Why is King Tut so crucial to our modern understanding of the Ancient Egyptians?

Question

Add the site you got it from too.

Answer 1

Tutankhamun was only 9 years old when he became pharaoh. He died 9 years later, at age 18. In historical terms, Tutankhamun is of only moderate significance, and his modern fame and popularity stems from the fact that his tomb in the Valley of the Kings was discovered almost completely intact, and is still the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever yet found. However, he also is significant as a figure among those who managed the beginning of the transition from the heretical Atenism of his predecessors Akhenaten and perhaps Smenkhkare back to the familiar Egyptian religion. As Tutankhamun began his reign at such an early age, his vizier and eventual successor Ay was probably making most of the important political decisions during Tutankhamun's reign. The 1922 discovery by Howard Carter of Tutankhamun received worldwide press coverage and sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's burial mask remains the popular face.

Answer 2

Because his tomb is the most intact ancient Egyptian tomb ever discovered, and fairly unransacked. He may have been Pharaoh for a relatively minuscule amount of time, but the artifacts left in his tomb impart priceless knowledge! They give archaeologists and historians clues to what Egyptians did for fun, what they did on a day to day basis, what they used in ceremonies, how they felt about relationships between husbands and wives, how they treated captives, what they ate, etc. They even found the burial wreaths and flowers dried and scattered on the floor from his burial ceremony! There were canopic jars filled with perfumes, and let's face it probably internal organs, showing important burial and mumification rituals. There were papyri covered with texts, and countless other artifacts that help us to understand the lives and cultures of the ancient Egypitans.

This tomb also sheds light on the important time period after the radical Akhkenaton, Tut's uncle, moved the ancient capital city from Thebes to Amarna and forced the whole nation to follow his monotheistic religion. Tut's tomb shows that he chose to revert back to the old system of deities, as well as reopen the temples and move the capital city. It was a tumultuous time. The wealth of knowledge acquired from tuts tomb is enormous, it leaves one to speculate, if a boy king had all those riches, what must a long-time ruler have acquired?

Sorry, didn't get this from a site, this is personal knowledge from reading and my Intro to Western Civilizations class a year ago.

Answer 3

King Tut was actually a fairly minor figure in Egyptian history. However, his grave is the most important one ever found by archeologists that hadn't previously been lotted by grave robbers, so it gives us the best understanding of how Egyptians tombs for their most important leaders.