Tutankhamun or Tutankhamen (Ancient Egyptian: twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn; c. 1342 BC – c. 1323 BC), was the antepenultimate pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, who ruled c. 1332 – 1323 BC. Born Tutankhaten, he instituted the restoration of the traditional polytheistic form of ancient Egyptian religion, undoing a previous shift to the religion known as Atenism. Tutankhamun's reign is considered one of the greatest restoration periods in ancient Egyptian history, and his tomb door proclaims his dedication to illustrative constructions of the ancient Egyptian gods.
His endowments and restorations of cults were recorded on the Restoration Stela. The cult of the god Amun at Thebes was restored to prominence, and the royal couple changed their names to "Tutankhamun" and "Ankhesenamun", replacing the -aten suffix. He also moved the royal court from Akhenaten's capital, Amarna, back to Memphis almost immediately on his accession to the kingship. He reestablished diplomatic relations with the Mitanni and carried out military campaigns in Nubia and the Near East. Tutankhamun was one of only a few kings known to be worshipped as a deity during their lifetime. He likely began construction of a royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings and an accompanying mortuary temple, but both were unfinished at the time of his death.
Tutankhamun died unexpectedly aged about 18. In 2012, it was suggested he died from a combination of malaria and a leg fracture. Since his royal tomb was incomplete, he was instead buried in a small non-royal tomb adapted for the purpose. He was succeeded by his vizier Ay, who was probably an old man when he became king, and had a short reign. Ay was succeeded by Horemheb, who had been the commander-in-chief of Tutankhamun's armed forces. Under Horemheb, the restoration of the traditional ancient Egyptian religion was completed; Ay and Tutankhamun's constructions were usurped, and earlier Amarna Period rulers were erased.
Tutankhamun's tomb was discovered in 1922 by excavators led by Howard Carter and his patron, George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon. Although it had clearly been raided and robbed in ancient times, it retained much of its original contents, including the king's undisturbed mummy. The discovery received worldwide press coverage; with over 5,000 artifacts, it gave rise to renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's mask, preserved at the Egyptian Museum, remains a popular symbol. Before it was relocated to the Grand Egyptian Museum in 2025, some of his treasures have traveled worldwide, with unprecedented response; the Egyptian government allowed tours of the tomb beginning in 1961. The deaths of some individuals who were involved in the excavation have been popularly attributed to the "curse of the pharaohs" due to the similarity of their circumstances. Since the discovery of his tomb, he has been referred to colloquially as "King Tut".
Family
Parentage
Tutankhamun was born in the reign of Akhenaten, during the Amarna Period of the late Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. His original name was Tutankhaten or Tutankhuaten, meaning "living image of Aten", reflecting the shift in ancient Egyptian religion known as Atenism which characterized Akhenaten's reign.
His parentage is debated as it is not attested in surviving inscriptions. He was certainly a prince, as a fragmentary inscription from Hermopolis refers to "Tutankhuaten" as a "king's son". He is generally thought to have been the son of Akhenaten or his co-ruler/successor Smenkhkare. Inscriptions from Tutankhamun's reign treat him as a son of Akhenaten's father, Amenhotep III, but that is only possible if Akhenaten's 17-year reign included a long co-regency with his father, a possibility that many Egyptologists once supported but is now being abandoned. His mother has been variously suggested to be Akhenaten's chief wife Nefertiti, Amenhotep III's daughter Beketaten, or Akhenaten's daughters Meritaten or Meketaten. Tutankhamun was wet nursed by a woman named Maia, known from her tomb at Saqqara.
DNA testing identified his father as the mummified man from tomb KV55, thought to be either Akhenaten or Smenkhkare. "The Younger Lady", an anonymous mummy cached in tomb KV35, was identified as Tutankhamun's mother. According to genetic research, his parents appear to be full siblings, both being children of Amenhotep III and his chief wife, Tiye.
