November 4, 1922: King Tut’s Tomb Is Discovered
On this day in 1922, Pharaoh “King Tut” Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered by British archaeologist Howard Carter in Egypt’s Valley of Kings. Known for restoring traditional religion and art, King Tut ruled the 18th dynasty in ancient Egypt (1333 – 23 BCE) and died at the young age of 19.
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My father was a great student of history. I remember our first Christmas in Europe when we had no presents except for the World Book Encyclopedia set that my Dad had pre-ordered months earlier. One of the first things I remember him teaching me about was the discovery of King Tut's tomb and why it caused such an sensation at the time. That lead to me reading about Ancient Egypt and then all ancient cultures. From there I must have read through the entire set of books from A-Z over the following decade and learned everything I could about everything. I am forever grateful that he planted that thirst for knowledge so early in my life that it could be of use to me now. Some days learning and reading about new things is all that keep me going.
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4 comments:
First the 75th Anniversary of Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" Broadcast this past Thursday and now this? Lots of history going on around here lately.
I had a real fixation on Ancient Egypt when I was a kid. Not sure why. I think one of my second grade teachers had a picture of Tut's golden mask on a wall or something. That spark was probably responsible for my interest in the Egypt inspired Art Deco movement later in life.
It would be interesting to see a book about how art deco was inspired by the ancient past. I want to see it in a coffee table book. I love those kind of science of design stories.
I've seen many on book on the subject. It wasn't just Egypt, Mayan and Incan architecture were also big influences. Its heyday in the 1930s was an interesting intersection in culture, there was a budding preoccupation with the distant past and also a strive towards the future as science fiction was a budding subculture of the time.
There was a news item today about how scientists have determined that King Tut died in a chariot accident and his mummification was botched.
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