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| Should they have unveiled his face? (Please post why or why not) |
| Yes |
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10% |
[ 2 ] |
| No |
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57% |
[ 11 ] |
| I don't know... |
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31% |
[ 6 ] |
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| Total Votes : 19 |
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 Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:41 pm
King Tut face unveiled for first time
By ANNA JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer
Original article (with pictures) at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071104/ap_on_re_mi_ea/king_tut_s_mummy
LUXOR, Egypt - King Tut's buck-toothed face was unveiled Sunday for the first time in public — more than 3,000 years after the youngest and most famous pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt was shrouded in linen and buried in his golden underground tomb.
Archeologists carefully lifted the fragile mummy out of a quartz sarcophagus decorated with stone-carved protective goddesses, momentarily pulling aside a beige covering to reveal a leathery black body.
The linen was then replaced over Tut's narrow body so only his face and tiny feet were exposed, and the 19-year-old king, whose life and death has captivated people for nearly a century, was moved to a simple glass climate-controlled case to keep it from turning to dust.
"I can say for the first time that the mummy is safe and the mummy is well preserved, and at the same time, all the tourists who will enter this tomb will be able to see the face of Tutankhamun for the first time," Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said from inside the hot and sticky tomb.
"The face of the golden boy is amazing. It has magic and it has mystery," he added.
Hawass said scientists began restoring the badly damaged mummy more than two years ago. Much of the body is broken into 18 pieces — damage sustained when British archaeologist Howard Carter first discovered it 85 years ago, took it from its tomb and tried to pull off the famous golden mask, Hawass said.
But experts fear a more recent phenomenon — mass tourism — is further deteriorating Tut's mummy. Thousands of tourists visit the underground chamber every month, and Hawass said within 50 years the mummy could dissolve into dust.
"The humidity and heat caused by ... people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder. The only good thing (left) in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face," said Hawass, who wore his signature Indiana Jones-style tan hat.
The mystery surrounding King Tutankhamun — who ruled during the 18th dynasty and ascended to the throne at age 8 — and his glittering gold tomb has entranced ancient Egypt fans since Carter first discovered the hidden tomb, revealing a trove of fabulous gold and precious stone treasures and propelling the once-forgotten pharaoh into global stardom.
He wasn't Egypt's most powerful or important king, but his staggering treasures, rumors of a mysterious curse that plagued Carter and his team — debunked by experts long ago — and several books and TV documentaries dedicated to Tut have added to his intrigue.
Archeologists in recent years have tried to resolve lingering questions over how he died and his precise royal lineage. In 2005, scientists removed Tut's mummy from his tomb and placed it into a portable CT scanner for 15 minutes to obtain a three-dimensional image. The scans were the first done on an Egyptian mummy.
The results ruled out that Tut was violently murdered — but stopped short of definitively concluding how he died around 1323 B.C. Experts, including Hawass, suggested that days before dying, Tut badly broke his left thigh, an apparent accident that may have resulted in a fatal infection.
The CT scan also provided the most revealing insight yet into Tut's life. He was well-fed and healthy, but slight, standing 5 feet, 6 inches tall at the time of his death. The scan also showed he had the overbite characteristic of other kings from his family, large incisor teeth and his lower teeth were slightly misaligned.
The unveiling of Tut's mummy comes amid a resurgence in the frenzy over the boy king. A highly publicized museum exhibit traveling the globe drew more than 4 million people during its initial four-city American-leg of the tour. The exhibit will open Nov. 15 in London and later will make a three-city encore tour in the U.S. beginning with the Dallas Museum of Art.
The Egyptian tourism industry is hoping to capitalize on that interest and draw tourists to Luxor to see something they couldn't in traveling exhibit — the mummy itself.
The number of tourists who visit Tut's tomb is expected to double to 700 a day now that the mummy will be on display indefinitely, said Mostafa Wazery, who heads the Valley of the Kings for Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. Most of Egypt's other identified mummies are on display in museums in Luxor and Cairo.
But not every tourist was eager to find out that Tut's mummy was being moved to a modern, see-through case.
"I really think he should be left alone in quiet, in peace," said British tourist Bob Philpotts after viewing Tut's tomb before the mummy was moved on Sunday. "This is his resting place, and he should be left (there)."
Hawass said experts will begin another project to determine the pharaoh's precise royal lineage. It is unclear if he is the son or a half brother of Akhenaten, the "heretic" pharaoh who introduced a revolutionary form of monotheism to ancient Egypt and was the son of Amenhotep III.
Sunday's unveiling ensured the boy pharaoh would remain eternal, said Hawass.
