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SMART NEWS


SEE 1,000 PERFECT REPLICAS OF OBJECTS UNEARTHED FROM KING TUT’S TOMB

A traveling exhibition on view in Washington, D.C. blends education and
entertainment, letting visitors get up close and personal with the ancient
Egyptian pharaoh’s treasures

Meilan Solly

Associate Editor, History

May 3, 2024

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The exhibition features recreations of the tomb's antechamber, burial chamber
and treasury. Exhibition Hub


In 1924, two years after British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered
Tutankhamun’s tomb, an exhibition in London promised to immerse visitors in a
“complete replica” of the ancient Egyptian pharaoh’s final resting place.

Working off of published photographs and drawings of the tomb, artist William
Aumonier spent eight months painstakingly recreating such artifacts as an ornate
throne, a wooden bed and a statue of the boy king, who reigned in the 14th
century B.C.E. Though the display wasn’t an exact mirror of the site in Egypt’s
Valley of the Kings, its reproductions exhibited an impressive level of
attention to detail and commitment to accuracy—thanks in part to Egyptologist
Arthur Weigall, who’d witnessed Carter’s excavation firsthand.



But at least one person disapproved of the venture: Carter himself. The
archaeologist sued the event’s organizers for copyright infringement—and lost.
Ultimately, more than 25 million people attended the exhibition, which counted
the replica tomb among its greatest hits.

One of the chambers of Tut's tomb, as photographed by Harry Burton Public domain
via Wikimedia Commons

A century later, a separate exhibition in Washington, D.C. is recreating
Tutankhamun’s tomb on an even grander (and less exploitative) scale. Featuring
more than 1,000 reproductions crafted by Egyptian artisans, “Tutankhamun: His
Tomb and His Treasures” offers a sense of the sheer extravagance of the king’s
funerary trappings. The show also makes a clear argument for the value of
replicas as educational tools, particularly when the originals are largely
inaccessible to the public. The Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo owns all 5,000
artifacts found in the tomb, but its opening (and planned display of the vast
assortment of treasures) has long been delayed.

Melinda Hartwig, an Egyptologist at Emory University and a special adviser to
the exhibition, says the show allows visitors to “follow in Carter’s footsteps”
by drawing directly on the archaeologist’s excavation notes and photographs.
Early on, the exhibition transports visitors into recreations of the pharaoh’s
burial chamber, antechamber and treasury, all presented as they appeared when
Carter first saw them. Later sections focus on the artifacts themselves,
grouping replicas of Tutankhamun’s shabtis (funerary figurines), nested coffins,
canopic jars and more.

A replica of one of Tut's coffins Exhibition Hub

According to Hartwig, Egyptian craftspeople, lapidaries and sculptors spent
around four years recreating the artifacts found in the pharaoh’s tomb, from his
wooden chariot to his iconic golden mask. First, they cast the objects in
plaster, and then they covered the models in resin. Finally, they used alloys
and glass appliques to add color and depth.



Unlike Aumonier, these artisans had access to extensive primary source material,
as well as 3D scans of the original artifacts. Still, it’s impossible to know
whether Carter, who died in 1939, would have been any more impressed by the
contemporary replicas than he was by the ones created 100 years ago.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Semmel Concerts, a German live event promoter and producer, debuted
“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” in Zurich in 2008. Created in
conjunction with Egyptologists, the immersive experience spent the next
decade-plus traveling across Europe, attracting more than seven million
visitors.

1 / 4

More than seven million people visited the exhibition while it was touring
Europe. Exhibition Hub
2 / 4

A replica of one of Tut's gilded wooden burial shrines Exhibition Hub
3 / 4

Tutankhamun was buried in a series of nested coffins. Exhibition Hub
4 / 4

A replica of Tut's wooden chariot Exhibition Hub

Reviewing a Czech staging of the exhibition in January 2009, Egyptologist
Jaromír Málek praised the artisans’ attention to detail as “astounding,” writing
that “there are few things with which one would seriously like to quarrel.”

The scholar added, however, that “it must be admitted that replicas, no matter
how good, do not allow one to experience the frisson of being face to face with
the original items removed from Tutankhamun’s tomb. Some of the original
objects, such as furniture, would have been used by the king in his lifetime,
and the idea that Tutankhamun’s bottom once rested on the chair in front of us
is mind-boggling.”

Semmel Concerts and its various local partners have never claimed to be the real
thing. As the San Diego Natural History Museum noted in 2014, when it hosted an
iteration of the show, the reproductions are not intended to replace the real
artifacts, but rather to complement them “by allowing visitors to experience the
tomb and the indescribable treasures of … Tutankhamun just as they were when he
died.” Unlike the fragile originals, replicas “enable us to recreate
archaeological sites that have long since been dispersed, to bring together
objects that are now in different locations and in some instances no longer
available for public display.”

TUTANKHAMUN - His Tomb and his Treasures
Watch on



In Tutankhamun’s case, the original artifacts are all owned by the same entity:
the Grand Egyptian Museum, which has been under construction since 2005. But the
Cairo cultural institution’s opening has repeatedly been pushed back, from 2018
to 2020, 2021 and so on. An official opening date has yet to be announced,
though the museum does offer limited guided tours of certain spaces, including
the Grand Staircase, which features 60 artifacts from the collections.

Even if the Grand Egyptian Museum were open, its treasures wouldn’t be traveling
internationally, as they did to great fanfare between the 1960s and the 2000s.
At more than 3,300 years old, the objects from Tutankhamun’s tomb are incredibly
fragile, making it difficult—and very expensive—to transport them safely.
Additionally, Málek wrote in 2009, “The Egyptians point out that these are
antiquities of their own past, and … it is only appropriate that they remain on
display in Cairo where they can be seen by ordinary Egyptian visitors, such as
schoolchildren.”

In lieu of a visit to Cairo or Tutankhamun’s mostly empty tomb in the Valley of
the Kings, replicas are among the easiest ways to experience the grandeur of
ancient Egypt. As Hartwig explains, “Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures”
blends entertainment and education; the exhibition’s wall panels are changed
with each iteration of the show, reflecting updated understandings of the
pharaoh’s life and legacy. For instance, recent research suggests he was a
warrior king, rather than a sickly, infirm ruler.

Replicas of statues found in Tut's tomb Exhibition Hub

Initially a skeptic regarding the traveling show, Málek admitted, “somewhat
reluctantly,” that he had “become a convert,” adding, “This exhibition can do
things which no other, perhaps with the exception of future virtual reality
shows, is able to.”



Hartwig, for her part, says she loves the exhibition “because you experience the
objects. They’re not behind glass. They’re not separated from context.” And, in
perhaps the greatest departure from the standard museum experience, you can even
reach out and touch the replicas, tracing the hieroglyphs that spell out
Tutankhamun’s name on the back of his throne or running your hands across the
smooth surface of his death mask.

“Tutankhamun: His Tomb and His Treasures” is on view at the Rhode Island Center
in Washington, D.C. through July 31. Tickets are available online.



Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.



Meilan Solly | | READ MORE

Meilan Solly is Smithsonian magazine's associate digital editor, history.


Filed Under: Ancient Civilizations, Ancient Egypt, Archaeology, Egypt,
Exhibitions, Exhibits, Mummies, Museums, Washington, D.C.
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