Post by Tamrin on Oct 19, 2008 12:01:30 GMT 10
Tutankhamun's burial is the best known royal Egyptian internment. While probably not originally as salubrious as most others, it remained relatively undisturbed until Howard Carter's discovery.
Among the treasures were some statues with peculiar features for depictions of a "boy king," which many observers appear to overlook: Breasts!
Now possibly people dismiss these features as a hangover from the style of art during Akhenaten's Amarna Period, when flattering depictions of royalty gave way to an exaggerated realism, along the lines of caricature. The point about such depictions is that they appear to have been intended to be unflattering (no doubt with an overly modest royal mandate) and, to the extent that there may have been a basis in reality, appear to suggest a disorder such as Marburg's Syndrome. The breasts depicted on the statues are however not sagging, as in the Amarna style, but rather pert (the slightly sagging belly is typical of classical depictions of women).
We need to bear-in-mind that tradition required the burial to take place seventy days after the monarch's death, which didn't leave much time for the finishing of the tomb and the acquisition of grave goods. While tomb robbing was a serious crime, it was also a necessary and well rewarded crime, with much of the loot going towards subsequent burials.
Now, getting back to the busty statues, suggestions have been raised that these and other grave goods may have been appropriated from the plundered tomb of the Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut.
Among the treasures were some statues with peculiar features for depictions of a "boy king," which many observers appear to overlook: Breasts!
Now possibly people dismiss these features as a hangover from the style of art during Akhenaten's Amarna Period, when flattering depictions of royalty gave way to an exaggerated realism, along the lines of caricature. The point about such depictions is that they appear to have been intended to be unflattering (no doubt with an overly modest royal mandate) and, to the extent that there may have been a basis in reality, appear to suggest a disorder such as Marburg's Syndrome. The breasts depicted on the statues are however not sagging, as in the Amarna style, but rather pert (the slightly sagging belly is typical of classical depictions of women).
We need to bear-in-mind that tradition required the burial to take place seventy days after the monarch's death, which didn't leave much time for the finishing of the tomb and the acquisition of grave goods. While tomb robbing was a serious crime, it was also a necessary and well rewarded crime, with much of the loot going towards subsequent burials.
Now, getting back to the busty statues, suggestions have been raised that these and other grave goods may have been appropriated from the plundered tomb of the Pharaoh Queen Hatshepsut.