The exact identity of The Younger Lady is unknown. Nefertiti is not known to be a sister of Akhenaten, which seemingly excludes her. However, researchers such as Marc Gabolde and Aidan Dodson claim that it remains a possibility, with the alternative reading of genetic results that proposes Tutankhamun was a result not of a brother/sister pairing but instead of three generations of first-cousin marriage; the theory works under assumption that Nefertiti and Akhenaten were related to each other.
Kara Cooney considers unlikely both Nefertiti being Tutankhamun's mother and the Younger Lady being Akhenaten's sister; she instead proposes that Akhenaten fathered his son by one of his daughters, Meritaten or Meketaten, "making him [Tutankhamun] a product of father-daughter incest and thus fitting the [inbreeding] DNA evidence of his body". Juan Belmonte acknowledges the genetic possibility of Akhenaten's daughter being the Younger Lady, although he notes it would be very improbable. Assuming the accuracy of the results, the Younger Lady is most likely one of Amenhotep III and Tiye's younger daughters, perhaps Nebetah or Beketaten.
The validity and reliability of the genetic data from mummified remains have been questioned due to possible degradation due to decay, as well as ambiguous readings of the results due to potential inbreeding in the family. Joyce Tyldesley ignores the genetic results altogether and considers KV55 male and the Younger Lady more likely to be Smenkhkare and Meritaten as Tutankhamun's half-siblings, with Tutankhamun being a son of Akhenaten by Kiya in her reconstruction.
Juan Belmonte argues that female succession after Akhenaten seems to suggest that Tutankhamun was not viewed heir apparent to the throne. Based on that, Belmonte speculates Tutankhamun was neither Akhenaten's son nor grandson, but instead Akhenaten's nephew as child of Smenkhkare by his sister-consort, who never became the Great Royal Wife herself.
Consorts and children
When Tutankhaten became king, he married Ankhesenpaaten, one of Akhenaten's daughters, who later changed her name to Ankhesenamun. He fathered two daughters who died at or soon after birth and were buried with him in his tomb. Computed tomography studies published in 2011 revealed that one daughter was born prematurely at 5–6 months of pregnancy and the other at full-term, 9 months. DNA testing has suggested the anonymous mummy KV21A is their mother, but the data is not statistically significant enough to allow her to be securely identified as his only known wife, Ankhesenamun.
Regardless of KV21a's maternity, genetic research suggests that male mummy KV55, who is suggested to be Ankhesenamun's father, Akhenaten, cannot be the two girls's maternal grandfather. Assuming the accuracy of the obtained data, this could mean that the mother of the two princesses was not Ankhesenamun but some unknown wife of Tutankhamun, although there also remains the possibility that Akhenaten was not Ankhesenamun's biological father, or that the KV55 male is not Akhenaten but Smenkhkare.
Two other children, a boy and a girl, are depicted alongside Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun on ivory box. They have been proposed to be either a symbolic representation of the royal couple or the pair's otherwise unknown offspring.
Tutankhamun's death marked the end of the royal bloodline of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Reign
Tutankhamun became pharaoh between 8 and 9 years of age following the short reigns of Akhenaten's successors, Smenkhkare and Neferneferuaten. It is uncertain whether Smenkhkare's reign outlasted Akhenaten's; the female ruler Neferneferuaten is now thought to have either been co-regent shortly before Akhenaten's death or to have had a sole reign of two or three years before the accession of Tutankhamun, which means that she was Tutankhamun's predecessor according to Athena van der Perre and Nozumu Kawai. On acceding to the throne, Tutankhamun took the throne name Nebkheperure. He reigned for about nine years.
During Tutankhamun's reign, the position of Vizier was split between Upper and Lower Egypt. The principal vizier for Upper Egypt was Usermontu. Another figure named Pentju was also vizier, but it is unclear which lands. It is not entirely known if Ay, Tutankhamun's successor, actually held this position. A gold foil fragment from KV58 seems to indicate, but not certainly, that Ay was referred to as a Priest of Maat along with an epithet of "vizier, doer of maat." The epithet does not fit the usual description used by the regular vizier but might indicate an informal title. It might be that Ay used the title of vizier in an unprecedented manner.