"I can assure you that putting this mummy in this case, this showcase, can make the golden boy live forever," he said.
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Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 1:49 pm
I don't understand why they had to unwrap this mummy- with all the technology available to us now, much of which was popularized via use on this particular mummy it seems, there should be no need to violate his wrappings! Especially now that we know what happens to mummies once their protective coverings have been removed! Imagine, these mummies have survived for many thousands of years... until we found them. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt- it's disgraceful!
I agree with that British tourist- the mummy should have been left in peace, in situ, where his chances of preservation were best. If visits from tourists were making the place unlivable, then they should have installed some de-humidifiers or something to protect the place.
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Posted: Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:05 am
When I visited Cairo Museum and saw the royal mummies my eyes watered when I saw the greatest Pharaoh's in history, Tuthmosis III, Hatshesput, Rameses II ... just looking at their faces made my heart skip a beat because I was looking into the faces of the greatest rulers ever.
Concerning the condition that Tutankhamun is in is revealing him to the public like that a good idea? As Hawass said, by 50 years time he'll just become dust. I don't care if he was a slave to a nobel family but letting any mummy end up like that is very disrespectful. He should not have been unveiled, but left alone to rest in peace. With those mummies I saw at Cairo if the same fate would happen to them in 50 years time I would force Hawass to wrap them back up and protect them!
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Posted: Mon Nov 12, 2007 8:27 pm
Eck, I have mixed feelings about that.
On the pro side: we're preserving a piece of famous History. Tut will not turn to dust, all the world is safe, thanks to Hawass and his league of extrodinary gentlemen.
But!
It's weird to put the corpse of a dead teen on TOP of the coffin, and in a plywood stretcher, no less. Also, it's a sacred burial place: the tomb is going to be filled to the BRIM, and more crowded than ever before...in fact, it said in an article I read on MSN that it would go up to 700 a day!
Geh, well, that's my two cents. I feel happy that, when I go to Egypt, I can SEE Tut while in his tomb, not just the coffin. On the other hand, it is a bit disrespectul to the dead that he's not actually IN his sarcophagus. At least keep him in the coffin, open lid, THEN surrounded by the air-proof glass.
Something like that...I'm trying to find a happy medium. @_@
And the rant of Tutness is done. ^_^;;;
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 8:27 am
Hawass is trying to capitalize on the current revival of Tut-fever which has been whipped up by the recent traveling exhibit. He's trying to make it last as long as possible, and in the past mummy unveilings were a very popular way of doing that. Then again, in the past, it was common practice to lop off bits of mummies as souvenirs, turn them into fertilizer, and use them as props in "candid" photographs for tourists. confused I'm really shocked that Hawass is permitting this- even encouraging it. He's always been a bit dramatic, but still... The mania will last for a little bit longer, but in the end, is it really worth it? Why not use some of the technology we have, and the tons of unstudied, uncatalogued artifacts which are sitting in the back store rooms of museums, to maintain the ferver? Re-publicize some of the big discoveries we've made recently- most of the public won't have been following them anyway. Anything but this... that is someone's body, not a publicity stunt.
I think Tutness has the right of it- if he was to be on display at all, he should have been left in his sarcophagus, as at an open-coffin wake, and an environmental control tank rigged up over the whole thing. Maybe seeing the body as it was interred- instead of propped up on a shelf for display- would have been a reminder to folks of where they were and what they were looking at.
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Posted: Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:28 pm
Before I go on...Tutness, your username and sig rocks. blaugh
I'd really like to know Hawass's reasoning behind taking such a risky move. If I remember correctly, the video clip I saw of the "unveiling" had flashbulbs going off all over the place. As mentioned before, cramming all those people into the tomb is bad, but also, the flash on cameras chips away at the integrity of some old objects. Someone with more expertise could probably elaborate on this, but I'm pretty sure mummified corpses are affected by flash photography as well.
So not only is the environmental control a problem in this move, but getting the media to turn their flashes off is too.
What I would like in a revitalization for interest in Tut's legacy is digging out (pun totally intended) the artifacts from his tomb that were boxed up and stuck in the Egyptian Museum's basement-the stuff that has never been put on display or exhibition because they were literally buried (another pun) under all the other stuff in storage.
I'm betting that this will be the target of the next editor's rant note in Kmt, a quarterly Egyptology magazine/journal that I subscribe to. In fact, Hawass is on the editorial advisory board. Maybe he'll have something to say about it in the next issue.
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Posted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:06 pm
Well said, Djedi, thank you. ^_^ I think a wake-esque approach would have been a LITTLE bit more respectful.
