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| King Tut's burial mask (Source: Getty Images) |
King
Tutankhamun (Tut) is probably one of the most well-known Egyptian pharaohs. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard
Carter. The opulent tomb had never been disturbed
prior to Carter, and a series of unfortunate but explainable tragic events that
befell Carter’s team led to a revival of mummy
curse lore. This has overshadowed
much of what was learned about Tut and Egyptian life during his rule. Scholars have revisited this topic over the
past century, and new interpretations of the grave goods suggests the creation
of a new ritual and a desire to restore religious order after a tumultuous
period in Egyptian history.
King Tut ascended to the throne after his father, Akhenaton,
died. Akhenaton,
popularly referred to as the “Heretic King”, abandoned traditional Egyptian
religious order and replaced it with a revolutionary ideological approach: the monotheism
wherein Aten was the supreme and only deity to worship. This disrupted Egyptian ways of life, as well
as ripped power away from Egyptian clergyman, who we suspect were desperate to
get it back upon Akhenaton’s death. King
Tut was immediately confirmed as Pharaoh, and the powerful elites took to
restoring the previous religious order.
When he died shortly thereafter his death was used as further propaganda
to reestablish normalcy through the newly reinstated state religion.
Scholar Nicholas Brown claims this all took place by having
the deceased Tut undergo a ritual known as the Awakening of Osiris. This ritual was meant to resurrect Tut
(through his mummified form) in the afterlife through the transformation from a
mere (and very dead) mortal to the immortal god Osiris, the God of the Underworld. In various illustrations Osiris is depicted
as a deceased Pharaoh, whose green and black skin represents fertility (of the
Nile River Delta) and new life (as the mythos around Osiris is one of death and
resurrection).
This transformation was known as the Awakening of Osiris
ritual, which was recorded in the “Books of the Underworld and Sky”, which were
written decades after Tut’s passing.
This prevented scholars from making the connection between the ritual
and King Tut, but Brown claims that the evidence within King Tut’s tomb is suggestive
of a precursor to the recording of the ritual within the aforementioned text.
The first line of evidence is the meticulous care the embalmers
took in preserving Tut’s penis in the erect state. This is interpreted as representing Osiris’s
virility as a life bringer among the dead.
Additional evidence comes from the grave goods discovered in the tomb,
specifically located in the tomb’s northwest and southwest corners: pedj-aha
emblems, or decorated wooden staffs, and clay troughs (or trays). The pedj-aha emblems are cited in the ritual,
while the clay troughs are made of Nile (River) clay. Each are believed to be representative of
either Osiris himself or power of regeneration.
Taken together Brown believes these are evidence of King Tut
being the first pharaoh to have the Awakening of Osiris ritual performed on
him, or at least the foundations of the one recorded decades after his death. The purpose of the ritual would have been to
reaffirm the power of the gods and the religious order that his leadership (in
life) was used to restore. His premature death halted those plans, leading the
elites to monopolize his death to promote their agenda further. Ultimately it worked as no further
disruptions to that order occurred until new dynasties and outsiders wrested
control of the throne.
Bibliography
Brown, N. (2025). These Thy Libations, Osiris! A
Reconsideration of the Four Clay Troughs from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62). The
Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 1-10.
Gilmour, C. I. (2025, April 8). Tutankhamun:
Plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh's tomb may have been key part of complex
afterlife rituals. Phys.org.
Taub, B. (2025, March 24). Tutankhamun May Have
Invented The “Awakening Of Osiris” Ritual. IFL Science.