An Egyptian priest named Manetho wrote a comprehensive history of ancient Egypt where he refers to a king named Orus, who ruled for 36 years and had a daughter named Acencheres, who reigned for twelve years, and her brother Rathotis, who ruled for only nine years. The Amarna rulers are central in the list, but which name corresponds with which historic figure is not agreed upon by researchers. Orus and Acencheres have been identified with Horemheb and Akhenaten, and Rathotis with Tutankhamun. The names are also associated with Smenkhkare, Amenhotep III, Ay, and the others in differing order.
For the pharaoh, who held divine office, to be linked to the people and the gods, special epithets were created for them at their accession to the throne. The ancient Egyptian titulary also served to demonstrate one's qualities and link them to the terrestrial realm. The five names were developed over the centuries, beginning with the Horus name. Tutankhamun's original nomen, Tutankhaten, did not have a Nebty name or a Gold Falcon name associated with it as nothing has been found with the full five-name protocol.
Religiopolitical countermand
At the beginning of Tutankhaten's reign, the royal court was still located at Amarna, and evidence from his tomb shows that the Aten was still acknowledged. But several pieces of evidence suggest that his court was trying to reconcile Atenism with the traditional religion, and activity at Amarna decreased during the first four years of his reign. These years saw dramatic reversals of Akhenaten's policies, which, given the king's young age, must have been instigated by his advisors.
In his third regnal year, Tutankhamun reversed several changes made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The king changed his name to "Tutankhamun", and that of his queen to "Ankhesenamun". Tutankhamun enriched and endowed the priestly orders of important cults, and initiated a restoration process for old monuments that were damaged during the Amarna Period, and recorded these actions on the Restoration Stela erected in his regnal year 4; the stele was later usurped by Horemheb. He reburied his father's remains in the Valley of the Kings. It has been argued that it was in fact Tutankhamun himself, and not his successors, who began reversing Akhenaten's religious changes on a large scale.
Around this time, the royal court abandoned Amarna. Memphis became the main seat of royal administration, continuing a trend that dated back to Akhenaten's predecessors, toward administering the country from that central location rather than the more outlying site of Thebes. The capital was moved back to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten was abandoned. With Amun restored as Egypt's preeminent deity, Thebes once again became its greatest center of religious activity.
Tutankhamun's treasurer, Maya, titled overseer of the treasuries, was instrumental in executing Tutankhamun's regal orders of the restoration program. In his autobiography, he described himself as "one who carried out the plans of the king of my time and one who did not neglect what he had commanded to make splendid the temples, in fashioning the images of the gods".
This countermand rendered Tutankhamun's reign one of the greatest restoration periods in ancient Egyptian history. The action established his legacy as such. Concurrently, Tutankhamun's tomb door describes him as he "who spent his life fashioning images of the gods".
Architectural projects
As part of the restoration of the traditional cults, the king initiated building projects, in particular at Karnak in Thebes, where he laid out the sphinx avenue leading to the temple of Mut. The sphinxes were originally made for Akhenaten and Nefertiti; they were given new ram heads and small statues of the king. At Luxor temple he completed the decoration of the entrance colonnade of Amenhotep III. Tutankhamun made several endowments that enriched and added to the priestly numbers of the cults of Amun and Ptah. He commissioned new statues of the deities from the best metals and stone and had new processional barques made of the finest cedar from Lebanon and had them embellished with gold and silver.
A building called the Temple-of-Nebkheperure-Beloved-of-Amun-Who-Puts-Thebes-in-Order, which may be identical to a building called Temple-of-Nebkheperre-in-Thebes, a possible mortuary temple, used recycled talatat from Akhenaten's east Karnak Aten temples, indicating that the dismantling of these temples was already underway. Many of Tutankhamun's construction projects were uncompleted at the time of his death and were completed by or usurped by his successors, especially Horemheb. The Sphinx Avenue was completed by his successor, Ay, and the whole was usurped by Horemheb. Pieces of the Temple of Nebkheperure in Thebes were recycled into Horemheb's own building projects.
