Face of King Tut Unshrouded to Public

[trekz 7]

Face of King Tut unshrouded to public By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

 

LUXOR, Egypt - The face of King Tut was unshrouded in public for the first time on Sunday — 85 years after the 3,000-year-old boy pharaoh's golden enshrined tomb and mummy were discovered in Luxor's famed Valley of the Kings.

 

Archeologists removed the mummy from his stone sarcophagus in his underground tomb, momentarily pulling aside a white linen covering to reveal a shriveled leathery black face and body. The mummy of the 19-year-old pharaoh, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was placed in a climate-controlled glass box in the tomb, with only the face and feet showing under the linen covering.

 

"The golden boy has magic and mystery and therefore every person all over the world will see what Egypt is doing to preserve the golden boy, and all of them I am sure will come to see the golden boy," said Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass.

 

Hawass said scientists began restoring King Tut's badly damaged mummy more than two years ago. Much of the mummy's body is broken into 18 pieces — damage sustained when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the mummy, took it from his tomb and tried to pull off his famous golden mask, Hawass said.

 

But Hawass said he fears a more recent phenomenon — mass tourism — is further deteriorating Tut's mummy. Thousands of tourists visit the underground chamber every month.

 

"The humidity and heat caused by ... people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder. The only good thing (left) in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face," said Hawass, who wore his signature Indiana Jones-style tan hat.

 

The mystery surrounding King Tutankhamun and his glittering gold tomb has entranced ancient Egypt fans since Carter first discovered the hidden tomb on Nov. 4, 1922, revealing a trove of fabulous gold and precious stone treasures.

 

Archeologists in recent years have tried to resolve lingering questions over how he died and his precise royal lineage. Several books and documentaries dedicated to the young pharaoh, who is believed to have been the 12th ruler of ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty and ascended to the throne around the age of 8, are popular around the world.

 

In an effort to try to solve the mysteries, scientists removed Tut's mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes in 2005 to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.

 

The results did rule out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts for the time though suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, apparently in an accident, that may have caused a fatal infection.

 

The CT scan also provided the most revealing insight yet into the life of ancient Egypt's most famous king. He was well-fed, healthy, yet slightly built, standing at 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death. The scan also showed he had the typical overbite characteristic of other kings from his family, large incisor teeth and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.

 

The unveiling of Tut's mummy comes amid a frenzy of international publicity for the boy king. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during the initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open later this month in London and after it will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art.

 

The Egyptian tourism industry is hoping to capitalize on that interest and draw tourists to Luxor to see something they couldn't at the museum — Tut's mummy. More than 9 million tourists visited Egypt last year — up from 8.7 million the previous year, the Egyptian Tourist Authority said.

 

The tourists will begin viewing the mummy Monday, Hawass said. The mummy will remain in the tomb indefinitely — unlike other Egyptian royal mummies, who are displayed in museums.

 

Canadian tourist Bryan Wadson said he and his wife would try to make it back to the Valley of the Kings for the second time on Monday because they missed the mummy Sunday.

 

"We're running out of time, but will try," he said after taking a photo with Hawass.

 

But not every tourist was eager to find out that Tut will be removed from his sarcophagus and put on display.

 

"I really think he should be left alone in quiet, in peace," said British tourist Bob Philpotts. "This is his resting place, and he should be left (there)."

 

John Taylor, an assistant keeper at the British Museum's department of ancient Egypt and Sudan, said tourists won't be the only ones to benefit — putting Tut on display in a climate controlled case.

 

"In some ways, it could be advantageous to monitor the condition to see if the mummy is stable," he said by telephone from London.

 

Hawass said along with putting Tut on display, experts will begin another project trying to determine the pharaoh's precise royal lineage. It is unclear if he is the son or a half brother of Akhenaten, the "heretic" pharaoh who introduced a revolutionary form of monotheism to ancient Egypt and was the son of Amenhotep III.

