Tutankhamun ascended to the throne around the age of nine and reigned until his death around the age of nineteen. The preeminent action of his reign is the countermanding of the religiopolitical changes enacted by his predecessor, [his father] Akhenaten, during the Amarna Period: he restored the traditional polytheistic form of ancient Egyptian religion, undoing the religious shift known as Atenism, and moved the royal court away from Akhenaten's capital, Amarna. [Akhenaten, during his reign, reduced the number of gods that the Egyptians were to worship. Tutankhamun brought them all back] Also, Tutankhamun was one of few kings worshipped as a deity during his lifetime; this was usually done posthumously for most pharaohs. In popular culture today, Tutankhamun, is known for his vastly opulent wealth found during the 1922 discovery of his tomb, [by Howard Miller] KV62, the only such tomb to date to have been found in near-intact condition. The discovery of his tomb is widely considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time.
All the items in this exhibit are replicas of the finest quality. Egyptian artisans were hired to make these replicas that could be enjoyed around the world.
