The Murder of Tutankhamen
This evening I attended a fascinating lecture on the theory that Tutankhamen was murdered (not a new theory, clearly, but one that has taken many forms as different researchers point to different aspects of the evidence available). The speaker was Bob Brier, an Egyptologist who is an expert on mummies and who has been studying the possibility of Tutankhamen’s murder for years. I’m so glad that Kristen, one of our volunteers at work, told me about the lecture! And I’m also grateful that she and her husband Jeff took me with them because without them I would surely have gotten lost in the Arizona State University campus in Tempe.
It was such an interesting lecture, and I learned about Tutankhamen’s lineage and also the about the state Egypt was in when he inherited the throne. Aside from how interesting the story was in itself, Dr. Brier also had funny stories about his work, such as when he called the museum in Berlin that was supposed to have the ring showing that Tutankhamen’s wife had married his adviser Aye after her husband’s death and was told they didn’t have it. It turned out that they did have it, but after the museums in East and West Berlin had merged, not everyone knew what the full collection contained and so at first Dr. Brier had been erroneously told that they did not have the ring. He also told us that the mummies of Tutankhamen’s two young babies (who were both born prematurely and died shortly thereafter) were lost for several decades until Dr. Brier called a hospital that had studied the mummies and, sure enough, that’s where the two tiny mummies had been all along.
Reading more about Dr. Brier, I’ve realized that I’ve seen him before on television. I watched his show on TLC called “Mummy Detective: Crypt of the Medici” in which he and an Italian archaeologist opened the crypt of the Medici in order to find out whether Cosimo’s sons were murdered or died of other causes. That show was fascinating as well—I’ll have to keep an eye out for more of Dr. Brier’s work.
As I was leaving the lecture hall, I left a business card in the fishbowl they set out so I’ll be included in mailings about future lectures. I’m looking forward to the next one!
It was such an interesting lecture, and I learned about Tutankhamen’s lineage and also the about the state Egypt was in when he inherited the throne. Aside from how interesting the story was in itself, Dr. Brier also had funny stories about his work, such as when he called the museum in Berlin that was supposed to have the ring showing that Tutankhamen’s wife had married his adviser Aye after her husband’s death and was told they didn’t have it. It turned out that they did have it, but after the museums in East and West Berlin had merged, not everyone knew what the full collection contained and so at first Dr. Brier had been erroneously told that they did not have the ring. He also told us that the mummies of Tutankhamen’s two young babies (who were both born prematurely and died shortly thereafter) were lost for several decades until Dr. Brier called a hospital that had studied the mummies and, sure enough, that’s where the two tiny mummies had been all along.
Reading more about Dr. Brier, I’ve realized that I’ve seen him before on television. I watched his show on TLC called “Mummy Detective: Crypt of the Medici” in which he and an Italian archaeologist opened the crypt of the Medici in order to find out whether Cosimo’s sons were murdered or died of other causes. That show was fascinating as well—I’ll have to keep an eye out for more of Dr. Brier’s work.
As I was leaving the lecture hall, I left a business card in the fishbowl they set out so I’ll be included in mailings about future lectures. I’m looking forward to the next one!
posted by Ana at 22:59
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home