Attention It could indeed be one of the greatest hoaxes of all time, . . . , or it could be just another conspiracy theory.

[NotHardUp1]

To be sure, there is a market and an appetite for conspiracy theories, and they span the gamut from food contamination to grassy knolls to government coverups of aliens.

But, I think this one is a bit more credible. The presenter has a slight speech impediment, or accent if you are from that region, but his thoughts are clear and rational and well presented.

The question is concerning the tomb of King Tut. It is well worth the 30 minutes to hear the video out, as the irregularities are a bit harder to swallow than the conspiracy and hoax. Compounding this is the highly erratic behavior of the very dubious Zahi Hawass, and the mercantile bent he had for Egyptian promotion while fending off scientists who kill off the goose that laid the golden egg.

If your patience won't hold, the theory espoused by the video's author is that Tut is not Tut, nor is his tomb Tut's. I'm inclined to doubt the veracity of Carter's account in light of these speculations.

The most damning elements were the inclusion of non-Egyptian art as well as the retention of Aten imagery in a pharaoh's tomb who was celebrated for his rebuff of the cult of Aten.

How say you?

 

[NotHardUp1]

Well, it's pretty obvious you guys are all part of the conspiracy.

 

[Cormac135]

Well, it's pretty obvious you guys are all part of the conspiracy.

Nah, i've just not got half an hour to devote to it now, i'll post on it tomorrow.

 

[Alistair]

I've watched a lot of documentaries about Tutankhamun. I'll have to watch this and see.

 

[gsdx]

I truly believe that Tut is Tut, but the tomb isn't his. Remember that Tut died very suddenly at a very young age. His mummification was rushed and he was entombed in a tomb not fitting of his station. His advisor, Ay (who may or may not have murdered Tut), was entombed in a tomb far more suitable to the boy king.

So, I believe that Tut was in someone else's tomb and Ay ended up in the tomb originally built for Tut.

 

[johaninsc]

I watched it

I'm still in the camp that his burial was a rushed job due to early death

short reign didn't allow him to accumulate as many personal items and treasures that longer reigning kings would certainly have had buried with them

..hence the second hand stuff

would be interesting to read the opinions of main stream Egyptologists, such as Mark Lehner, on this matter

 

[Latimer]

I haven't yet had the opportunity to watch, but look forward to doing so. There is also a theory that Carter entered the tomb prior to "officially" entering, pilfered smaller artifacts, and then scattered other artifacts about as evidence that the tomb had been robbed in ancient times.

I wonder about the Nefertiti bust in Berlin. Yeah, I know the paint and plaster have been analyzed and are said to check out, but the bust is at odds with the Amarna style associated with the reign of Nefertiti and her husband Akhenaton, and I find it difficult to comprehend its near perfect condition in the presumably buried workshop of its sculptor.

Nor am I on board with the new Leonardo Christ now hidden away.

I sometimes find myself walking into a museum largely filled with pieces collected by any one of the many "robber barons" who bought pieces procured by Joseph Duveen and vetted by Bernard Berenson, and think when approaching, let's say, a "Botticelli": "You must be joking!"

I found it particularly amusing to read that when Duveen couldn't sell a painting as the work of one artist, he try selling it as the work of another, and if it didn't sell in a frame of one style, he'd have it reframed in another.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

This is one of those moments when I feel like I grew up on another planet.

Questions about the circumstances surrounding Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 have never gone away and have never been fully addressed. Ancient Egypt was a mainstay of my education and my favorite history teacher, Mr. Hartmet, would applaud "The Great Tutankhamun Hoax" because it was plenty gossip among Egyptologists that Tut's burial mask was a "hand-me-down", probably from a woman given the altered aesthetics.

Yes, Tutankhamun's death was unexpected but he died during tumultuous changes in Egypt's society, including a breakdown in old customs and religious rituals. By the time Tut died Egypt's rulers were being buried on the budget plan!


Few video clips online from one of the greatest museum tours of the 20th century:

The Treasures of Tutankhamun World Exhibition - 1972 to 1981

It started in London, then Tut toured the world breaking museum attendance records at every venue, (similar to Star Wars in 1977).

King Tut's Exhibition Tour, beginning in 1972, captured world attention despite the well known questions raised by the 1922 tomb discovery.
And thus, the era of the "Blockbuster" took-off with "Tut Mania" followed by JAWS at the movies. In fact, from Star Wars to Close Encounters of the Third Kind - all types of mass entertainment were affected.

So where were you when Steve Martin and the cast of Saturday Night Live welcomed King Tut to the United States in 1978?

 

[medic1]

I truly believe that Tut is Tut, but the tomb isn't his. Remember that Tut died very suddenly at a very young age. His mummification was rushed and he was entombed in a tomb not fitting of his station. His advisor, Ay (who may or may not have murdered Tut), was entombed in a tomb far more suitable to the boy king.

