The Legend of Tutenkhamun
A child emperor. Crowned at the age of eight. Little is known about the fella apart from the fact that he was hardly given any time to mourn the death of his father Akhenaten before accepting the burden of the throne on his tiny eight year old shoulders himself.
Like Mir Jafar, the puppet ruler, King Tut was made to take decisions on behalf of his 'caretakers'- the ones with the actual power. He did as he was told. He was just a child when he got married to his half-sister Ankhesenamen (who was thirteen). He was a teenager when he had children with her, and none of them survived. Tutankhamun was buried at the age of eighteen or nineteen with several precious artifacts and jewelery, as we had read in our cute history chapter in eleventh grade. With him, a duck tunic. Made for his Highness when he was younger. Ducks sown onto rich fabric in red, green, yellow, blue. The colors of a child. A little duck adorned shirt, two little duck sandals. duck earrings. Things he loved and treasured and kept in a chest, which was- you guessed it- also carved with ducks. The chest was buried with him.
The tragedy is that of the immense burden of running an empire plopped down on a child's narrow shoulders. As a teenager, he had to deal with the loss of his own children whilst still being manipulated by his court, his elders. His reign was short, his innocence shorter.
Howard Carter, a British archaeologist, discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. This is an image of Howard Carter opening the innermost shrine of King Tutankhamun’s tomb.
However, there are many that insist it was not thought of as such a tragedy back then. The average lifespan of people at the time was shorter than it is now, thanks to the invention of better healthcare systems, vaccines, the decreasing mortality rate etc. It was normal for twenties to be considered middle age, and there were lots that died at age 35-40. Besides, Tutankhamun was his father's only son, and the natural heir to the throne—he would have been crowned at some point anyway. Akhenaten's death only preponed the inevitable.
Children, too, were prone to being stillborn or not surviving till adulthood. In a family of ten babies, it was considered luck if even three made it to the age of ten themselves. Doesn't make loss any less tragic, but it was commonplace.
Leave a Comment