The Life and Death of King Tut (EGYPT)

Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh who lived between roughly 1343 B.C. and 1323 B.C. Often called the "boy-king," he ascended the throne at around the age of 10. Today he's most famous for his tomb, which was discovered largely intact in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by a team led by archaeologist Howard Carter.

"As my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist. Strange animals, statues of gold …" wrote Carter about his experience as he entered the tomb.

The tomb continues to deliver in the way of archaeological mysteries. For instance, archaeologists think there may be hidden chambers behind walls of the tomb and that at least one of those cavities may hold the remains of Queen Nefertiti, King Tut's stepmom and wife of Tut's father, Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Ongoing radar scans of the tomb could uncover whether or not such cavities do exist.

The existence of hidden chambers in King Tutankhamun's burial chamber may be more likely, as new radar scans have found empty cavities behind the tomb's north and west walls, Egypt's antiquities ministry announced this morning (March 17).

Some archaeologists even think Queen Nefertiti, King Tut's stepmom, could be lurking in one of those spaces.

Scans carried out by Japanese radar technologist Hirokatsu Watanabe "suggest the presence of two empty spaces or cavities beyond the decorated North and West walls of the Burial Chamber," officials at Egypt's antiquities ministry said in a statement released to media. The scans also suggest the "presence of metallic and organic substances," and show what could be door lintels that indicate the presence of doorways, they said. [See Photos of King Tut's Burial and Radar Scans]

Archaeologists will conduct the next series of radar scans at the end of March to try to confirm the existence of the chambers and get a better idea of their dimensions.

Last year, Nicholas Reeves, a professor at the University of Arizona, published findings that suggested the existence of these mysterious chambers. In that research, he said the chambers could hold the burial of Queen Nefertiti, the wife of the pharaoh Akhenaten (King Tut's father). Reeves said he found evidence that Nefertiti's name had been carefully erased in some cases and replaced with that of the boy king, suggesting that some of Tutankhamun's burial equipment was originally made for Nefertiti.

The Valley of the Kings, where King Tut's tomb resides, has a variety of geological features that often pop up on radar. Researchers have noted in the past that it is difficult to avoid false positives in the Valley of the Kings. There are "many faults and natural features that can look like walls and tombs," Afifi Ghonim, the field director of one of the most extensive explorations of the Valley, told Live Science in 2013.

"There are a lot of things, like chert nodules, that populate the bedrock of the Valley," Glen Dash, who conducted radar work on an expedition in the Valley by former Antiquities Minister Zahi Hawass, wrote in a working paper he published online last year, before the radar results came out. "There are fissures, seams of chert and gypsum, and voids in the bedrock known as karsts. They are so common that there was really no place in the Valley that we did not encounter them."

http://www.aucegypt.edu/photo-gallery-shoes-ancient-egypt
A joint effort by André Veldmeijer, visiting research scholar at AUC and ancient footwear expert, and Salima Ikram, renowned Egyptologist and AUC professor, Stepping Through Time: Footwear in Ancient Egypt features shoes from more than 5,000 years worth of Egyptian history. To view a photo gallery, click here.

The exhibition offers visitors and researchers a new look into daily life in Ancient Egypt, noted Ikram “People are always focusing on the statuaries or the paintings," she said. "They’re forgetting the Egyptians were people like you and I. By looking at something like footwear, this exhibit brings the Egyptians to life and engages people on a different level.”

Previously overlooked by researchers, Ikram explained Egyptologists’ newfound interest in footwear. “There are many reasons why we study shoes: because shoes are fabulous; because they’re a fashion statement and tell you a little bit about what social class you are; because in depictions sometimes you see them and sometimes you don’t; because they give us a look into the technology of the day; and, of course, because André himself loves shoes. We think he’s the Imelda Marcus of the archaeological world.”

This new research rethinks the importance and even the existence of footwear in Ancient Egypt, challenging traditional academic thought, said Veldmeijer. “When footwear is mentioned in general books, if at all, it is usually noted that sandals were flimsy and most people were barefoot all the time," he noted. "Moreover, they say there were only few types of sandals. This is a misconception, probably based on artistic depictions alone. The variety of footwear is much greater than imagery suggests and even includes shoes that are never depicted; we only know them from the archaeological record.”

He added, “You can see the various steps used by the Egyptians to turn sandals into completely closed shoes — the evolution of a new form.”

Veldmeijer argued that Ancient Egyptian footwear had deep symbolic meaning. “Footwear is much more than just protection for our feet," he explained. "There is an even deeper dimension that is often quite comparable to the emotions and reasons people wear certain pieces today: status, symbolism that is sometimes religious, expressing you belong to a particular scene, et cetera. It gives a glance into human behavior.”

Ikram agreed, pointing out that, just like today, Ancient Egyptians wore shoes to make a statement. “When people see a beautiful pair of shoes now, don’t they all go, “Wow?” I think the Egyptians were very much in tune with having everyday footwear and ‘wow’ footwear,” she said.

For researchers, the wow-factor is in the craftsmanship. “The technology employed that’s the most wow thing for us, looking at the detailed, minute, skilled craftsmanship of the Ancient Egyptians is really mind blowing,” Ikram explained. “With some of Tutankhamun’s shoes, they used bits of gold, birch bark, bone and maybe even glass inlays to decorate and create luxurious and glamorous footwear.”

Studying how the Egyptians made such luxurious footwear, researchers discovered that the ancient Egyptians adapted and maintained traditional styles and technologies throughout millennia. “It’s interesting to see that there are not too many advances in the technology, but we do see things that were established and then carried on,” Ikram noted. “For example, there’s skeuomorphism, that is something originally made in one material is translated into something of far more precious material. Sometimes you have fancy footwear that looks like regular footwear, but it’s made out of gold or it has gold accents.”

Connecting the past and present, Veldmeijer and Ikram hope the exhibit will give visitors a better idea of what life in Ancient Egypt was really like. “Everyone should go and look at the exhibition because I believe they will be astonished by the rich world of footwear from Ancient Egypt, and it might make them think of the ancient Egyptians in a completely different light," said Ikram. "At this point, that’s what our goal is, to open people’s eyes to the Egyptians as human beings and to let them feel a sense of connection, kinship and continuity with the past.”