Archaeologists stunned by ‘astonishingly rare’ unnoticed painting in Tutankhamun’s tomb | World | News

Though Tutankhamun wasn’t all that famous during his reign, his status was sealed in death.

In the thousands of years after his time, the Boy King, as he is now known, became the most famous of all the pharaohs in Ancient Egypt.

His time on the throne was short: just nine or 10 years of his life were spent overseeing the 18th Dynasty until he was just 19 years old.

His was one of the last bodies of the Ancient Egyptian greats to be found, unearthed by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.

The late nature of his discovery has meant that mysteries around the Boy King still abound, with one otherwise overlooked painting tucked inside his tomb declared “astonishingly rare” by one historian who gained access to the ancient site.

The revelation came during the Chanel 5 series ‘Tutankhamun with Dan Snow’, hosted by the popular historian who a few years ago launched his successful channel, History Hit.

Walking through the cramped space that is Tut’s tomb, Mr Snow noted there was “evidence of the struggle to squeeze everything in” and how large sections of the interior had been cut out to fit things like panels and shrines inside.

The various unusual things inside Tut’s tomb are well-documented, including the fact that it doesn’t appear to be the place of rest for a pharaoh — that it appears to have been rushed.

Finding more evidence for this rush, Mr Snow sought to explain at least one theory behind it all found in a painting inside the tomb.

The painting in question depicted Tut with his mouth about to be opened in a symbolic ritual carried out on all Ancient Egyptian greats before they were about to pass on to the next life.

“It is astonishingly rare that this is depicted on the wall of a royal tomb, usually it is the son and heir of the departed pharaoh who conducts the ceremony,” said Mr Snow.

“But he died childless, so the question is, who’s the painting of? Fortunately we know, his name is above him, it’s Tut’s vizier, his second-in-command, Ay.

“By showing himself performing the crucial opening of the mouth ceremony, Ay is attempting to legitimise himself, because his success was by no means a foregone conclusion.

“There was another powerful contender for the throne and it seems likely that this whole story, the strange circumstances of Tutankhamun’s burial, the rush to get him into the ground, it’s all connected to a power struggle.”

Ay would become Tutankhamun’s successor, and though the exact length of his reign is unknown, it is thought he ruled for as long as seven to nine years.

Many similarities between Tut and Ay’s tombs have been identified, though the latter’s pace of rest is far grander and better suited to a pharaoh.

Aliaa Ismail, an Egyptologist speaking during National Geographic’s documentary, ‘Lost Treasures of Egypt‘, pointed out a large wall inside Ay’s tomb covered in finely painted baboons.

“Both Tut and Ay opted for the same scene, almost like the same person chose what goes in each tomb,” she said.

But for their size, the two men’s tombs were almost identical, as Ms Ismail noted: “It’s very similar to the tomb of Tutankhamun — the style, the artwork, the sarcophagus, but, it’s so much bigger.”

Experts believe that Tut’s tomb was not finished at the time of his death which was itself sudden and unexpected.

They think Ay could have seized the opportunity and ordered Tutankhamun to be buried in a much smaller tomb that hadn’t yet been prepared.