Who Was Tutankhamun?

Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. Though he appears to have been a minor king and made only modest contributions to the Egyptian empire, he lives large in modern archaeology.

Very little is known about Tutankhamun's life, since it is likely that he was the son of Akhenaten, the heretical pharaoh who introduced a new religion that centered around the worship of Aten, the sun disc, and banned other gods and shut down their temples. Records mentioning Akhenaten and his immediate successors, including Tutankhamun were destroyed by the pharaoh Horemheb and subsequent rulers.

Tutankhamun was born around 1343 BC in the Egyptian city of Akhetatan, now known as Amarna. His mother is believed to be one of Akhenaten’s minor wives, most likely Kiya. He became pharaoh at age 9 or 10, in 1333 B.C. In the third year of his reign, the king and his court were moved from Amarna to Memphis. Shortly thereafter, the name of the young king, originally Tutankhaten, was changed to Tutankhamun (meaning “the living image of god Amun”) in recognition of the ascendancy of Amun. Around the age of 12, scholars believe, Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, Akhenaten’s third daughter by his wife Nefertiti. The couple had no surviving children, although mummified fetuses of two stillborn children were found in Tutankhamun’s tomb. DNA testing is currently underway to determine if there is a relation to King Tut.

Tutankhamun died under mysterious circumstances in 1323 BC, in the ninth year of his reign. Some Egyptologists have speculated that he was murdered by his successor Ay. An X-ray taken in 1968 revealed damage to his skull, which could have been caused by a fall, a blow to the head, or during mummification.

King Tut’s mummy recently underwent a CT-scan as part of a landmark, five-year Egyptian research and conservation project, partially funded by National Geographic, that is an effort to inventory and scan all of the known mummies in Egypt. This exhibition includes some of these scans and information about the conclusions that were drawn about his life and death.

Tutankhamun was buried in the Valley of the Kings, where he lay undisturbed for some 3,300 years until his tomb was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in November, 1922. Although the vast collection of treasures found in his tomb has been removed, his mummified remains still lie in a stone sarcophagus in his burial chamber.