1 apr 1341 anni a. C. - Birth of Prince Tutankhamun

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Tutankhamun's parentage is debated as they are 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 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 mummy from tomb KV55, thought to be Akhenaten, and his mother as "The Younger Lady", an anonymous mummy cached in tomb KV35. His parents were full siblings, both being children of Amenhotep III and his chief wife Tiye. The identity of The Younger Lady is unknown, but she cannot be Nefertiti, as she was not known to be a sister of Akhenaten. However, researchers such as Marc Gabolde and Aidan Dodson claim that Nefertiti was indeed Tutankhamun's mother. In this interpretation of the DNA results, the genetic closeness is not due to a brother-sister pairing but the result of three generations of first-cousin marriage, making Nefertiti a first cousin of Akhenaten. The validity and reliability of the genetic data from mummified remains has been questioned due to possible degradation due to decay.

Reign: Tutankhamun became pharaoh between eight and nine years of age[33] 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 and to have had a sole reign of 2 or 3 years prior to the accession of Tutankhamun 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 of 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 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.

In 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.[47] But several pieces of evidence suggest that his court was trying to reconcile Atenism with the traditional religion,[48][49][50] and activity at Amarna decreased during the first four years of his reign.[51] 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. Tutankhamun enriched and endowed the priestly orders of two important cults, initiated a restoration process for old monuments that were damaged during the Amarna Period, and 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.

Restoration Stela: In the third year of Tutankhaten's reign, his name was changed to "Tutankhamun", and that of his queen to "Ankhesenamun". The Restoration Stela, dated to Year 4 of Tutankhamun's reign, characterizes the Amarna Period as a time of disaster, saying:

"Temples and the estates of the gods and goddesses from Elephantine to the marshes of the Delta had fallen into ruin… If you asked a god for advice, he would not attend; and if one spoke to a goddess likewise she would not attend."

The stela proclaims the rebuilding of the traditional cults; priests and other members of temple staffs were restored to their former positions. The Restoration Stela was later usurped by Horemheb.

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.[65] 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.

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.[66] Temples of his cult were built as far away as in Kawa and Faras in Nubia. The title of the sister of the Viceroy of Kush included a reference to the deified king, indicative of the universality of his cult.

Chief of the Harem of the Deified Tutankhamun
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.

The Stela of Huy from Karnak Temple is also evidential of the lifetime deification of pharaoh Tutankhamun. It contains a hymn directed to the deified form of Tutankhamun. 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:
that they may give a happy lifetime and a body, joyful, every day,
to the ka of the royal son of Kush, the overseer of the countries of the south, Huy

The hymn clearly regards Tutankhamun with equivalent divinity as the god Amun.[71] 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.[72] Hence, the artwork of the stela also clearly juxtaposes Tutankhamun with deities.

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.[73] Despite his efforts for improved relations, battles with Nubians and Asiatics were recorded in his mortuary temple at Thebes, both victories for Egypt.[74] 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: One of Tutankhamun's shields, depicting him threatening lions, symbolizing Egypt's enemies
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.[8] 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.[75] 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. Yet 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. Instead, they argue that the more rigorous, scientific view is that he was physically active, and perhaps militarily participatory.[78] Egyptologist Charlotte Booth states that Tutankhamun participated in at least two battles (one Nubian battle, and one Asiatic battle), nevertheless noting that other researchers suggest that he may have only accompanied the army to the battlefield for moral support, as opposed to actively participating.

Genealogy and population affinities
A genetic study, published in 2020, revealed Tutankhamun had the haplogroups YDNA R1b, which originated in western Asia and which today makes up 50–60% of the genetic pool of modern Europeans, and mtDNA K, which originated in the Near East. He shares this Y-haplogroup with his father, the KV55 mummy (Akhenaten), and grandfather, Amenhotep III, and his mtDNA haplogroup with his mother, The Younger Lady, his grandmother, Tiye, and his great-grandmother, Thuya. The profiles for Tutankhamun and Amenhotep III were incomplete and the analysis produced differing probability figures despite having concordant allele results. Because the relationships of these two mummies with the KV55 mummy had previously been confirmed in an earlier study, the haplogroup prediction of both mummies could be derived from the full profile of the KV55 data.

In 2022, S.O.Y. Keita analysed 8 Short Tandem loci (STR) data originally published by Hawass et al. in studies from 2010 and 2012. The first of these studies had investigated familial relationships among 11 royal mummies of the New Kingdom, which included Tutankhamun and Amenhotep III, as well as potential inherited disorders and infectious diseases.[82] The second of these studies had investigated the Y-haplogroups and genetic kinship of Ramesses III and an unknown man buried along with him in the royal cache at Deir el Bahari.[83] Keita analysed the STR data from these studies using an algorithm that only has three choices: Eurasians, sub-Saharan Africans, and East Asians. Using these three options, Keita concluded that the majority of the samples had a population "affinity with 'sub-Saharan' Africans in one affinity analysis". However, Keita cautioned that this does not mean that the royal mummies "lacked other affiliations", which he argued had been obscured in typological thinking. Keita further added that different "data and algorithms might give different results", reflecting the complexity of biological heritage and the associated interpretation.

Health: Details about Tutankhamun's health and early death are heavily debated, and there has been extensive investigation into various hypothesized medical diagnoses, especially with regard to his death. The majority of the diagnoses stem from research conducted on Tutankhamun's mummy, via CT scans and genetic testing, such as the 2005 CT scans of his mummy. Out of the many hypothesized medical conditions of Tutankhamun, two of them have been confirmed to have inflicted him during his lifetime, namely, a malarial infection and a leg fracture. Various podiatric diagnoses have also been suggested. In particular, a left clubfoot diagnosis has been a subject of much debate in junction with debate about the purpose of the numerous walking sticks discovered in Tutankhamun's tomb. Furthermore, upon results of later research, some of the medical diagnoses suggested have been dismissed as confirmed misdiagnoses.

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