Tutankhamun
Oil Burner
King
Nebkheperura Tutankhamun is probably the most famous
of all the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, yet he was a short
lived and fairly insignificant ruler during a transitional
period in history.
Little was known of him prior to Howard Carter's
methodical detective work, but the discovery of his
tomb and the amazing contents it held ultimately ensured
this boy king of the Immortality he sought.
It is believed that Akhenaten and a lesser wife named
Kiya were the parents of Tutankhaten, as Tutankhamun
was known at first.
Soon after the deaths of Akhenaten and Smenkhkare,
Tutankhaten
became a Boy King at the age of about nine. He
married a slightly older Ankhesenpaaten, one of the
daughters of Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
After the ousting of the Aten power base they changed
their names to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun to reflect
the return to favour of the Amun hierarchy.
Due to his young age, Tutankhamun would not have
been responsible for the real decision making. This
would have been handled by two high officials, Ay
(possibly the father of Nefertiti) and Horemheb, commander-in-chief
of the army.
Sometime around the ninth year of Tutankhamun's reign,
possibly 1325 B.C., he died. There is evidence of
an injury to the skull that had time to partly heal.
He may have suffered an accident, such as falling
from his horse-drawn chariot, or perhaps he was murdered.
No one knows. Ay oversaw Tutankhamun's burial arrangements
which lasted 70 days.
Due to Tutankhamun having no heirs, Ay became Pharaoh
and took Ankhesenamun as his queen to legitimise his
rule. What happened to her after that is not known.
Ay ruled for only four years and after his death Horemheb
grabbed power. He soon obliterated evidence of the
reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay and substituted
his own name on many monuments.
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