Military campaigns
The country was economically weak and in turmoil following the reign of Akhenaten. Diplomatic relations with other kingdoms had been neglected, and Tutankhamun sought to restore them, in particular with the Mitanni. Evidence of his success is suggested by the gifts from various countries found in his tomb. Despite his efforts for improved relations, battles with Nubians and Asiatics were recorded in his mortuary temple at Thebes, both victories for Egypt. Also, as far as is known, Tutankhamun's military reign was undefeated, and is one of several other undefeated reigns in ancient Egypt's history.
Battle participation
The extent to which Tutankhamun participated in battles is an open question and has yet to reach consensus among researchers. On one hand, his tomb contained extensive military armament, such as bows, khopesh swords, daggers, wristguards, maces, shields, and a club, indicating he had extensive weaponry training. Many such items were inscribed with his name, and clearly in used condition. High quality archery weaponry and archery equipment was in abundance in his tomb. For example, there were over 400 arrows and over 40 bows.
Various imagery, in ancient Egypt's classic battle narrative art genre, does depict Tutankhamun as directly participatory in warfare, such as the graphic battle depictions on the painted treasure chest in his tomb, and a gold leaf picture of him during chariot archery against enemies. Additional figurative military art depicts him dominating enemies, such as imagery of him as a sphinx trampling foes. Other personalized artifacts, such as the Nine Bows footstool, walking sticks, and sandals depicting enemies, suggest that he was personally involved in Egypt's international conflict. One of the composite bows in Tutankhamun's tomb have tips carved and painted to resemble bounded enemies position so that the bowstring is tied around the neck. Thus, whenever the bow was drawn, the enemy depiction was strangled. This also indicates personalized investment in military conflict. Egyptologist Bob Brier has argued leaning towards Tutankhamun being an actively participating warrior in his later years.
On the other hand, given Tutankhamun's youth and hypothesized physical disabilities, like a speculated cane handicap, some historians are skeptical that he participated in these battles. However, there are strong objections to both concerns. For example some experts, such as Biomedical Egyptologist Sofia Aziz and other researchers, have taken the position that the speculations of Tutankhamun's physical frailty are overestimated, arguing that mummy damage has led to misdiagnosis. For example, Tutankhamun's mummy endured being sawed in half at the torso, decapitation, torso dismemberment, skull impalement, and dismemberment of all four limbs including at elbows, wrists, knees and ankles. Instead, the researchers argue that the more rigorous, scientific view is that he was physically active and perhaps militarily participatory. Egyptologist Salima Ikram has also argued against the physical disability view, arguing for Tutankhamun's active battle participation, noting that mummy damage could be the source of the suspected physical disabilities, particularly the suspected podiatric illness especially because it does not match walking cane wear. Furthermore, the leather armor suit and other weaponry discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb also indicate active battle participation.
Tutankhamun's youth is also consistent with him being militarily participatory given that boy soldiering was standard in Ancient Egypt. Imagery from the reign of Horemheb depict him accompanied by young naked boys serving as errand-boys in the military. Other scribal texts such as the Miscellanies detail how young boys were enlisted in the military at very early ages. The text Teaching for King Merykara describes similar recruitment protocol. Another text, Papyrus Sallier I, states that
"The child will be at the service of the soldier whereas the teenager will be an infantryman."
Egyptologist Amandine Marshall stated of boy soldiers that "once they reached the end of their childhood, as teenagers they would have been fully integrated into the Egyptian army, becoming soldiers trained to kill to defend their king and country". Hence, overall, given that boy soldiers were widespread and normalized in this time period, Tutankhamun's youth is unproblematic for the plausibility of his active battle participation.
