AKHENATEN/TUTANKHAMUN

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TUTANKHAMEN'S PECTORAL


This gold-and-glass pectoral amulet was discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamun near Luxor, Egypt.

It depicts the familiar eye of Horus, a symbol of protection from evil, flanked by the cobra goddess representing Lower Egypt and the vulture goddess representing Upper Egypt.


Photograph by
Robert Harding

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                                                            King Tut Liked Red Wine






ScienceDaily
(Apr. 3, 2005) —

Ancient Egyptians believed in properly equipping a body for the afterlife, and not just through mummification.

A new study reveals that King Tutankhamun eased his arduous journey with a stash of red wine.

Spanish scientists have developed the first technique that can determine the color of wine used in ancient jars. They analyzed residues from a jar found in the tomb of King Tut and found that it contained wine made with red grapes.

This is the only extensive chemical analysis that has been done on a jar from King Tut's tomb, and it is the first
time scientists have provided evidence of the color of wine in an archaeological sample. The report appears in
the March 15 edition of Analytical Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the
world's largest scientific society.

The earliest scientific evidence of grapes is from 60-million-year-old fossil vines, while the first written record of winemaking comes from a much more recent source, the Bible, which says Noah planted a vineyard after exiting
the ark.

Scientists have detected wine in a jar from as far back as 5400 B.C., found at the site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the northern Zagros Mountains of present-day Iran. But the earliest knowledge about wine cultivation comes from ancient Egypt, where the winemaking process was represented on tomb walls dating to 2600 B.C.

"Wine in ancient Egypt was a drink of great importance, consumed by the upper classes and the kings," says
Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané, a master in Egyptology at the University of Barcelona in Spain. She and Rosa M.
Lamuela-Raventós, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition and food science, have analyzed samples of ancient Egyptian
jars belonging to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the British Museum in London.

One sample came from the tomb of King Tutankhamun, discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter in Western Thebes, Egypt.

The inscription on the jar reads:


"Year 5. Wine of the House-of-Tutankhamun Ruler-of-the-Southern-On, l.p.h.[in] the Western River.

By the chief vintner Khaa."

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THE WINE JARS









"Wine jars were placed in tombs as funerary meals," Guasch-Jané says. "The New Kingdom wine jars were labeled with product, year, source and even the name of the vine grower, but they did not mention the color of the wines they contained." Scientists and oenophiles have long debated the type of grape that ancient Egyptians used in their wines.

Using a new method for the identification of grape markers, Lamuela-Raventós and her coworkers determined that the wine in this jar was made with red grapes.

Tartaric acid, which is rarely found in nature from sources other than grapes, has been used before as a marker for the presence of wine in ancient residues, but it offers no information about the type of grape.

Malvidin-glucoside is the major component that gives the red color to young red wines, and no other juice used in the ancient Near East and Mediterranean region contains it. As wine ages, malvidin reacts with other compounds forming more complex structures. The researchers directed their efforts toward developing a tool for breaking down these structures to release syringic acid.

Analysis of ancient samples requires a very sensitive method to minimize the amount of sample that needs to be used. To detect syringic acid, the researchers used a technique called liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry in tandem mode, which is known for its high speed, sensitivity and selectivity. This method has never before been used to identify tartaric acid or syringic acid, nor has it been used on any archaeological sample, according to the scientists.

Lamuela-Raventós and Guasch-Jané plan to use the new technique in more extensive studies of wine residues from other archaeological samples.

The Spanish Wine Culture Foundation and Codorniu Group provided funding for this research.


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http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0506/feature1/index.html

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From The Times
October 27, 2005









                                        Was a glass of Egyptian red King Tut's real poison?






By Dalya Alberge,
Arts Correspondent

KING TUTANKHAMUN was partial to wine at the end of a hard day, it has long been assumed.

Now scientists claim that he favoured drinking red over white.

A long-standing mystery of precisely what was inside the jars, or amphorae, found in the tomb of
the great Egyptian king (1336-1327BC) has been solved, according to academics who presented
their findings yesterday at the British Museum in London.

A team at the University of Barcelona studied residues from the scrapings of eight of the jars from
Tutankhamun’s tomb, which are now divided between the British Museum and the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo.

Tutankhamun ascended the throne at the age of about 8. Analysis of his mummy suggests that he
was about 17 when he died.

Ancient Egyptians believed in equipping a body for the afterlife, and Tutankhamun was buried with 26 vessels of wine for his funerary meals. Our earliest knowledge of wine cultivation comes from Ancient Egypt, where the process was represented on tomb walls dating to 2500BC.

The vessels were labelled in much the same way as those of today, with the year of harvest, ownership, origin, quality and winemaker’s name. What the ancient labels omitted to give, however, was the wine’s colour.

Rosa Maria Lamuela-Raventós, Professor of Nutrition and Food Science, and Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané,
a scientist and Egyptologist, used the latest technology to identify the wine-pigment components, including malvidinglucoside, the one that gives the colour to young red wines.

However, Nigel Strudwick, of the Department of Ancient Egypt and the Sudan at the British Museum, said: “We can’t be sure that red wine was what he preferred just because it was stuck in his tomb.”

The research was funded by the Spanish Foundation for the Culture of Wine. It cannot reconstruct
the wine because the grape varieties no longer exist.

