THE BANNED DYNASTY

When Howard Carter opened the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, the news spread around the world fast: the untouched tomb of a pharaoh! There are 60 known tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the burial site of almost all the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (ca. 1545–1075 BC), but with this single exception all were robbed several times. Tutankhamun’s reign was long seen as insignificant, but he had an extremely important ancestry: Hewas the son of QueenNefertiti and King Akhenaten, a ruler who sparked a revolution.

The couple renounced all the old gods and replaced them with Aten (hence the end of the king’s name)—the closest the world had yet come to monotheism. However their revolution ultimately failed, and when Tutankhamun came to the throne in 1333 BC (at 9 or 10 years of age), he changed his name from Tutankhaten (“living image of Aten”), and his advisers restored the traditional gods. The young pharaoh died unexpectedly when he was only about 18 years old, and it remains unclear if his death was murder.

During the next dynasty his name was stricken from the royal lists and soon his tomb was forgotten. When the subsequent tomb of Ramses VI was cut above his,Tutankhamun’s resting place was covered in stone rubble, making it impossible for grave robbers to locate it.

The tomb remained untouched until its location was revealed during the systematic archeological exploration of the Valley of the Kings in the early 20th century. Among the ironies of history is that this young ruler, whom the ancient Egyptians endeavored to consign to oblivion, was to become the most famous pharaoh of all.