The tomb of Tutankhamun was unlike many of the tombs typical of a royal in the 18th Dynasty. In many ways there are features absent which are present in the tombs of other Pharaoh’s from the same dynasty. Yet, despite the differences, there are also similarities present which connect Tutankhamun to his time period. To accurately assess the extent of the typicality of Tutankhamun’s tomb within the 18th Dynasty, another Pharaonic tomb of the time must be contrasted, the standard burial practices compared and the evidence for the tomb’s lack of planning or completion must be examined. In comparison with other 18th Dynasty tombs of the elite ranks, Tutankhamun’s tomb lacked in aspects of size, decoration and structure. The size of Tutankhamun’s …show more content…
The maturity of his skeleton and wisdom teeth are able to confirm that Tutankhamun was approximately nineteen years of age at the time of his passing, but life expectancy at the time was generally into the mid-forties at least, with many Pharaohs surpassing this. (Anon., n.d.)Evidence such as this and the comparatively smaller size of the tomb indicate that the young Pharaoh’s death occurred unexpectedly and left little time to prepare a standard royal tomb of the 18th Dynasty. It has been noted by the tomb’s founder, Howard Carter, that the state of the tomb’s antechamber was one of “organised chaos,” and that shrines surrounding Tutankhamun’s sarcophagus, “had obviously been banged together, regardless of the risk of damage.” The tombs crammed display of the Pharaoh’s possessions is yet another indication of a scurry to prepare a tomb. The sarcophagus’s lid was also, oddly, made from two slightly different coloured blocks of granite. The differing shades of granites suggest that the lid of the sarcophagus did not originally match its body and that workers were employed to manipulate the outer shape to match the Pharaoh’s outline. The incorrect shape signifies that the sarcophagus may have perhaps been intended for somebody else but was commandeered to accommodate for the Pharaoh’s sudden demise. Professor Ralph Mitchell, a research professor from the