The Amazing Riches of Tutankhamen (continued
page 3)
by Professor T. Eric Peet
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to be heaped over their bodies had failed
to protect them from violation. Taught by this lesson the
monarchs of Tutankhamen's
dynasty hewed their tombs out of the solid rock of the lonely
Western Valley at Thebes, and instead of placing in front
of them the chapels where the daily supplies of food and
drink
wore to be brought, they built these several miles away on
the plain, where they could give no clue to the whereabouts
of the tomb. Even this precaution, to which we owe the treasure
of Tutankhamen, was of little avail, for his is the only
royal tomb which was not completely plundered in ancient
times.
Image left: One of
two life-sized statues of Tutankhamen that stood at the
entrance of the funnery chamber since it's close in 1353
B.C. |
For us the value of the wealth of material
found in the tomb is not in the main historical. Apart from
the fact, gathered
from a vintage-year
inscribed on a wine-jar, that the king reigned at least nine years,
it has not given us a single new historical datum. Its value is
rather social and artistic. Social because it teaches us how an
Egyptian king and his family lived, what means they had at their
disposal, what clothes they wore, what food they ate, what chairs
they sat on. Artistic because it shows us what were the ideas
of the Egyptian artists of that age, and how they applied them
to
the decoration of objects of daily use.
Original
Photographs from the Tomb Site
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The artistic value of the
objects is rather variable. There are a few very beautiful things,
large numbers of quite good
things,
and a few very bad ones. Egyptian art reached its high-water
mark in the
Old Kingdom between 2800 and 2500 B.C. Continued...
Page 3 of 6.  
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