Death Mask of Tutankhamen
1323 BCE
Thebes, Egypt
Dynasty 18

According to the Brittanica,
 

Tutankhamen
fl. 14th century BC 
original name TUTANKHATEN, king of Egypt (reigned 1333-23 BC), known chiefly for his intact tomb discovered in 1922. During his reign, powerful advisers restored the traditional Egyptian religion and art style after the death of Akhenaton, who had led the "Amarna revolution."
Medical analysis of his mummy shows that Tutankhaten was probably a brother of Smenkhkare, his immediate predecessor, and son-in-law of King Akhenaton, with whom Smenkhkare was coregent. As suggested by a docket from Tell el-Amarna (Akhenaton's capital Akhetaton) and other circumstantial evidence, young Tutankhaten probably became king after the deaths of Akhenaton and his coregent. Seals from Tell el-Amarna suggest that Tutankhaten resided there during his first year or two. He was married to Akhenaton's third daughter, probably the eldest surviving princess of the royal family, to solidify his claim to the throne. Because at his accession he was still young, his vizier and regent, Ay, who had ties with the royal family, and the general of the armies, Horemheb, became his chief advisers.

Under their tutelage, Tutankhaten moved his residence to Memphis, the administrative capital, near modern Cairo, and restored his father's Theban palace. He also changed his name, at the latest by the fourth year of his reign, to Tutankhamen and issued a decree restoring the temples, images, personnel, and privileges of the old gods and also admitting the errors of Akhenaton's course. In spite of these capitulations to the Amon priesthood, no proscription or persecution of Aten, Akhenaton's god, was undertaken. Royal vineyards (up to the king's death) and elements of the army still remained named after the Aten.

During the ninth year of Tutankhamen's reign, perhaps under Horemheb, the Egyptians marched into Syria to assist Egypt's old ally, the Mitannian kingdom of northern Syria, which was embroiled in hostilities with vassals of the Hittites. As reinforcements sent by the Hittite king hastened to aid his vassals, Tutankhamen unexpectedly died, aged about 18 years. Because none of his children survived, Ay succeeded him, perhaps marrying his widow.

King Tutankhamen's Tomb
c1325 BCE
Thebes, Egypt
Dynasty 18

According to the Brittanica,

Some time after his death, Tutankhamen's tomb in western Thebes (not his original, which Ay had appropriated for himself) was entered twice by plunderers who, however, were caught after doing only minor damage. The burial chamber was not entered and remained intact until it was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter, the English Egyptologist who excavated the tomb. When in the 19th dynasty the "Amarna kings"--Akhenaton, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamen, and Ay--were stricken from the royal lists and publicly condemned, the location of Tutankhamen's tomb was forgotten, and his relatively few monuments were usurped, primarily by his former general, Horemheb, who subsequently became pharaoh. In the 20th dynasty, when the tomb of Ramses VI was cut immediately above that of Tutankhamen, the stone rubble dumped down the side of the valley covered the young king's tomb with a deep layer of chips. The workers of the 20th dynasty came close to Tutankhamen's tomb and clearly had no knowledge of it. The tomb escaped the great series of robberies at the end of the 20th dynasty and was preserved until a systematic search of the Valley of the Kings revealed its location.

The tomb was found in November of 1922 by Howard Carter who was working for Lord Carnarvon.  They spent a long time cataloging all of the treasures found in the tomb and their exact locations before most were transported off site.  It is believed that because Tutankhamen died at such an early age that a minor officials tomb was converted to suit the needs of the dead king.  Tutankhamen's lineage is not recorded but it is known that he married one of the daughters of Akhenaton.  He came to power at the age of nine and turned his back on the reforms that were made by Akhenaton.  He reestablished the worship of Amen and changed his name to Tutankhamen which means "the living image of Amen."  He restored art to the classic style but the influence of Akhenaton can still be seen in the art of this period.  He died at eighteen of unknown causes and was buried in this tomb.  The tomb was breached by vandals early on but the sealed inner chamber was never pilfered.

Iconography:  The nemes headdress and false beard are symbols of kingship.  The crook and flail are symbols of Osiris.

Context:  There were three coffins total.  The body was mummified, wrapped, covered with a death mask, sealed in this coffin covered in charcoal, sand, and lime, sealed in another coffin, covered in charcoal, sand, and lime, and then sealed in the final coffin.  The layers of charcoal, sand, and lime help seal the body and keep it well preserved.

According to the Brittanica,

Inside his small tomb, the king's mummy lay within a nest of three coffins, the innermost of solid gold, the two outer ones of gold hammered over wooden frames. On the king's head was a magnificent golden portrait mask , and numerous pieces of jewelry and amulets lay upon the mummy and in its wrappings. The coffins and stone sarcophagus were surrounded by four shrines of hammered gold over wood, covered with texts, which practically filled the burial chamber. The other rooms were crammed with furniture, statuary, clothes, a chariot, weapons, staffs, and numerous other objects. But for his tomb, Tutankhamen had little claim to fame; as it is, he is perhaps better known than any of his longer lived and better documented predecessors and successors.

Form:  The is Tutankhamen death mask.  He wears a nemes headdress that has a royal uraeus and a vultures head on it.  He also wears a false beard.  Tutankhamen is depicted classically but with a naturalistic flare befitting the Akhenaton style.

Iconography:  This mask is an icon of protection.  The royal uraeus and vultures head are symbols of Lower and Upper Egypt.  The nemes headdress and false beard are symbols of kingship.

Context:  When making a mummy the body is cut from top to bottom and some of the organs are discarded.  The ones that are saved are put into canopic jars.  The brain is pulled out through the nasal cavity and then the body is buried in a sodium mixture to remove moisture.  The mummy is then wrapped and dressed.

