If Art Could Talk Series - Cover Of The Coffin Of Tutankhamun

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Unknown Artist

Cover of the coffin of Tutankhamun

18th Dynasty

Gold

height 72″ (182.9 cm)

Valley of the Kings, Luxor, Egypt

 



I am one of the world's most recognized and beloved art images, but I am not meant to be art. I was a coffin, a burial vault for the Egyptian Pharaoh, King Tutankhamun. I am the innermost coffin of three, a unique creation shaped like a mummy and made of solid gold, weighing 110.4 kg. I wasn't supposed to be seen by man, and the Egyptian artisans who created me crafted my golden beauty to impress the gods of the afterlife. While I am made of solid gold, I am also inlaid with precious stones, making me a truly exceptional piece.

 

The tale of the boy King that was mummified and buried inside me captured the world's imagination. Then British Archeologists came looking for me. The British archaeologist Howard Carter found me buried in the Valley of the Kings on the west bank of Luxor in November of 1922. There were three coffins, and I was the innermost. I was wrapped in linen to protect my gold and placed inside the middle coffin. Both of the other coffins are on display at the Egyptian Museum Cairo.

 

The tomb they discovered me in was intact, and the treasured funerary collection told archaeologists much about royal burials in Egypt. The artists intended for me to look like the mummy that I held. The mummy lay inside, covered with a gold mask of a boy king, which has become as iconic as I am. The Earl of Carnarvon was also credited with my discovery because he funded the dig. Tutankhamun, my mummy, was also known as the Golden Pharaoh. The Egyptians made me because they believed that if they didn't preserve the body, the soul would have no place to live in the afterlife. While I know that I am lovely and many people worldwide have enjoyed me, I still feel sad that the boy King did not get to rest in peace.

 

As a piece of art myself, I find it interesting that men consider the acquisition of objects of art as more important than the sanctity of a gravesite. I wish I could have told the Egyptians to hide me better.

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