What is the significance of king tuts death mask

When Howard Carter first came upon this coffin, it was not the shiny golden image we see in the Egyptian Museum today. This was obviously an anointing liquid which had been poured over the coffin during the burial ceremony and in great quantity some two buckets full. The image of the pharaoh is that of a god. The gods were thought to have skin of gold, bones of silver, and hair of lapis lazuli—so the king is shown here in his divine form in the afterlife.

The goddesses Nekhbet vulture and Wadjet cobra , inlaid with semiprecious stones, stretch their wings across his torso. Beneath these goddesses are two more—Isis and Nephthys—etched into the gold lid. The death mask above is considered one of the masterpieces of Egyptian art. It originally rested directly on the shoulders of the mummy inside the innermost gold coffin. It is constructed of two sheets of gold that were hammered together and weighs Tutankhamen is depicted wearing the striped nemes headdress the striped head-cloth typically worn by pharaohs in ancient Egypt with the goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet depicted again protecting his brow.

He also wears a false beard that further connects him to the image of a god as with the inner coffin. He wears a broad collar, which ends in terminals shaped as falcon heads. The back of the mask is covered with Spell b from the Book of the Dead, which the Egyptians used as a road map for the afterlife.

Inlays of semiprecious stones and glass paste form the broad collar, which ends in falcon heads. The curving beard on his chin, made of dark blue glass set into a framework of gold, signals his divine status, and the Two Ladies—the vulture and cobra goddess on his forehead—indicate his status as lord of the Two Lands, all of Egypt. The face of the mask was finished with a thin layer of gold with a high silver content, giving it a distinctive radiance.

Pieces of genuine lapis lazuli form the cosmetic lines of his eyes. When Carter found the object, gold foil covered large holes in the ears. On the back text associates parts of the mask and the body with various divinities.

That Tutankhamun met his end at such a young age has long puzzled Egyptologists and the public alike. The great royal wife of Amenhotep III, queen Tiye has gone down in history for the important role she played Read more…. One of the most notable features of King Tut's mask is the long, narrow golden beard. False beards similar to the one on the mask would have been worn by the pharaoh as a symbol of his position as a living god and divine being.

Coupled with the false beard, the crook and flail crossed over the chest would have emphasized the relationship between Osiris, lord of the underworld, and the spirit of the deceased pharaoh.

Spells for protection and guidance from the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead are carved into the back and shoulders. However, it has traveled throughout the United States and Europe many times over the last fifty years.

For the time being, the mask is at rest in Cairo and no further tours are planned.