I dont mean to be rude, but i cant see how i can use this site in my mla paper when they cant even spell his name right. Under the section, life of king tut, his name seems to go from Tutankamen to Tutankhamen when its really supposed to be Tutankhamun. If you could get your information straight maybe someone could use your site as a reliable source.

I hate to burst your bubble, but he was born of the name Tutankhaten, which translates into "the living image of Aten". Aten was the Sun god of the Armana era, founded by monotheist-wacko Akhetaten.

When Akhetaten died and the priests changed Tutankhaten's name to Tutankhamun (the living image of Amun), Tut later died because he was a sickly man.

Anyhoo... he goes by many names, and those names have many variations of being spelt. It isn't just apparent in Tutankhaten's case, but in a wide array of Egyptian nouns. My username, Unas for example, could be spelt Unas, Unis, Wenis, Wns, Uns, etc.

So, before you go off with something so brash, please do a little research. We are a friendly bunch here who are mostly willing to help anyone with their Egyptology questions, but come on, man! Your lack of readiness shows me right off the bat that any question you might need an answer to could be easily looked up by a simple Google search.

Yes I definitely agree with Unas. Before making accusations, do a bit of research and you'd see that the variations are widespread and explained throughout the Internet.

You see, Student, we don't exactly have the same alphabet they did. Also, we pronounce things differently. So, the end result is that there are many variations of the same name. They're all correct. You see this a lot in mythology, too. For example, if you like Norse mythology, the god "Odin" can have his name spelled "Oden," "Wodin," etc. It's just many translations of the same thing. Though I would suggest you stick to one spelling in your paper.

Thx, i have just been stressed out with this paper looking for sources, it seems every site spells his name different and i never know if it's a source i can depend on. Well that helps, i guess i can use those note cards i made and cited of this site. Every source seems to have their own prediction on who tut's parents are and what his childhood was like too. I think some of the books i got at the library are out dated. Their theories our a lot different than ones i found in a late edition of the Smithsonian. Do you guys think i should include Akhenaten and Amenhotep III as possibilities for Tut's father, or would I be okay in assuming Akhenaten as the father. The way I have understood it, everything seems to fall together under Akenaten as the father. It's only a five page paper and i dont want to get too elaborate on his heritage. I figure you guys know a lot more about this then me.

For a 5 page paper, i was thinking of briefly covering these topics:

1. Life of King Tutankhamun- talk about his birth location and possible heritage. Also talk about his short reign as the pharoah and his achievements.

2. Burial- Maybe talk about his burial process(mumification) and briefly introduce the valley of the kings.

3. Discovery- talk about Howard Carter's efforts and some of the primary objects found in the tomb.

4. Cause of death- introduce several theories of his death and recent technologies(CT scans) that have helped disprove certain theories.

So that's my basic guidline that ive come up with. If you have any suggestions or ideas id love to hear them. Just remember it has to fit within five pages Anyways sorry about my first post.

Thanks again, Brad

It isn't known exactly when he was born, but we can pinpoint it to somewhere in the Armana era. You would be right to question his heritage. Since we know so little of the era, we do not know who his real parents were... Tutankhaten didn't really do much, though. If you believe that Akhataten was his father, then you will follow the believe that Akhataten changed the religeon into a monotheist worship to the 'one true Sun god', the Aten. In this, when Tutankhamun was succeeded into the thrown, he changed the religeon back to the old Kemetic ways of worshiping multiple gods.

Tutankhaten's burial was very much like all other burials with one exception: it was rushed. Unlike tombs of other pharaohs, which are planned out very carefully (locations of gifts, quality of funeral mask, etc.), Tutankhaten's burial room seemed to be more of a cluttered mess, showing that there was no real planning into the burial chamber. His funeral mask wasn't built to scale, and is actually bent to more fit his face. This causes Egyptologists to believe that the funerary mask was probably originally meant for another pharaoh. Also, the location had a deal to do with it. His tomb was found in an obscure corner of the King's Valley, home to a vast majority of the deceased pharaohs of Egypt.

Howard Carter pretty much stumbled onto the tomb of Tutankhaten. After a long bout with the Valley and finding nothing, he gave one last try, and got lucky. His efforts are ... archaeic. Reports of leaving the mummy out in the sun to let the heat melt off the glue of the funeral mask, crowbars being used (which ultimately broke the king's leg), etc. It's really just horrible. As I had said before, Tutankhaten's burial chamber was more of a cluttered mess than a planned out form of art. Most people look for gold in today's mindless autometon world, so I suppose you could mention the funeral mask; however, in ancient Egyptian culture, it was actually silver that was revered as the more valuable. But, as far as things that actually 'matter' for Egyptologists (e.g. papyrii), nothing was found. Not one scroll....

No one knows how Tutankhaten died.. Some theories include murder, chariots, and just plain bad genes. The CT scans of Tutankhaten were nice and flavorful for television, but just like their frontman, Zahi Hawass, were very much useless and quite laughable. The scan had shown what was already known: Howard Carter and his team used crowbars which ultimately broke the leg of the pharaoh. Hawass said this would disprove any result of murder or chariot accident. For murder, you can use poison, which leaves no mark. For a chariot accident, he could have had a twisted ankle, cracked ribs, a whole multitude of things that haven't been properly investigated. Bad genes is another one. The scans were decent enough to show the horrible curvature of Tutankhaten's spine, but overall.. proves nothing. In short, no one knows, never will.. There's no use in trying. Everyone will say you're wrong, because everyone has their own theory.

thx, i have another question. If Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye were Tut's parents, Ankhetaten would be Tut's older brother right. So Ankhetaten must've been quite a bit older and Amenhotep must've died shortly after Tutankhamun was born.

Oh who knows if i even know what the heck im talking about.


(edit)
okay now this doesn't make any sense. I just read that Akhenaten created Amarna 5-6 years before Tut's birth. How could Tut be the son of Amenhotep if Akhenaten was ruling before Tut was even born.

Ughhh... big thwap right in the brain, im so confused. DAMN you Smithsonian, can somebody help me out here.

I, and most other people, believe Tut is Akhenaten's son, born of the lesser wife, Kiya, who also had an older son, Tut's brother Smenkhare. This is one of the more believable facts, in my view, since Amenhotep III and Tiye were too old to have children and probably died by the time before even Tut was born. I'd say Akhenaten was most likely the father. Depends on which theory you feel is deemed "Acceptable" to you, though I have heard strange ones.

Does that help in some small way?

Ya a little, thx tutness

Question... so was Tut born in Armana? Ive also read he was born in Ankhetaten. Or are they the same thing.

... ummm i kind of have another question, yes another one. When Ay/Tut moved the capital back to its original city, it was Memphis and Thebes. So was it a 2 cities in one type of deal? Kind of like the twin cities Minneapolis St. Paul here in minnesota or what?

It is believed that he was born in either Armana or Akhetaten. Personally, I think Armana. I have nothing to back it up, though.

As per your second question.. I'll let someone else take that. Really, I don't know, either!

looks like im going to have to assume some more in my paper

I got this one:

Amarna is the modern-day city of what used to be Akhetaten. Akhetaten is the OLD name for Amarna. It's the same thing, same site.

Second question, Thebes was the Religious capital, Memphis I thought was the political capital. If someone could clear this as well...I know Thebes was the "Religious" center of Egypt mostly, but...Memphis...that's what I'm scratching my head on.

awesome... thx a bunch