{"id":7177,"date":"2018-04-23T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=7177"},"modified":"2018-04-22T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T02:39:16","slug":"king-tut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=7177","title":{"rendered":"A Visit with King Tutankhamen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_7178\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=7178\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7178\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7178\" class=\"wp-image-7178 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/King-Tut-Steve-Martin-300x168.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7178\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Steve Martin, not King Tut<\/p><\/div>\n<p>You\u2019ve probably heard the name <strong>King Tut<\/strong>, and perhaps, like me, one of the first things that comes to mind is <strong>Steve Martin\u2019s<\/strong> wild and crazy song and dance back in 1978. But, you knew at some level there really was a King Tut, he was from <strong>Egypt<\/strong>, fairly young and . . . OK, maybe that\u2019s about it. If that&#8217;s the case, come with me now as I go back in time over <strong>3,000 years,<\/strong>\u00a0and it seemed that way as I slugged my way through L.A. traffic to see the latest exhibit of <strong>King Tut<\/strong> at <strong>Exhibition Park<\/strong>, next to the <strong>Los Angeles Coliseum<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>Our first stop is the <strong>seven-story<\/strong> screen of the <strong>IMAX Theater<\/strong> showing <em><strong>The Mysteries of Egypt<\/strong>. <\/em>Stay with me, as it&#8217;s only about 20 minutes long and it\u2019s actually very interesting, even if <strong>Egyptology<\/strong> isn\u2019t your thing. The film tells the story of why King Tut\u2019s tomb was so hard to find. Prior to his death in <strong>1323 B.C.<\/strong> Egypt buried their <strong>Pharaohs<\/strong> inside massive <strong>pyramids,<\/strong> but since they also buried many treasures with them, so they could have them in their \u2018after-life\u2019, burglars were able to easily find these treasures and use them in \u2018now life\u2019 \u2013 as you can probably figure out, the pyramids weren\u2019t that hard for the burglars to locate. So they started burying their Pharaohs out in the vast desert known as the <strong>Valley of the Kings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>After five unsuccessful archaeological trips to Egypt to find Tut\u2019s burial place, the sixth time was the charm for British archaeologist,\u00a0<strong>Howard Carter<\/strong>, who unearthed the buried tomb in <strong>1922.<\/strong><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7183\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=7183\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7183\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7183\" class=\"wp-image-7183\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/vally-of-the-kings.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"226\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7183\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Valley of the Kings<\/p><\/div>\n<p>After the movie and before we go into the exhibit hall, we need a quick crash course on the amazing story of this <strong>\u2018boy king\u2019<\/strong>. You think politics is crazy now, here\u2019s some stuff that was going on in the 1330s B.C.:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>King Tut\u2019s mother was his father\u2019s sister<\/li>\n<li>He became king of Egypt at the age of 9<\/li>\n<li>He married that year to his half-sister, a 13-year old named Ankhesenpaaten, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun, obviously to make the spelling of her name easier. Legos, Playstation and a new bicycle were items on their wedding gift list.<\/li>\n<li>They had two stillborn daughters \u2013 one at 5 months, the other at 9 months (How do they know that stuff????)<\/li>\n<li>He really didn\u2019t rule, he had \u2018handlers\u2019 who made all the decisions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He wasn\u2019t really what one might see as a majestic royal figure. He was <strong>slight of build<\/strong>, large front incisors, with an <strong>overbite<\/strong>, a slightly <strong>cleft palate<\/strong>, irregular <strong>curvature of the spine<\/strong> and a fused neck. He had a <strong>clubbed left foot<\/strong>, which necessitated a cane for walking most of his life. DNA samples of his bones show that he had the first known infectious <strong>malaria<\/strong> disease.\u00a0 Other than that he was a picture of health.<\/p>\n<p>He died when he was 18, but how he died has been the subject of a lot of speculation \u2013 there are at least 5 working theories:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Murdered &#8211; he (and\/or his handlers) had lots of enemies<\/li>\n<li>An accident &#8211; probably murder made to look like an accident<\/li>\n<li>Sickle cell disease &#8211; due to his abnormally shaped red blood cells<\/li>\n<li>Gangrene from an infection from a broken leg<\/li>\n<li>Congenital conditions coming as a child of incest<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It seems strange to me that we know the gestation period of his wife\u2019s two stillborn children, but don\u2019t have a clue as to how he died!\u00a0 Keep digging!!<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7182\" style=\"width: 274px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?attachment_id=7182\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7182\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7182\" class=\"wp-image-7182 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/King-Tut-mask.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"264\" height=\"191\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7182\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">King Tut&#8217;s Burial Mask<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Oh yes, on to the <strong>Exhibit Hall<\/strong>; actually after reading about the search for his tomb and his interesting life, the actual artifacts found in his tomb, many on display here, are a little less interesting to me. Don\u2019t get me wrong, there are some beautiful pieces, over <strong>5,000<\/strong> of them were found in the tomb, things like furniture, jewelry, chariots, food and of course his golden coffin and the iconic mask.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you go . . . <\/strong>The exhibit will be here until January 2019; if you go during the school year you\u2019ll be accosted by thousands of L.A. elementary school children on a field trip as I was, yelling, fighting and throwing food \u2013 I\u2019d go during the summer or on a weekend, but I&#8217;d go.\u00a0 Another tip, when you go to the gift shop don&#8217;t by the King Tut CD, he recorded it before his voice changed and he sounds more like Cleopatra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You\u2019ve probably heard the name King Tut, and perhaps, like me, one of the first things that comes to mind is Steve Martin\u2019s wild and crazy song and dance back in 1978. But, you knew at some level there really &hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=7177\">read more<span class=\"meta-nav\"><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2148],"tags":[2807,2808,2804,2806,2809,2805],"class_list":["post-7177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical","tag-howard-carter","tag-imax","tag-king-tut","tag-mysteries-of-egypt","tag-tutankhamun","tag-valley-of-the-kings"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/King-Tut-mask.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-1RL","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7177"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7192,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7177\/revisions\/7192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}