 

"Everyone is dreaming of what he looks like. The face of Tutankhamun is different from any king in the Cairo museum. With his beautiful buck teeth, the tourists will see a little bit of the smile from the face of the golden boy," Hawass said.

END ARTICLE ------------------------------

 

So, what do you think about King Tut being on public view?

[Theunicornhunter 2]

Ironically, I guess it gives him what was the purpose of mummification - immortality in a sense.

 

Honestly, I have mixed feelings - most people wouldn't like the idea of their bodies being museum pieces or on display after their death - though I can't say how Tut would have felt about it. In that sense it seems disrespectful to make someone a museum piece. Circumstances may have made him a celebrity but he was still a person and so this bothers me.

 

Obviously, they had to do something if they wanted to continue to preserve the body and I guess cutting off tourists wasn't an option. Maybe they need to money to continue their work - I don't know.

 

But overall I think they could have preserved the body without putting the face on display.

[Kor37 9]

http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/04/00...104120709990039

 

Isn't he a handsome guy?......and YES Ladies.....He's Single!!!.......... <_<

Edited November 4, 2007 by Kor37

[trekz 7]

Ironically, I guess it gives him what was the purpose of mummification - immortality in a sense.

 

Honestly, I have mixed feelings - most people wouldn't like the idea of their bodies being museum pieces or on display after their death - though I can't say how Tut would have felt about it. In that sense it seems disrespectful to make someone a museum piece. Circumstances may have made him a celebrity but he was still a person and so this bothers me.

 

Obviously, they had to do something if they wanted to continue to preserve the body and I guess cutting off tourists wasn't an option. Maybe they need to money to continue their work - I don't know.

 

But overall I think they could have preserved the body without putting the face on display.

Years ago in the Illinois-Iowa Quad Cities the man after which Davenport Iowa was named was murdered. The murderers were apprehended and after a trial they were hanged. One of them had his skeleton displayed in the courthouse for years - supposedly as an object lesson. Decades later it was finally buried.

 

Similarly, years ago Dickson Mounds in Illinois was a great attraction for school trips, and I believe still is. It featured an excavated pit with many ancient Native American bodies lying on site. Finally Native American groups persuaded the museum to seal the site with the bodies and just have displays of artifacts and pictures rather than display the skeletons in open view.

 

Dickson Mounds

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Dickson Mounds National Historic Site, a Native American settlement site and burial mound complex near Lewistown, Illinois, is located in Fulton County on a low bluff overlooking the Illinois River. The site is named in honor of chiropractor Don Dickson, who rediscovered it in 1927.

 

A museum erected on the site in 1972 by the U.S. state of Illinois describes the life cycles and culture of Native Americans living in the Illinois River valley over a period of 12,000 years since the last Ice Age. The museum is part of the Illinois State Museum system.

 

Native life site

While the members of most hunter-gatherer cultures travel extensively or even practice a nomadic lifestyle, the exceptional productivity of the Illinois River valley in fish, shellfish, and game made it possible for semi-permanent settlements to develop. Archaeological examination of these sites have generated significant insights into the living conditions of Native Americans over time and the levels of technology they possessed.

 

A large parcel of the adjacent river bottomland is undergoing preservation and ecosystem restoration as part of the Emiquon Project. The Emiquon wetlands geneated much of the food eaten by the people who lived on or near this blufftop site.

 

Some of the people who lived here were actually buried in Dickson Mounds itself. Their skeletons were excavated and displayed to the public from the 1930s until 1992, when the burial display was resealed.

END Wikipedia article -----------------------------------

 

So, this display of Tut doesn't surprise me. Disappoint yes, but surprise ... no.

Edited November 5, 2007 by trekz

[Kor37 9]

http://www.aolcdn.com/aolnews_photos/04/02...104101309990003

 

Here's a pic of what he probably looked like when alive.

[GhostofMajorHayes 10]

He kinda resembles the actor from "The Crying Game".