...The changes instituted by Akhenaten during his rule were so revolutionary for Egypt because they went against much of Egyptian ways up until his rule. He also instituted many changes very quickly in a place in which this hadn’t been done so radically before. Not only did his modifications influence the way the art and reliefs were depicted during his time. He also moved the capital, changed his name, and changed focus of worship from many gods to one god Aten. Through all of these changes he radically influence Egyptian religion, culture, and society. All of these factors show his great attempt at cultural and theological revolution that in the end was almost erased from history. When one looks at his attempted religious revolution one can see the core of the changes he made during his reign. For most of the...
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...Queen Nefertiti of Egypt was a great, well known, and mysterious Queen to many. She was a Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Akhenaten. She had many children including: Ankhesenamun, Meritaten, Neferneferuaten Tasherit, Meketaten, Setepenre, and Neferneferure. She was very religious and worshipped only one egyptian god, Aten, the sun god. This was very unusual considering many Egyptians at the time worshiped many gods. But what is most interesting is her mysterious disappearance. Did she die from a sudden plague, did she try to flee, or did she pretend to be someone else during Tutankhamun's rule? Not much is known about Nefertiti's upbringing and birth. It is believed she was born in the Egyptian town Akhmim, where she was either the daughter or niece of a high official At, her mother is unknown. Other theories say she could have been born in a foreign country, such as Syria. Evidence shows she was born in 1370 BC....
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...not only motivated by religious speculations, but was also an attempt to increase the power of the Pharaoh at the expense of the local temples and their officials; priests who, through the all-consuming worship of Amun on the part of the entire Egyptian social hierarchy, had become both rich and politically important. These new religious views also appeared to help influence a major break in the traditional art of the time. Rather than producing idealized portraits as had been done for hundreds of years prior, Akhenaten encouraged artists to represent him in informal situations - basking in Aten's benevolent rays. With his blessing, the artists portrayed Akhenaten not as a conqueror, riding in a war chariot and trampling his enemies, but as a family man, relaxing with Nefertiti, his queen, and his daughters. The Hymn to the Aten, a hymn written by Akhenaten for the purpose of the appeasement of the Aten, though it offered new ideas on Egyptian religion, was arguably an attempt by a ruler who enjoyed the idea of a divine title to regain what his predecessors had. The religious reforms brought about by Akhenaten were intended to restore the position of the Pharaoh to the level of absolute rule which had once been held due to belief that the Pharaoh was the personification of the gods. This belief that the Pharaoh was indeed the personification of the gods, and could therefore not be challenged in any way, either pertaining to belief systems or actual administration of the empire...
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...Assess the reign of Amenhotep III Amenhotep III’s reign is often referred to the “Golden Age”, a time of political stability and economic prosperity for Egypt. With an abundance of tribute, booty, and access/exploitation of natural resources in conquered areas of Nubia, and its sphere of influence in Syria-Palestine; Egypt’s affluence only flourished. This enabled Amenhotep’s expanse/magnificent building programs, also resulting to advances in art and religion. Furthermore, changes in the importance and role of the queen progressed in this period; to the extent of Tiye’s deification, as evident in the temple at Sedeinga, built in dedication to her worship. Despite Amenhotep III’s reputation as a great diplomat, the effectiveness of his foreign policy- particularly the lack of military control over vassal states of Syria- Palestine, is contested as a precursor to the eventual loss of Egypt’s northern vassals with the emergence of the Hittites as a rival power during Akhenaten’s reign. Building schemes were not only of socio-political importance, but also vital in reinforcing the religious role of the pharaoh as the intermediary between the gods and the people of Egypt- he himself a reincarnation of Horus, or in Amenhotep’s case, Amun. His divine birth scene depicted at Luxor Temple of Amun giving the ankh “breath of life” to his mother, is significant in establishing his divine power as upholder of ma’at- the divinely established order of the universe. Moreover, Amenhotep’s...
