King Tut
King TutKing Tutankhamen The Boy King
King Tutankhamen ,or King Tut, was one of the youngest kings to reign over any country. "The Boy King" is best remembered for his magnificent funeral treasures, including his elaborate golden burial mask. King Tut achieved a measure of immortality through his glittering burial treasures.
King Tut was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty who reigned from about 1348 to 1339 BC. His name can be spelled a variety of ways including Tutankhamen, Tutankhamon, or Tutankhamun. There is an enigma, though, surrounding his name. Researchers have no idea where it came from because his parents are unknown. He became king during the period of readjustment that followed the death of his father-in-law, the pharaoh Akhenaton. The boy king married Akhenaton�s third daughter to strengthen his claim to the throne and took the name Tutankhaton meaning "gracious of life is Aton." After less than three years of residence at Akhetaton he changed his name to Tutankhamen. Because Tut was only nine or ten when he became pharaoh the direction of the state was devolved onto an older official named Ay. ( He succeeded Tut when he died.)
When Tut was alive, however the Egyptians had a flair for playing games and telling stories. All Egyptians enjoyed contests and stories, but the wealthy pursued those pastimes with an elegant flourish. Royalty such as Tut, was portrayed on the walls of his tomb playing the game senet, which reenacted the quest for eternal fulfillment after death. This game is played on a checkerboard table with thirty squares arranged in three parallel rows. Each of two players has an equal number of counters (ranging from five to seven) in two series of different shapes. The counters are moved with sticks or small bones.
The goal of the game is to get across the board with your counters following an S-shaped path while outrunning or blocking those of your adversary; the game is won when you get all your counters off the board. The fifteenth square and the last five squares bear images or hieroglyphic inscriptions that denote a special status, either favorable or unfavorable, for the counter that lands on them. Winning this game allows the deceased to overcome any difficulties involved during his journey and to "pass" safe and sound into the next world For that very reason, the deceased brings his favorite game with him in his tomb, for it will help bring about resurrection.
Tutankhamen died before he was twenty, as his mummy shows, and was buried in the Valley of the Kings in a tomb that originally had been prepared for his advisor Ay. Tut left no heir to succeed him and an important and powerful official, Ay, became pharaoh. About ten years after his death, thieves broke into his tomb and ransacked...
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