During-life deification
In ancient Egypt, pharaohs were venerated after their deaths through mortuary cults and associated temples as deities. This form of apotheosis was typically reserved for deceased pharaohs, but Tutankhamun was one of the few pharaohs who was worshiped in this manner during his lifetime. This is known from several different points of evidence, such as temples in Nubia and distinct Karnak stela that all indicated worship of Tutankhamun as a deity during his lifetime.
Nubian temples
At least two temples of his cult were built in Nubia. One temple was built in Kawa, Nubia that was dedicated to the god Amun, and the god Amun in its local form incarnation, which was literally identical Tutankhamun.
Another smaller temple was built in Faras, Nubia in a town referred to as 'He who appeases the gods'. The temple was called, “Pacifying the gods”, which is the same as Tutankhamun's Golden Horus name. This temple was dedicated to the gods of the traditional indigenous ancient Egyptian religion, as opposed to the Aten. Namely, the gods associated were Amun, Amun-Ra, Re-Horakhty and the deified form of Tutankhamun himself as a local incarnation of Amun. In addition to temple the theological purposes, it also functioned as a headquarters of Egypt's Nubain administration.
Egyptologist Lanny Bell described the meaning of a criosphinx imagery at Kawa as a representation of the deified form of Tutankhamun as Amun-Re:
In the context of the extensive evidence available on the assimilation of the king to Amun-Re, especially in Nubia, Tutankhamun's adoration of himself as a form of this god at Kawa is hardly as outlandish as might at first have seemed. In this he was following the precedent of Amenhotep III; Ramesses II merely displayed the symbolism of his predecessors on an unparalleled scale.
Tutankhamun patterned his cult parallel to Amenhotep III, except emphasizing Amun instead of Aten. Then, Ramesses II would amplify this cult structure in the design of his own cult.
Stela of Huy
The Stela of Huy discovered at Karnak Temple is also evidence of the lifetime deification of pharaoh Tutankhamun, indicating that Tutankhamun's cult was flourishing in the Theban region, as well. It contains a hymn directed to the deified form of Tutankhamun as the local Amun. Below is an excerpt of an English translation:
Give praises the ka of Amun,
lord of Karnak homage to Amun,
by whom swear the Two Lands
and ... to the royal ka of Tutankhamun
The hymn clearly regards Tutankhamun with equivalent divinity as the god Amun. Lanny Bell also described artwork accompanying the Stela of Huy, stating that Huy is shown standing adoring three deities: Amun-Re the lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands, a ram-headed Amun, and the royal ka of Tutankhamun. Hence, the artwork of the stela also clearly juxtaposes Tutankhamun with deities.
Cult structure
Tutankhamun's cult of his deified form had its own hierarchical structure that resembled the structure of a typical pharaoh mortuary cult. Information obtained from tomb TT40, the tomb of Huy provides information about these positions. An official named Khay carried the title First Prophet of Nebkheperura, a position responsible for overseeing the posthumous cult of Tutankhamun, whose throne name was Nebkheperura. Another official, named Mermose, was the Second Prophet of Nebkheperura. Merymose is the younger brother of Huy. Three positions in the cult and their respective appointees are known, summarized in the table below:
Viceory Huy was appointed by Tutankhamun as the officiator of the cult. Mermose, the second in the hierarchal structure, was the brother of Viceroy Huy. The harem that Taemwadjsy managed was located at Kawa, Nubia, and was specifically dedicated to Tutankhamun's deified form. It was a distinct harem from his other mortal cult, the Harem of Amun-Re.
This clergy structure of the cult of the deified form of Tutankhamun followed a similar clergy structure to the ordinary cult of Amun. In the ordinary Amun priesthood, the High Priest of Amun, also known as the First Prophet of Amun was the leading authority, while the Second Prophet of Amun was a subordinate position. This is analogous to the how Viceroy Huy was the First Prophet of Tutankhamun, and Mermose was the Second Prophet of Tutankhamun. Similarly, Taemwadjsy's position of Chief of the Harem of the Deified Tutankhamun is akin to the position of the Chief of the Harem of Amun-Re.