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...Exploring Mysteries Surrounding The "Mummy's Curse" Heidi Mozina Dr. Richard Foster Strayer University Humanities 111 May 5, 2014 In the movies, mummies are known for two things: fabulous riches and a frightening curse that brings fortune and treasure hunters to a bad end. But Hollywood didn't invent the curse concept. The mummy of King Tutankhamen gets credit for the curse of the pharaohs, but the myth's origin has been traced to a London stage act performed a hundred years before the boy king's tomb was excavated in 1922. In opening King Tut’s tomb, a phenomenon began all around the world. In research for this paper, I considered theories behind the “Mummy’s Curse,” a series of unexplainable, unfortunate, or tragic events that happened to the people who were present at the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb. The first theory is that of Richard Carter, an archeologist, who is famous for discovering Tutankhamen's tomb. He is also famous for surviving the mummy's curse (at least until his death in 1939). He believed that tomb inscriptions sometimes contained protective formulas, messages meant to frighten off enemies from this world or beyond, but usually just wished the dead well. Another theory is that of scientist Mark Nelson of Australia, who assumed that because the curse was a "physical entity," it had power over only those physically present during the opening of a chamber or coffin. Nelson defined several specific dates of exposure: the...
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...The Mystery of King Tut The Mystery of King Tut Latasha Rudisill Latasha Rudisill Hum 111 Assignment 1 Gail Geregory Hum 111 Assignment 1 Gail Geregory 2014 2014 * Tutankhamen died young, at around 18 years of age. However, his cause of death has not yet been confirmed. Did he die of an injury, of illness, or was he murdered? King Tutankhamen was a young when he became king he was about eight years old. Since the new king was so young the commander of the army Horemheb ruled for him while he was growing up. Someone else important helped him also a man named Ay. When King Tut became king he was already married to his queen Ankhenpaaten which was his half-sister. Back then they liked to keep all the power in the family so that it was hard for anyone to gain power and royalty. The main job for the young king was to keep the country stable and to make sure that everyone was safe by keeping the army ready to defend his country. King Tut also had to keep the gods happy that is why he had help from Horemheb and Ay. (Hawass, 2005) What I think happened to King Tutankhamen? Everyone is still trying to figure that out. According to the National Geographic Center King Tut could have died of a possible disease, but there is no evidence of that death. Some say that he was murdered because of some old x rays that shows a place in the back of this skull that might be damage of a blow. 2005 a CT scanner was done on the mummy of King Tut what they found...
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...SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT KING TUTANKHAMEN DID NOT DIE OF NATURAL CAUSES - HE WAS MURDERED. ~KING TUT~ Tutankhamen, king of Ancient Egypt (often referred to as King Tut), died at the early age of around eighteen. To this day, his death remains a mystery that has brought many historians, Egyptologist and scientist to many theories as to how King Tut died. Two theories in particular are the theory that he succumbed to a broken leg that became infected, and the theory that he was murdered. The latter theory holds the most weight. In 1968, while performing an x-ray of Tutankhamen's mummy, scientist found bone fragments in his skull leading to the conclusion that he was murdered by blunt force trauma. (Lovgren, 2006.) However, later research lead some to say that the most famous pharaoh likely died of a leg injury which was complicated by bone disease, malaria and/or infection. (Tutankhamen CT scan Press Release, 2010.) The theory that the "boy king" had been murdered because of a hole in his head was ruled out and determined by many Egyptologist to have been the result of the mummification process. To be sure, homicide police in Ogden, Utah have been requested by a British film producer to apply modern forensics to the ancient case. According to their studies, they believe that they have proof of murder. Prominent Egyptologist, however, says that those conclusions are nonsense and based on hearsay. They argue that if in fact King Tut was murdered, then one would have...
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...As a child of a King, I don’t doubt that the young King Tut was fiercely guarded. When looking at King Tutankhamun’s (Tut) mask, it easy to see that he was young. Yes indeed, he was only 19 years old when he died. King Tut was by far from being the most powerful of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, however, he is the most celebrated Ancient King, now three thousand years after his death; people are still incredibly fascinated about the circumstances surrounding his death. Speculation about the possible cause of King Tut’s death have been swarming around since Howard Carter, British archaeologist discovered the tomb in the Valley of Kings in 1922. Designated KV62 (Kings Valley Tomb 62), it was the first royal tomb to be found almost intact (Kmtsesh). Along with the discovery of his mummified body, his tomb was stuffed with treasures and artifacts. One theory regarding King Tut is murder. Many scientists believe the fracture to the back of the skull which was revealed in an X-ray of his mummy is due to being hit with a blunt object. There is no need to jump to conclusion about this theory. Some scientists are convinced the he was not murdered; however, some are convinced that the crack in the skull was accidental, caused during the process of mummifying the body. If proper care was not taken during the initial process, they are many things that could have occurred such as his corpse being dropped on the ground or a sharp instrument falling on his skull. The two prime suspects...
