A recent study has revealed new secrets within the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, first discovered in 1922 in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings and considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, the Daily Mail reported on Monday.
An Egyptologist working at Yale University, Nicholas Brown, released a study stating that some overlooked artifacts within the tomb were far more important than first thought.
Brown reinterpreted the pottery trays and wooden sticks placed near the pharaoh’s coffin as not just mere traditional funerary tools, but an essential part of the funeral rituals of Osiris, god of the underworld.
The researcher suggested that the clay trays were used for liquid offerings, such as pouring Nile water – believed to help restore life to the deceased’s body.
A forgotten ritual
And the wooden sticks placed near Tutankhamun’s head may have played a role in ritually “awakening” the pharaoh, based on the myth in which Osiris is commanded to awaken by sticks held behind his head.
Brown says that objects are arranged specifically to mimic the ritual of Osiris’ awakening, suggesting that Tutankhamun may have been the first to initiate this ritual for his death.
Funeral rituals during Tutankhamun’s reign were influenced by the policies of his predecessor, Akhenaten, who changed the state’s religious doctrine to focus on the worship of the sun God Aten, ignoring traditional rituals associated with Osiris.
Brown explains that these changes therefore impacted resurrection rituals, but after Akhenaten’s death, Tutankhamun and his officials restored the old religious beliefs and reintegrated Osiris into royal funerary rituals.
Alternative theory
Brown’s interpretation has sparked debate among Egyptologists.
According to the Daily Mail, an Egyptologist at the University of Groningen, Jacobus van Dijk, believes that the clay trays were not part of the Osiris ritual.
Instead, he referred to another ritual which involves four people holding torches at all corners of the sarcophagus in order to guide the dead through the underworld.
The clay trays, filled with “white cow’s milk”, are then used to extinguish the torches.
