Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Prepared By:
Y. Rama Prasad,
PGT English
Jawahar
Navodaya
Vidyalay
Panchawati,
North & Middle
Andaman
Tutankhamun
The history of ancient Egypt and
their Customs and traditions
18thDynasty
Perhaps the height of Egyptian wealth
and power came between 1550 and
1290 BC. The dynasty began with the
expulsion of the Palestinian Hyksos
rulers from the north of Egypt by King
Ahmose I - an event that may have
inspired the Biblical story of the
Exodus. Carrying forward the
momentum of this act, subsequent
rulers, in particular Thutmose III,
established an empire of client states
in Syria-Palestine, and dominions
stretching towards the heart of Africa.
War booty and lively international
trade founded on Egypt's highly
productive gold mines made Egypt a
major world player.
King Akhenaten
Around 1350 BC, however, King Akhenaten (formerly
known as Amenhotep IV - see above) turned Egypt on
its head by abolishing all the nation's gods, and
replacing them with a single sun-god, the Aten. The
new faith was accompanied by a radical new art-style,
as seen in the statuette above, currently owned by the
Louvre.
The cult of Aten, however, barely survived the death of
its patron. Within a few years, orthodoxy had been re-
established and Akhenaten's very dynasty had died
out, leaving the throne to a series of generals, the last
of whom, Ramesses I, was the founder of a new 19th
Dynasty.
After the death of
Akhenaten, a mysterious
ruler named Smenkhkare
took over throne for short
period.
After Smenkhkare,
Turankhaten took the
thorne- King Tut as he is
widely known today.
Tutankhamun
Customs and Traditions
Ancient Egypt was a land of elaborate religious customs.
Dr. Hawass led the effort to see what King Tut, who died over three
thousand years ago, might have looked like in life. Under his
direction three independent artist-scientist teams, one French, one
American, and one Egyptian, used modern forensic techniques to
reconstruct Tut’s face.
These likenesses are based on CT scan data collected by an all-
Egyptian team, led by Dr. Hawass, using a portable CT scanner
provided by the National Geographic Society and Siemens AG. The
scan took place on January 5, 2005, in the Valley of the Kings in
Luxor
The scientific team concluded that Tutankhamun was about 19
when he died. He was well-fed, and showed no signs of childhood
diseases or malnutrition.
They did note a bad fracture
just above the left knee that
may have occurred a day or
two before the king died
(rather than being caused by
the embalmers or Carter’s
team). “It is possible that this
injury became infected and
killed the king,” says team
leader Zahi Hawass.