Unraveling Tutankhamun’s Final Secret: Cloak of Mysteries Reside in a Sepulchral Masterpiece–Part I
Are we poised to discover an Amarna royal in a hitherto unimagined location that will rewrite history — or will this be the final nail in the coffin for the ‘double burial’ theory? It is quite possible that the sarcophagus of the boy-king holds unrecognized secrets. Recent scans by Italian experts in the tomb of Tutankhamun have apparently gathered pace, and the Egyptological world eagerly awaits the results of their research.
(From left) The painted bust of Queen Nefertiti (Berlin Museum/CC BY 2.0); Tutankhamun’s golden mask (Cairo Museum/CC BY-SA 2.0); remnants of a colossal sculpture of Akhenaten discovered at Karnak (Luxor Museum); funerary scenes on the north wall of KV62 and (Background) fungoid spots on a wall in the tomb.
SEEKING SCATTERED ROYALTY
Nearly a century after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s “House of Eternity” in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 — which, by Howard Carter’s own admission was a ‘demi-royal’ tomb — many mysteries remain. A plethora of enigmas can be cited in its structure, grave goods, and other forms of evidence that point to a hurried burial. The Welsh-American author Jon Manchip White writes in his foreword to the 1977 edition of Carter’s ‘The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun’, “The pharaoh who in life was one of the least esteemed of Egypt’s Pharaohs has become in death the most renowned.” This is an accurate assessment.