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... Dr. James Hewitt Humanities 111 July 30, 2014 There are many theories relating to the cause of King Tutankhamen’s death. Many people say King Tut was murdered, some say it was from an accident from a chariot, while others say it was from a serious illness. Though the majority of the people believe that King Tut was murdered, in recent medical examination reveals it was due to and illness. King Tutankhaten born 1323 B.C, was the son of King Akhenaten. When King Akhenaten died, King Tutankhaten became Pharaoh changed his name to King Tutankhamen which meant, the living image of Amun. King Tut was 9 years old when he became King and ruled for 10 years till his death. King Tut married his half-sister, Ankhensenamun. King Tut was very young and was guided as king. Some say he was manipulated, by his Elderly Aye and Horemheb till he was at age to make his own decisions to rule. After King Tut death, Aye ruled then followed by Horemheb to restore order for Egypt. Some say they try to destroy the name Pharaoh Akhenaten. Could that been motive to say they might have been involved in the murder King Tutankhamen? A theory to King Tut death is murder. Some say he was struck in the back of the head that cause his death. Elder Aye, knew that he would follow after King Tut to gain the throne and assume power to Egypt. For many people, they speculated that Aye had something to do with the death of King Tut. At the age of 19, King Tut dies. The wife of King Tut, Ankhensenamun...
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...What Happened to “King Tut?” There is no true explanation or clear reasoning on how King Tutankhamen died suddenly, approximately at the age of 18. Theorists have yet to come to any clear explanation on how he suddenly died. Two theories that make the most sense to me are that he died from some sort of sickness, such as malaria combined with a degenerative bone disease, which some studies suggest, or a broken leg, which later lead to infection, that has been discovered and recent autopsies. The theory revolving around malaria has been one of the the lasting reasoning’s on how he died, which was accelerated by a broken leg, recent studies suggest. Several mummies buried along with the remains of King Tut have been examined and 4 out of the 11, including King Tuts remains, showed strands of malaria. In fact, 4 of the 11 mummies, including King Tut’s, had genetic traces of malaria tropica, the most severe form of the infection. He was also plagued with avascular bone necrosis, a condition in which diminished blood supply to the bone leads to serious weakening or destruction of tissue. These two findings have deemed theorists to believe that these findings are a likely reason to his death. In recent studies, Ashraf Selim, a radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital at Cairo University in Egypt, along with a team of scientist set up a noninvasive CT scanner in Luxor to perform a full-body scan on the king's remains, obtaining about 1,900 digital cross-sectional images. The...
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...There are winged cobras extending from baskets holding a hieroglyph of the name. The semblance of these serpents is of the control of both Upper and Lower Egypt. One has a white or silver crown for upper and the other a red or gold crown for lower. The name of the Pharaoh is placed on the throne at the time of carination. King Tut began his reign at the age of 9 at this time his name was not Tutankhamun but rather Tutankhaten. This is even more proof of the location. Akhenaten named his son Tutankhaten at birth which translates to “living image of Aten”. If the location would have been in Thebes then the images of Aten would not be present. After a short reign King Tut realized the wasteland of Amarna was not going to sustain his people, he moved the capitol back to Thebes. At this time the worship of Aten was abandoned reverting back to the polytheistic religion of Egypt. At this time Tutankhaten changed his name to Tutankhamun which means living image of the Amun. This is believed to be a sign to the priests of Amun that King Tut was sincere about his loyalty to the god. In a sense the young king inherited a hostile nation due to his father’s beliefs and this stands to reason why there was a need to move away...
