Treasures of Tuntankhamun Trivia Quiz

Answer: Selket

Four goddesses guarded the shrine: Selket, Isis, Nephthys, and Neith. All four of them were made with outstretched arms, which suggests they are protecting the shrine. They are beautifully carved out of wood, overlaid with gesso and gilded. The detail is amazing. Howard Carter, the archaeologist credited with the tomb's discovery, said ". . . (they are) so lifelike in their pose, so pitiful and compassionate the expression upon their faces, that one felt it almost a sacrilege to look at them." Selket is known for her control of magic, childbirth, and nursing.

Her emblem is the scorpion.

Answer: 13

A total of thirteen bracelets adorned Tut's arms, seven on the right and six on the left. Many of them were similar in appearance. Some displayed the symbol of the scarab, while others appear to have been decorative in nature. Four of the thirteen bracelets show the udjat eye, which consists of a human eye and eyebrow.

It is symbolic of the sky god, Horus, the son of Osiris and Isis, and represented either as a falcon or as a man with a falcon's head. The udjat eye protected against sickness and restored the dead to life.

Answer: True

The elongated skull appears to be a feature of Tut's family. Because of the constant inbreeding (only members of the pharaoh's family carried the divine blood necessary to produce divine offspring) deformities appear in many of the dynasties. Tut was related in some way (inbreeding really made family relations a mess!) to the pharaoh Akhenaton, who, along with other family members, even the beautiful Nefertiti, is often depicted with an elongated skull.

A wooden bust of Tut that was found in the tomb shows the family trait.

Answer: King Tut with his wife

This throne is one of six found in the tomb. Appropriately called "The Golden Throne", it is made of wood and wrapped with sheets of gold and silver, and inlaid with semiprecious stones, faience, and colored glass. King Tut and his wife, Ankhesenamum, are shown in an intimate pose on the back of the throne.

It is crafted in the Amarna style, when art became more realistic and less formal.

Answer: False

The canopic jars carry a family resemblance to Tut, however, experts are fairly certain that they bear the image of Smenkhkara, Akhenaton's co-regent at the end of his reign and possibly Tut's half-brother. If the assumption is made that Tut's death was unexpected (due to his age), it would be probable that all the funeral items needed for the afterlife were either borrowed or made quickly. Most experts agree that the funeral mask bears Tut's image, but the canopic jars do not.

These jars are exquisite; they are about six inches long, and contain hieroglyphic writing from the Book of the Dead on the inside.

Answer: Vulture

The collar was inlaid with colored glass. In the form of the vulture goddess Nekhbet, it was intended to provide magical protection. The ancient Egyptians saw the vulture as an excellent mother, with a wide wingspan and all-encompassing protective cover to her infants. Nekhbet was the mother goddess and protective patron of Upper Egypt.

Answer: 3

Four outer shrines of gilded wood covered the stone sarcophagus that entombed Tut's body. After removing the stone lid, Carter found three coffins. The coffins were shaped in the figure of King Tut. The outermost coffin was gilded wood; so was the second. The third coffin, the one which contained the body, was 242 pounds of solid gold.

Answer: Iron

The ancient Egyptians believed that the head was the seat of life, and preservation was important for life after death. Magic was needed, however, and an amulet in the form of a headrest helped. The iron headrest was placed in the linen wrappings of Tut's mummy at the back of his head. Egyptians had gold galore, but iron and silver were both considered to be more precious due to scarcity.

There are many items in Tut's tomb made out of gold, however, few made of silver and iron. Does this show that Tut was not a wealthy pharaoh?

Answer: True

It is estimated that the robbery occurred about ten years after the tomb was originally sealed. Howard Carter, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb, believed that the first time the robbers carried away gold and semiprecious stones, because he found mountings and parts of missing objects. Costly unguents were probably taken the second time.

Answer: More than 2,000

It took Howard Carter approximately eight years to remove, catalog, and restore all of the items in Tut's tomb.