So, I believe that Tut was in someone else's tomb and Ay ended up in the tomb originally built for Tut.

This was the "theory" that i was taught in school, along with the chance that the truly magnificent golden mask was originally made for another person, perhaps a woman, as many believe that the golden beard was added at a later date.

 

[Telstra]

This is one of those moments when I feel like I grew up on another planet.

Questions about the circumstances surrounding Howard Carter's discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 have never gone away and have never been fully addressed. Ancient Egypt was a mainstay of my education and my favorite history teacher, Mr. Hartmet, would applaud "The Great Tutankhamun Hoax" because it was plenty gossip among Egyptologists that Tut's burial mask was a "hand-me-down", probably from a woman given the altered aesthetics.

So where were you when Steve Martin and the cast of Saturday Night Live welcomed King Tut to the United States in 1978?

What a great song.
How cum no one post this before ?

 

[NotHardUp1]

The unexpected death was not a new thing in antiquity. Then, more than now, royals died alongside the commoners of disease and happenstance.

That the pharoah's embalming was botched is not a logical conclusion of his unplanned death. The same period of time applied to all death, 70 days. He had no more and no less to get his done within. On the other hand, a botched job is a botched job, and it's not like they would be pulling the body out in five years to see how he was getting on.

I'm much more interested in the assertion that the murals are complete frauds. If that is so, it is so easily proven, and the simplest sample of a wall already degraded with fungus could end the argument once and for all. But there appears to be zero chance the Egyptians will allow outside independent verification. They have too much to lose if the core beliefs around what has become an Egyptian Sideshow are blown away.

To Ed's post, what is truly remarkable about the 1972 tour was the revival of the mania that swept the West first in Napoleon's era, then again in the 20's. There is a Jungian longing for more about our ancient past, which is exactly what is fueling all the debate around the Younger Dryas Extinction and the Gobekli Tepe finds.

Egypt IS fascinating, and whether the trappings were assembled by Carter or others in a fraud doesn't make them fake, only misattributed. They are indeed amazing creations of the 1% of yester-eras.

 

[rareboy]

I think it was well known that the tomb was not originally intended for Tut.

 

[gsdx]

Compounding this is the highly erratic behavior of the very dubious Zahi Hawass, and the mercantile bent he had for Egyptian promotion while fending off scientists who kill off the goose that laid the golden egg.

That man alone makes me want to watch it. In his early years on television, he was good and informative, but celebrity overtook him and he became a completely obnoxious asshole. These days, I don't trust anything he says and I question everything he said before.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

This was the "theory" that i was taught in school, along with the chance that the truly magnificent golden mask was originally made for another person, perhaps a woman, as many believe that the golden beard was added at a later date.

And here's my question, "when is a hoax not a hoax?". The answer is when everybody's in on it.
I still remember my high school history book with those photos from Tut's tomb discovery. Every kid in class had the same idea, "we smell a rat".

The Egyptian government was key to keeping all the questions surrounding King Tut unresolved. Just ask P.T. Barnum, the circus showman, "people will pay for lies if told in the form of a good story".
King Tut's story is a good one even if his royal throne comes from IKEA.

 

[Latimer]

Mr. Hawass has (is?) hawking a clothing line inspired by Raiders of the Lost Arc, featuring khaki pants, denim shirts. leather jackets and an Indiana Jones-worthy hat, including the Karnak shirt that "recalls the rugged experience of excavating the ancient tombs in Egypt."

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/...ntiquities-official-defends-fashion-line.html

I'm in.

 

[Latimer]

What I liked--no, loved--most about being in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo--apart from the artifacts, although truth be told, almost equal to the artifacts--was the atmosphere of grand architecture and ambition and great decay: crepuscular lighting, accumulated dust, labyrinthine circulation...curled yellow labels in display cases...the reverberent gong struck to announce the closing...there was a mystery about the place that made being there an adventure in and of itself. I understand the place is being renovated, and all this will be lost.

In that vein, I liked being in the Great Pyramid best when the lights went out in the Grand Gallery for about 20 minutes. Suddenly it was an adventure.

The best Egyptian experience of all: one morning we hired a guide and horses (beautiful Arabians) and rode through the desert from Giza to Saqqara to visit the necropolis and pyramids there. Returning in the late afternoon we veered toward the Nile, riding past and through villages that I imagined had changed little since the time the pyramids had been built.

 

[EddMarkStarr]

The King Tut Exhibition World Tour continued to swell in popularity into 1979. In the USA, "Tut Mania" was overtaken by other events:

The west coast of the USA suffers Round Two of a severe petrol shortage, similar to the Arab Oil Embargo of '73/'74.
Pope John Paul II thought it was a good time for his first visit to the United States in October of 1979.
President Jimmy Carter thought it was safe to allow the Shah of Iran entry into the USA for medical treatment - what could go wrong?


This:

First, Utopia wanted the American Embassy hostages set free, then they wanted the whole country set free - from Jimmy Carter.