The Amazing Riches of Tutankhamen
(continued page 2)
by Professor T. Eric Peet
On Smenkhkara's death, shortly before 1350 B.C., Tutankhamen,
a boy of perhaps only ten years of age, followed him on the throne.
The religion of the Disk was already becoming unpopular, and the
young king was soon persuaded to return to Thebes and to the religion
of his ancestors. There, after a reign of at least nine years,
he died.
2nd mummiform
coffin, gold-plated wood inlaid with glass-paste
Now according to Egyptian belief the life beyond differed little
from life on earth. It was still a physical life, though of a slightly
more ethereal kind, and a dead king, in order to attain happiness,
would need not only his body but provision for its wants, first
and foremost food and drink. And next tables, chairs, chariots
clothes and jewels; everything, in fact, which would enable him
to lead the life of a king there as here. Hence the presence in
the tomb of loaves of bread, joints of meat, jars of water, wine
and beer, oils and unguents, together with the king's clothes,
jewels and personal belongings, and a considerable part of the
furniture of the royal palace.
To provide for all these bodily needs was easy. More difficult
was the preservation of the body itself. For not only must it be
preserved from the natural processes of decay, it must also be
protected against destruction by sacrilegious thieves who, heedless
of Tutankhamen's future life, might actually pull the mummy to
pieces in their search for the wealth with which it was known to
be covered. The first need was provided for by mummification. The
second was more difficult, for it was well known that even the
vast pyramids which earlier kings had caused Continued...
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