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...King Tutankhamen commonly known as King Tut, was born in Ancient Egypt in 1341 B.C. It is thought that his parents are Akhenaten and "The Younger Lady", or Kiya. His childhood was different than that of a normal child. His father died when Tut was young, and was forced to become pharaoh of Egypt. He was only nine to ten years old when he took the throne, and because he was so young he had powerful advisors probably including General Horemheb. When King Tut became pharaoh he married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun. Together they had two children, both miscarriages. It is believed that Tut had a hard time of reign, because his father had decided to changed the way of belief for all Egyptians. People were enraged. They didn't want to change to other ways, they only wanted to keep the traditions of the past 100 years. This made scientists question whether King Tutankhamen died of natural causes or if he was murdered by an angry citizen....
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...The 12th king of dynasty Tutankhamen was born in 1341 B.C.E, and gained power in 1352 B.C.E when he was only nine years old. He was the most famous king in the history of Egypt and was considered as half god half man. After his mysterious death at nineteen years of age in 1361 B.C.E, he disappeared from the history until the discovery of his tomb, in 1922. His body was discovered several after the discovery of his tomb, with a lot of controversies about the actual cause of his death. The death of King Tut is still a mystery; there are different theories about it, some people think that he died in an accident, some think that it was a an assassination and some people think that his death was natural and he died because of some kind of illness. In 2002, Mike King and Greg Cooper, two of the America’s top detectives, who strongly believed that death of the king was an assassination, tried to prove the theory of king Tut’s assassination with the modern forensic techniques. They believed that Tutankham was god king, and there should have been extra care for him if he was sick, and the fact that he was too young too die makes it hard to believe that he could have died naturally. When the researchers examine the x-ray they found out that there was an uneven bump in the bottom of the skull, which they assumed was the sign of blood clot because of the head injury. The x-rays also revealed a broken bone fragment in the top left corner of the skull. The detectives then profiled that when...
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...The Mystery of the Death of King Tutankhamun Many believe that King Tutankhamun was murdered; others believe he died of natural causes deriving from an insect bite. According to a two-year long study conducted by Zahi Hawass of the Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), scientists now believe that he likely died of a leg injury, further complicated by an attack of malaria (HASAN, 2010). Having different theories and no concrete evidence, the death of King Tut has always been and continues to remain a mystery. The manner, in which King Akhenaten (father of King Tutankhamun) died, brought concern to suspect that Tutankhamun would become a political target for assassination. King Akhenaten yielded a religious revolution creating a world filled with chaos and during this pandemonium, Tutankhamun was born. The religious uproar that he caused led to several attempted assassinations on his life, and after 17 years of reigning, he died. The cause of his death was unknown but was suspected to be murder. At the young age of 9, Tutankhamun was made king but it took him several years to mature and rise to power. King Tutankhamen then experienced an acute early death at age 19 leaving people to believe that his death may have been a politically motivated assassination. Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter, many theorized that the cause of Tutankhamun’s death was murder because of the hole in his skull. This was later...
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...Did King Tut die from a sickness or was he murdered, that’s the question. Some Egyptologists and Scientists argue over the fact regarding King Tut’s death. The first theory is that King Tut was murdered because he had a lot of power. King Tut’s father (Akhenaten) changed Egypt in a big way. He wanted Egyptians to only believe in one God, in which it was against what they believed in. Some of the Egyptians wasn’t happy with that decision. King Tut’s father changed the way that the priest thought and it would have forced the priest to close down their temples and believe in what he believed in. The change caused the environment to be unstable. This change would also change the thinking from hundreds of years prior. When King Tut was a child, his father died and that’s how he received the throne. With King Tut being so young, he had little knowledge of how to run Egypt so that meant that he needed someone with a lot of experience to help him, so they would also look at the help that he had. Meaning, the help may have had something to do with his death. The second theory from Forensic experts was that King Tut may have had an infection. Doctor Zahi Hawass, stated that King Tut had a crack in his skull and it may have been caused during the process of mummification. Doctor Zahi Hawass also stated that King Tut had a fracture in left leg, supposedly to have happened a few days before he died. Doctor Hawass states that King Tut could have broken his leg but there is...
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