Today–November 26th–back in 1922, archaeologist Howard Carter and his employer Lord Canarvan entered the tomb of King Tutankhamun, becoming the first people to enter it in 3000 years since it had been overlooked by graverobbers.
Precisely because of its overlooking, it contained a wealth of aristic treasures (and junk) that had been stripped from every other pharonic tomb we’ve unearthed.
Precisely because of these treasures, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb became a media sensation, with people standing in line to see the boy king.
Mystery also surrounded his death at the unusually young age of 19. Had he been murdered? (No, it seems he died from gangrene after breaking his leg.)
Mystery also surrounded the deaths of some of his discoverers. Was there a curse on his tomb? (No, it seems that there is no statistically unusual death rate among those who visited the tomb.)
Tutankhamun’s role in Egyptian history is somewhat interesting. Though undoubtedly due to his advisors since he was only a boy at the time, his reign saw the undoing of his predecessor’s monotheistic reforms.
The Pharaoh Akhenaten banned the previous Egyptian polytheistic cult and instituted his own monotheistic worship of the deity Aten (note the last part of his name; it’s theophoric). Consequently, Tutankhamun’s birthname wsa Tutankhaten.
But when he became pharaoh, he undid his predecessor’s religious reforms, meaning that Akhenaten is now remembered as Egypt’s "heretic king" instead of as a great religious reformer. This makes Tutankhamun a kind of Egyptian "Julian the Apostate"–only a successful one.
He was able to turn Egypt back to its polytheistic roots (which it was all too willing to do since Akhenaten’s reforms were so short lived) and he changed his name to Tutankhamun after the god Amun.
His name means "Living Image of Amun" (ankh = life; tut = image), but for non-specialists the discovery of his artifacts has provided the most important living image of ancient Egypt that the modern world has seen.
As a result, he is now the most famous of the pharaohs, outshining many more historically important ones (like Rameses II or Seti I or Khufu) and the only one to have a popular nickname: King Tut.
Image King indeed!
With his P.R. skills, he could have won a Grammy.
Easy.
