Saturday, August 7, 2010

4 x 4 Friday--Kings


Kings! So many different things come to mind...King Arthur, King of hearts, kings of England, king crab...I settled on Tutankhamen, the boy king of Egypt. A fascinating and mysterious figure.

A few years ago I went to see an exhibit about Tut, which included not only the marvelous treasures found in his tomb--and they WERE spectacular, but also x-rays of his mummy and artistic renderings of what he might have looked like. He appeared to be a beautiful and sad young man. Tutankhamen ascended to the throne at the age of nine, and ruled for 10 years. During this time he restored the worship of traditional Egyptian gods that had been forbidden by his father, moved the capital back to Thebes and restored relations with several nearby nations.

While there are no surviving records of Tutankhamen's death, it was widely speculated that he was assassinated. After recent examinations of the mummy. it is thought that his death was the result of infection of a broken leg from a chariot accident complicated by malaria. Tutankhamen had no surviving heirs. He was succeded by Ay, his wife's grandfather.

The images used came from the King Tut exhibit and from Google Images and Dover.

4 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful 4x4. Great work.

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  2. I love anything about ancient Egypt and watch anything on TV about mummies etc. Wonderful art. I love it.xx

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  3. I saw a show at the De Young museum many years ago as well on King Tut- absolutley fascinating. This is a beautiful 4x4 that really captures the essence of gold and mystery that surrounded that time in history. A lovely tribute Linda!

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