Above: the king’s royal diadem, found on the head of his mummy.

Below: a solid gold figure of the young king. This small figure is mounted on a staff and may have been part of his coronation regalia.

Below right: a faience head-rest used by the king. Photos: RP.

clinging to their memories, which would explain the numerous heirlooms discovered in his tomb: –Two sistra or sacred rattles made of gilt-bronze arches threaded with snake-shaped bars of the same material. They are uninscribed, but sistrawere never used by men, and they therefore probably belonged to a female member of his family. –One pair of ivory clappers inscribed “Great Royal Wife Tiye, Living Wife, King’s Daughter Meritaten”, which may have belonged to either of these women. –Scarabs, a glass mandagora fruit and two calcite vessels belonging to Thutmose III, an ancestor of the king who ruled a hundred years before Tutankhamun, all of which may have been taken from the palace storerooms. –Three calcite vessels of Amenhotep III and a joint vessel of Amenhotep III and Tiye, the boy’s grandparents. –A model adze belonging to Amenhotep III and Tiye, his grandparents. –A lock of hair in a small coffinette marked with the name of Queen Tiye. –A pectoral and a faience bangle belonging to Akhenaten, his father, and two bangles belonging to Neferneferuaten (Nefertiti), his stepmother. –Sequins belonging to Ankheperura

(Smenkhkara) and Meritaten, his brother and half-sister. –A scribal palette of Meritaten, his half-sister. –A bow belonging to Ankheperura (Smenkhkara). –A whip-stock inscribed with the name of Prince Thutmose (a king’s son), who was Akhenaten’s elder brother, and therefore Tutankhamun’s uncle. –A number of boxes belonging to Neferneferura, his half-sister, Akhenaten, Neferneferuaten (Nefertiti) and Meritaten. Although this is a somewhat eclectic group of objects, put into context they are all perfectly understandable, if not a little sad. Often when these heirlooms are discussed it is in the hope of trying to decipher the family tree of Tutankhamun and the Amarna Period. But does it really matter if Queen Tiye, for example, was his mother, grandmother, or no relation at all? Although it is an interesting and important part of the Amarna studies, what is important here is that the young boy kept her belongings and even a lock of her hair, because she was very dear to him. He missed her when she died and did not want to discard his memories of her. As a small boy he was thrown into an adult world without the support of a loving family, other than his great-uncle Ay, his step-aunt Mutnodjmet, and his half-sister and wife Ankhesenamun. These relics were all that was left of a

28

ANCIENTEGYPTDecember 2007/January 2008