| Tutankhamun's Funeral
Review by STAN PARCHIN
March 15, 2010
| | Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Amarna Period (ca. 1336 B.C.). Upper Part of a Shabti of King Akhenaten. Faience. H. 11 cm (4.3 in); W. 7.8 cm (3.1 in); D. 5.6 cm (2.2 in). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. | 
| | Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (ca. 1336-1327 B.C.). Dignitaries Pulling the Sledge with the Mummy of Tutankhamun toward the Tomb. Painting on the east wall of Tutankhamun's burial chamber, courtesy Getty Images. Photograph by Robert Jensen. © The J. Paul Getty Trust. All rights reserved. | 
| | Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (ca. 1336-1327 B.C.). Floral collar. Plant matter and faience. Diam. 47 cm (18.5 in.). From KV54 in the Valley of the Kings, western Thebes. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. | 
| | Egyptian, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18 (ca. 1336-1327 B.C.). Head of Tutankhamun with the Hand of Amun Behind. Indurated limestone. H. 15.2 cm (6 in.); D. 23 cm (9.1 in.). The Metropolitan Museum of Art. |
Tutankhamun's Funeral in the spacious first-floor Egyptian Special Exhibitions Gallery at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (March 15-September 6, 2010) highlights some 60 artifacts that describe the mummification and religious rites that occurred upon the death of the adolescent New Kingdom pharaoh. The majority of them, given to the museum by archaeologist Theodore Davis (1837-1915) in 1909, eventually led to the discovery of the boy-king's tomb by Howard Carter (1874-1939) in 1922. The installation is supplemented by pertinent loan objects, vintage site photographs and facsimiles of wall paintings that illustrate ancient Egyptian funerary rituals.
Religious Revolution
Tutankhamun (r. 1336-1327 B.C.) lived in an era of religious turmoil and transition. The child monarch, plagued by illness, succeeded Pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1349-1336 B.C.), an enigmatic and visionary ruler who sought unsuccessfully to overturn Egypt's polytheistic beliefs. He tried futilely to impose singular devotion to the Aten, an abstract deity represented in relief sculpture of the Amarna period (ca. 1353-1336 B.C.) by the sun's disk and its rays bestowing hieroglyphic symbols for life and protection upon the royal family.
Akhenaten's inability to suppress the Egyptians' pantheon of gods and centuries-old creeds through a revolution in religion and art is clearly evidenced by the Upper Part of a Shabti (ca. 1336 B.C) produced late in the heretic pharaoh's reign. In existence since the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2030-1640 B.C.) and found in burials, shabtis are inscribed mummiform statuettes that served as laborers for the deceased in the afterlife. The faience fragment in the king's likeness wears the relaxed khat headcloth rather than the formal nemes one. Its hands hold two ankhs representing life instead of the royal insignia of crook and flail symbolizing authority over Upper and Lower Egypt. Traditional forms of religious expression such as shabtis persisted throughout Akhenaten's rule. Artisans continued to produce them in the pharaoh's remote Middle Egyptian capital of Akhetaten (modern-day el-Amarna) where the artifact was discovered.
The Transformative Power of Mummification
In essence, Tutankhamun's mummification was no different than that of any Egyptian of reasonable means. It was necessary so that his soul had a place to return to receive offerings and survive for eternity. After the pharaoh's organs were removed and treated separately, his body was covered in natron, a compound from dry lake beds that desiccates or absorbs the moisture from human tissue. His corpse was dressed with resins, herbs and ointments, packed with linen pads and bags of sawdust to preserve its shape and then wrapped with bandages. Once mummified, Tutankhamun took on the appearance of Osiris, the Egyptian god of the dead, as seen in his tomb's wall paintings.
Floral Collars
Akhenaten's religion emphasized the sun's creative power in nature as exemplified by the flow of air and propagation of plant and animal life. It therefore became fashionable during the Amarna age to wear broad floral collars that conveyed a sense of exuberance at festivities. A fragment from a limestone domestic shrine stela or monument of the time shows Nefertiti, Akhenaten's beguilingly beautiful queen, presenting the king with one as a sign of her love for him.
Colorful floral collars made for Egyptian mummies were symbols of life, rejuvenation and the divine aspects of nature. Although Tutankhamun's innermost sarcophagus or coffin of sold gold was adorned with a huge one, the other remarkably preserved collars, found in large jars from the ruler's embalming cache, were never used.
Return to Orthodoxy
The exhibition's indurated limestone Head of Tutankhamun with the Hand of Amun Behind (ca. 1336-1327 B.C.) best represents the Egyptians' return to religious orthodoxy during the young pharaoh's brief reign. Derived from a statue group that once portrayed the seated god Amun with Tutankhamun standing or kneeling in front of him, the ruler's stone image was smaller in size than that of the powerful deity to denote the god's importance, a principle in Egyptian art called hieratic scale. Amun's right hand gently touches the back of the youth's khepresh or blue crown in a gesture that symbolizes Tutankhamun's investiture as king.
Tutankhamun's Funeral provides the visitor with a fascinating glimpse into the events and activities surrounding the monarch's mummification and burial. It perfectly complements Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at Manhattan's Discovery Times Square Exposition (April 23, 2010-January 2, 2011).
Sources
Allen, Susan J. Tutankhamun's Tomb: The Thrill of Discovery (Photographs by Harry Burton) (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006.
Shaw, Ian (ed.), et al. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 218-313.
Silverman, David P., Josef W. Wegner and Jennifer Houser Wegner. Akhenaten and Tutankhamun: Revolution and Restoration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Winlock, Herbert E. and Dorothea Arnold. Tutankhamun's Funeral (exh. cat.). New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2010.
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