Experts find evidence that could prove Tutankhamun's mask isn't actually his
Among the most famous and recognisable of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs is Tutankhamun, which is somewhat ironic considering he only reigned for less than a decade and died as a teenager - so he didn't have a chance to do much.
Studies of his body have indicated that he may have been suffering from a number of conditions which occur when the branches of your family tree get horribly tangled up with each other.
He did switch Egypt back to the religion we mostly know them for after his (likely) father Akhenaten had changed it to worshipping this one God called Aten.
Despite this, he's mostly famous because when his tomb was discovered in the early 20th century, it had been so well hidden that it still contained vast amounts of burial treasure, including the iconic mask which has become one of the defining symbols of Ancient Egypt.
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The blue and gold funeral mask is meant to Tutankhamun, and was found within Tutankhamun's sarcophagus, so you'd expect it to have been made for him.
However, some experts think it actually wasn't supposed to be his and the most iconic Ancient Egyptian artefact was meant for somebody else.
A team of researchers from the University of York think the clue has been staring them in the face all this time, and that's the fact that the burial mask has slots available for earrings.
Professor Joann Fletcher told a History Hit documentary 'research suggests that the King wouldn’t have worn earrings beyond childhood', so by the time he died they wouldn't have made his death mask with them.
Studies of the gold in the mask also showed a different type of the precious metal used on the face when compared to the rest of the mask, as though the visage had been re-done quickly and 'grafted on' to get it ready for the new user.
The face is certainly supposed to be Tutankhamun's, it's just that the experts have found evidence that it wasn't meant to be the face on the original mask after all.
Instead, they reckon the death mask was originally made for King Tut's stepmother Queen Nefertiti, but he got it as much about his funeral seemed hastily planned.
There's many signs which suggest the preparations for Tutankhamun to shuffle off his mortal coil and join the invisible choir were not in place by the time the teen Tut died.
One of the reasons why his tomb discovery unearthed such a treasure trove was because it was so out of the way that it had been missing for a very long time.
The tomb itself was also very small for a pharaoh. So, it and the mask being for someone else suggest the teenage Tut dying was a smidge inconvenient for the Ancient Egyptians, and they had to throw together a slapdash funeral.
Even if it hadn't originally been made for him and the Egyptians were making do with what they had to hand, it did end up being placed into his sarcophagus for a few millennia so a spot of posthumous finders-keepers is likely in order.
Topics: Ancient Egypt, History, Archaeology
Joe Harker