historical record for nearly 3000 years until the year 1922. At this time, Egyptologist and archeologist Howard Carter and a British team discovered, explored, and chronicled King Tutankhamen’s final resting place. This was of course found within the Valley of the Kings alongside the discovery of many other tombs of pharaohs. Prior to discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb, Carter and his team had spent many fruitless years searching the vast desert wastelands around the Nile Delta for the discovery of such a tomb. As a result of several years of fruitless and ever, the individuals that provided grants for this research had alerted harder and his team that season of 1922 would be the final year in which they would be funded. As one can imagine, it was with great relief and joy that Carter and his team wired and their primary funder and alerted him to calm immediately so that he could see always to be the discovery of the century. Naturally, is not appropriate to discuss the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb or the means by which this had found and lasting impact on the field of Egyptology without discussing the so-called “curse of the pharaohs”. Upon entering the tomb of King Tutankhamen, there were various inscriptions along the walls and upon relics stated something to the effect of the following: "Cursed be he who moves my body. To him shall come fire, water and pestilence” (Kayden 12). As a function of this vision and other factors, the public of the time soon became enamored with the idea that King Tutankhamen’s tomb ultimately contained the fabled “curse of the pharaohs”. The whole situation started when one of the Egyptologists working within Carter’s team sent a messenger on an errand to his home. While right outside the door, the messenger claimed to have heard something of a human scream. Upon entering the house, it was found that a cobra, typically symbolizing the Egyptian monarchy, had the Egyptologists pet canary dead within its mouth. Further, the death of Lord Carnarvon only six weeks after the Tim itself was opened only further added fuel to the stories that were circulating within the press concerning the curse of the pharaohs. The second mysterious event occurred in 1926 when Carter reported in his diary that he had seen jackals of the very same type that supposedly guarded the dead. This was strange to Carter due to the fact that it been working within the desert for a period of nearly 30 years and never seen such a site before. In 1925, Henry Field, up close personal friend of Carter’s, was given a mummified hand which contained a bracelet with a warning concerning anyone who disturbed this body. Only a few weeks after receiving the hand, Henry Field’s house burned to the ground. Upon rebuilding it, it was once again destroyed by flood. As can be seen, the level of superstition that accompanied the opening of King Tutankhamen’s tomb pervaded nearly every level of society and even gave some cause for concern to the academics and Egyptologists/scholars that were continually going in and out of the tomb. As can be seen from the preceding analysis, the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb not only help to shed a great level of light upon the events of the past, it also helped to focus a renewed attention on the field of Egyptology and the mystery surrounding so much of early Egypt’s history. By engaging the public and prompting the imagination of countless individuals, Egyptology and archaeology came to be an exciting field which countless individual sought to pursue as a career. Moreover, as times gone by, more and more inference has been able to be drawn with regards to the findings within King Tutankhamen’s tomb. This is of course a function of the fact that the tomb itself, prior to the discovery by Carter, had been untouched for nearly 3 millennia. Work Cited KAYDEN, SPENCER. "THE CURSE OF KING TUT. (Cover Story)." Scholastic Scope 60.3 (2011): 11-16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 May 2013. Read More