He’s one of the most famous faces of ancient Egypt, and yet we may have been wrong to associate him with Pharaoh Tutankhamun. After re-examining the original 1922 discovery, experts are increasingly convinced that the legendary golden burial mask was not intended for the young king, but for a high-ranking woman or child.
As explained by the American magazine Popular Mechanics, the perforated ears of the mask were designed to accommodate earrings. These could only have been made for a woman or child: in this culture, toddlers often wore this type of jewelry, while adult males did not.
“This mask was not designed for an adult male pharaoh,” says Joann Fletcher, Egyptologist and visiting professor in the department of archeology at the University of York (Canada). When gold was compared, [on a découvert] that the face was made of a completely different gold from the rest.”
A hasty funeral
Indeed, traces of welding are “clearly visible on the mask”, explains the researcher. It is possible that the face of King “Tut” was grafted onto the mask of the previous sovereign – the latter would thus have had his ears pierced. According to Johann Fletcher, it could be a woman: Queen Nefertiti, stepmother of the young pharaoh, whose burial place has never been found. As theories continue to pile up about the identity of the true recipient of the gold mask, the latest episode of the earrings only reinforces the thesis that it was Nefertiti who was the original “owner” of the mask .
The iconic object stands 30 centimeters tall, is encrusted with precious stones, and features a 5.5-kilogram golden beard (part of a larger 22.5-kilogram gold mask). This beard has…
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