And Nivera, THANKYUUUUU!!! 3nodding
I've had this name since Junior year of high school, yet I haven't made a Tutness account on Gaia until now, and I've been on Gaia-ironically-since High school. XD I'm actually known throughout the web on Egyptian forums as The Tutness, and it was great to make a Gaien-Tut. ^_^
As for the sig, hoo-ray for my first attempt at animation shop pro, and it was two different pictures I did on regular PAINT, and I just put the two together. I'm making a webcomic about Tut's life, but it's a fantasy take on it, and in manga style. I'm in the process of getting a website, then posting some issues of that, so...hopefully soon, I'll let you guys read it! It's crazy-goood! XD
But I am honored, I worked really hard on the dancing Tut...LOVE IT!! whee sweatdrop Sorry, got carried away again...I tend to digress sometimes, so...slap me if I do! XD
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Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 11:35 am
I'm mostly just worried about the tomb around it... aren't there paintings and such on most tombs?
I can't remember if there were any on Tutankhamen's, but if there are all the moisture and handling will definitely do some ill on the pigment.
I don't know, though... it's said that to have your name live on is the same as you, yourself living forever... so it may very well be a good thing for Tut himself.
I'm going to pull my Neutrality Card on this one.
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Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 3:40 pm
I'm torn, too.
On the one hand, we get to really see Tutankhamen, and I can't say that I wouldn't go and see him but on the other hand it is highly disrespectful to put the dead on show in that manner.
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Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:53 pm
Well considering that there have been many, many documentaries and images of him, it would be unnecessary for his mummy to be revealed just for the sake of tourism. Imean, I've already seen his mummified body and face multiple times, so it's not new to me. I think that since they wanted to preserve him, it's sort of justified.
What I really wish, is that I had a really good camera, and a time machine of some sort. I would love to see his face, as it looked when he was alive and well. Not an artist's rendering, not some CG image, not images from videos or photographs, his real face, from life.
Sadly, I know that will never happen. sad
But man, it would be awesome!!!! biggrin
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 2:58 pm
Dark_Lady_Jade What I really wish, is that I had a really good camera, and a time machine of some sort. I would love to see his face, as it looked when he was alive and well. Not an artist's rendering, not some CG image, not images from videos or photographs, his real face, from life. Sadly, I know that will never happen. sad But man, it would be awesome!!!! biggrin We can dream! wink I would love to borrow that time machine and hear the language as it was originally spoken. Are you sure you saw Tutankhamun's face? Because it was wrapped until just recently- maybe you saw Ramses the Great's instead? His mummy was very well preserved, and so whenever people want a picture of a mummy's face he's usually the one they use.
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 4:52 pm
I think like many people I am very torn on this subject as well. I don't mind showcasing the mummy in the first place. It helps to keep the name uttered and remembered. On the thought of un-wrapping a mummy... I really don't know. If the condition is being harmed I think it's an odd idea.
Sometimes I just don't understand Hawass. razz
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Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:55 pm
WebenBanu Dark_Lady_Jade What I really wish, is that I had a really good camera, and a time machine of some sort. I would love to see his face, as it looked when he was alive and well. Not an artist's rendering, not some CG image, not images from videos or photographs, his real face, from life. Sadly, I know that will never happen. sad But man, it would be awesome!!!! biggrin We can dream! wink I would love to borrow that time machine and hear the language as it was originally spoken. Are you sure you saw Tutankhamun's face? Because it was wrapped until just recently- maybe you saw Ramses the Great's instead? His mummy was very well preserved, and so whenever people want a picture of a mummy's face he's usually the one they use. Howard Carter took photos of the unwrapped mummy when he discovered it... And didn't they do some sort of study on it back in the 60s-70s? They probably took some pictures then, too. On the unwrapping...I've been thinking, and the apparent absence of logic in this move makes it seem like a desperation attempt-like Hawass is trying to convince someone of something. What and why I have no idea. Some sort of funding problem? confused gonk
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Posted: Wed Feb 06, 2008 7:16 pm
I really don't see why they had to do it. It'll destroy the mummy and for what?
So people can say 'oh! we looked upon the face of king tut!'.
Big whoop.
Leave the mummy alone, it's bad enough ya'll dug him up and put him in a case.
If every other mummy you look at now can be viewed though an x-ray machine, why not him?
>.< Well at least they didn't grind him up into powder and sell him as a cure all! ARGH!!! How stupid people are!!
............
Sorry, I get carried away sometimes.
I just really think you should leave the dead alone. The history is great but the the dead guys alone! how would you like somebody digging up your corpse? yes I know he really could care less right now, but still! (shrugs) I dunno, it just seems stupid to me. you can all be well and happy just looking at the regular mummy. No need taking off the bandages.
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