Iconography:  This lid is an icon of the Egyptians ability to mix religion and art in a very successful manner.  It is an icon of one of the spirits of Tutankhamen.  The nemes headdress is a symbol of power and kingship.

Context:  This is one lid in a set of four.  The four lids represent the four spirits of Tutankhamen.  His organs are preserved in the four jars and the lids guard them.

Iconography:  Pomegranates are often an icon of fertility due to their excessive red seeds.

Context:  Silver was very rare in Egypt at the time of Tutankhamen and was considered very valuable.  Pomegranate's were also very rare, they were imported from western Asia.  The combination of the two makes this piece a very rare contextual specimen.

According to the Brittanica,

the dung beetle (Scarabaeus sacer). This beetle may be seen on sunny days forming a ball of dung and rolling it over the sand to its burrow, where the ball is consumed in the following days. The Egyptians apparently shared the widespread belief that the beetle lays its eggs in this ball of dung and saw in the life cycle of the beetle a microcosm of the daily rebirth of the sun; the ancient sun-god Khepri was conceived as a great scarab beetle rolling the sun across the heavens. The scarab also became a symbol of the enduring human soul as well, hence its frequent appearance, often with wings spread, in funerary art. Quantities of dead beetles have been discovered in burials of the earliest period, apparently to ensure the continued existence of the human soul; the later mummification of scarabs stems from the fact that they were sacred to Khepri at Heliopolis.

Scarabs of various materials, glazed steatite being most common, form an important class of Egyptian antiquities. Such objects usually have the bases inscribed or decorated with designs and are simultaneously amulets and seals. Though they first appeared in the late Old Kingdom (c. 2575-c. 2130 BC), when they evolved from the so-called button seals, scarabs remained rare until Middle Kingdom times (1938-c. 1600? BC), when they were fashioned in great numbers. Some were used simply as ornaments, while others were purely amuletic in purpose, as the large basalt "heart scarabs" of the New Kingdom (1539-1075 BC) and later times, which were placed in the bandages of mummies and were symbolically identified with the heart of the deceased. A winged scarab might also be placed on the breast of the mummy, and later a number of other scarabs were placed about the body.

The seal type of scarab was, however, the most common, and many clay sealings have been found attesting to this use. Spiral motifs and titles of officials are characteristic of Middle Kingdom examples, while on later scarabs a wide variety of designs and inscriptions is found. The inscriptions are sometimes mottoes referring to places, deities, and so on or containing words of good omen or friendly wishes. Historically, the most valuable class of scarabs is that which bears royal names; these ranged in date from the 11th dynasty to the Late Period. The names of the Hyksos dynasts have been largely recovered from collections of scarabs.

A related type of seal amulet, called by Egyptologists the scaraboid, was similar in shape but lacked the details of the beetle's anatomy. Egyptian scarabs were carried by trade throughout the eastern Mediterranean and to Mesopotamia. Numerous examples of Greek and Etruscan imitations have also been found.

Iconography:  Ankhs are commonly symbols of life or the concept of life.  Because it was an object created for Tutankhamen it may also be a symbol of his power to give or take life from his people and enemies.

Context:  An ankh is a hieroglyph that represents part of a sandal.  The round part would surround the foot, the arms would span the width of the foot, and the long part would come up between the toes.  Mirrors were sometimes also referred to as ankhs so the artist that devised this piece may have been trying to be clever.

According to the Brittanica an ankh is the,

ancient Egyptian hieroglyph signifying "life," a cross surmounted by a loop and known in Latin as a crux ansata (ansate, or handle-shaped, cross). It is found in ancient tomb inscriptions, including those of the king Tutankhamen, and gods and pharaohs are often depicted holding it. The ankh forms part of hieroglyphs for such concepts as health and happiness. The form of the symbol suggests perhaps a sandal strap as its original meaning, though it has been seen as representing a magical knot. As a cross, it has been extensively used in the symbolism of the Coptic Christian church.

Iconography:  Here the king is represented as an icon of Osiris.  It is an icon of birth or rebirth.  This head is also an icon of the divine status of Tutankhamen.

Context:  This piece was discovered in the corridor of the tomb.  According to the Egyptian religion, the sun god, Osiris, emerged from a lotus flower that was in the primordial ocean.

Form:  This chest is made of wood that has been painted.  It features a scene, on the top of the chest, that shows the young king as a great hunter.  On the front of the box and shown in the detail on the left is the king riding in a chariot with his bow drawn.  Behind him are three more standards containing men and chariots.  In front of the king are his enemies who are being trampled by his horse and slaughtered by his strength and power.

Iconography:  The men and chariots that are behind the king, in standards, are iconographic of his large support and the organization of his armies.  The size of the king is iconographic of his strength and power.  The chaotic scene to the right of the king is iconographic of his enemies non organization and of his superiority over them.

Context:  The king did not live very long and the probability that he took place in a fight, like the one featured on this chest, is small but as king he is expected to be displayed in this manner.  The Akhenaton influence in this picture is small but on the side of the enemies the organization is reminiscent of that style.  The movement in the picture plane is also akin to Akhenaton style.

Iconography:  This piece is iconographic of the time, thought, luxury and wealth that was spent on a common piece of furniture that was made for the king.

Context:  Twelve stools of six different styles were found in Tutankhamen's tomb.
 

Iconography:  Leopards are symbols of power.

Context:  This piece would have been used to secure Leopard skins onto the body of the king Tutankhamen.

Iconography:  The piece is iconographic of the the power of the jaguar and the oil would then instill power in the wearer.

Context:  This piece probably original held perfume or oils.  These oils were used in funeral rituals and in everyday life by royalty.