Episode list

Most of Howard Carter's fabulous find, the treasure of pharaoh Tutankhamen, has been kept locked in the reserves of Cairo's Archeological Museum, hence rarely studied at all. As the entire collection must be prepared for moving to the new museum, scientists seize the opportunity to catch up. A multidisciplinary team studying his elaborate leather body armor, chariot and arms -especially for archery- finds indications, compatible with data from the Luxor temples and other sources, suggesting the boy king may well have grown up to an ambitious ruler at least portraying himself as a conquering warrior taking on rebels in the Nubian south and foes among the Libyan tribes and especially the Hittite threat from the east, notably in greater Syria. His apparently hastily pre-mummified corpse suggests a battle field death.

The shiny royal death mask is the iconic showpiece of Tut's uniquely preserved treasure, vast to mirror the whole royal life in the aftermath, yet Egyptologists speculate it may not be made originally for him but adapted (from queen-mother Nefertite?) to respect the two months period religiously allotted for a funeral. That would fit many recycled elements, like the relatively modest tomb itself and about a quarter of the minor pieces, as well as the shockingly clumsy mummification -even without the vital heart- of the king, suggesting a sudden death far from Thebes. Yet according to an expert's modern techniques, the gold and (semiprecious) gems masterpiece checks out as original.

Two tiny coffins contain the mummies of two girls, by DNA test almost certain his baby daughters, not sacrifices, and lost shots at a future for his 18th dynasty. The like cause of death is incest, as their mother, his queen, was probably his full sister, like his 'history)wiped' father Achenathon's wife and his mother probably also was a sister. This incestuous practice of 'preserving royal blood' probably also accounts for his own painful infirmities, attested by various evidence from the treasure, such as tailored sandals and walking sticks. Yet the weakening of the empire during his father's religious revolution had weakened the empire, forcing him to reclaim Egypt's superpower status by war on his top-notch chariot, but may well have been killed on the battlefield, hence mummified even poorer then his hasty burial in a tomb probably switched from the fitting one by his successor Aye, a non-princely courtier, who was still wiped from memory like him, apparently all still too closely tainted by Akhenaton's cursed memory.