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Beer

A particular favourite for the ordinary Egyptian. Thought to have been sweet and without bubbles, it was drunk, offered to the gods and placed in the tombs of the dead



Wine

The Egyptians had several varieties, some of which were commended by authors for their excellent qualities. Vineyards were scattered throughout the country, but most were in the Nile delta. One exclusive variety, Shedeh, was thought to have been pomegranate but was, in fact, grape



Milk

Drunk by ordinary people. Sometimes offered to the gods with water



Grape

juice Drunk by the upper classes

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Notes on various aspects of the Annexe

by Howard Carter (1-4, 10-43, 47-64),
Alfred Lucas (5-9, 44-6) and
A. H. Gardiner (41)





Annexe 9

Note

Baskets
Wine jars
Alabaster vases

Mostly in front & on N side of doorway.

Lids of alabaster vases removed with rare exceptions & contents apparently stolen, which may be a reason for the disturbance of these vases the contents of which could have been of no value to the metal robbers



http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4ann.html

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                                        Notes on various aspects of the Annexe


           by Howard Carter (1-4, 10-43, 47-64), Alfred Lucas (5-9, 44-6) and A. H. Gardiner (41)





Concept & Direction: Jaromir Malek

Transcript: Sue Hutchison

Editing: Jaromir Malek

Scanning: Jenni Navratil

Editorial coordination: Elizabeth Fleming


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Annexe 1

NOTE BOAT SERIES FOUND IN ANNEXE

No. 464 1. Reed-float or canoe (similar to No. 313).
No. 597 Carvel-built boat, double cabin, kiosk, and look-outs, with two steering-oars at stern (similar to No. 314).
Nos. 352, 437 and 513. Carvel-built boat, cabin & kiosk, single mast and rigging (similar to No. 336).
Nos. 375, 463, 481, 491, 556, 581 and 610. Carvel built, single steering oar, single mast, sail & rigging, foredeck marked with the sign <>.
Nos. 460, 462, 609, 612, and 617. Carvel built, single steering oar, single mast, sail and rigging.


(Seventeen boats of five classes)


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Annexe 2

Beds & Bed Stands


Beds 466: 497: 377: 576 (end of 497): 586 (folding couch).


Stands 606




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Annexe 3


Household Furniture - Bedsteads
1
Its forms and decoration have naturally varied in the course of the different ages, and thus have an historical interest. With regard to its accompaniments (bedding, coverlets, etc.) we know nothing, save from mural decorations in private tomb-chapels, where a white kind of mattress and a head-rest (generally of wood) is almost invariably shown, and even as early as the Third Dynasty it was accompanied with a small low rectangular table (cf. tomb of Hesyre). At that early period they began by having only two short legs at the head-end, and thus formed an inclined couch, to which leather, or some suitable material, was laced and held taut to the framework by the means of thongs. This form of couch developed into a four-legged bedstead, comprising an oblong rectangular frame-work to which feet were attached to the four corners, like the



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Annexe 4

2
North African native angarib of the present day. In the Old Kingdom the feet took a bovine form, which later, especially during the New Empire, they are of feline shape. An upright foot-board, generally comprising three panels, was added to the foot end, thus forming the fully developed Pharaonic bedstead, such as we find in this tomb. A convenient height for the head-end of the bedstead was obtained by placing under the feet specially made wooden blocks varying in different degrees of height; for elasticity, a web of linen string was woven across, from end to end, the framework proper, and the strengthening slats (stretchers), under the framework, were sufficiently curved so as to be clear of the sagging web when it was slept upon.

Bedsteds of the New Empire, such as are found in this tomb, were elaborately decorated with inlaid wood-work, sheet-gold, ivory and ebony. One specimen in this discovery is of particular interest, it being a folding bedstead for portable purposes. (see No. 586).

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Annexe 5

1
Annexe State of

The walls spotted with brown fungus, fairly uniformly.
Ceiling only a little spotted.
This fungus is noticeable over the black pointing marks.
Usual pink hue covering chamber, possibly slightly more at S. than at N.
Scarlet patches on natural surfaces.
Plaster covering of imperfections in wall also pink.
Generally speaking this chamber seems in a worse condition than the others.
The pink discoloration on ceiling particularly marked round mouths of natural cracks and fissures.



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Annexe 6

2
Size of Chamber (Annexe)

Length: 435 cms (mean)
Width: 260 cms (mean)
Height: 260 cms (mean).

Doorway

Width 94 cms
Height inside 130 cms
" outside (Antechamber) 135 cms

Threshold slanting inwards distinctly
Lintel slanting inwards distinctly

Piece of rock cut out of left-hand door jamb to admit bedstead



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Annexe 7

3
A natural fissure utilized for N. door jamb.

S. wall
Fault in rock marked with black paint at E. corner

S.W. Corner
In an irregular hole is evidence of a small lamp with smoke

Floor
was covered with a black powder evidently decayed material from objects ?fruit

Mason's pointing marks on walls & ceiling

On walls and ceiling green spots of copper compound suggesting traces left from copper or bronze chisels - a few of these were picked off for analysis

On W. wall 5 units shown in black pigment

See Slip No. 5

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Annexe 7

3
A natural fissure utilized for N. door jamb.

S. wall
Fault in rock marked with black paint at E. corner

S.W. Corner
In an irregular hole is evidence of a small lamp with smoke

Floor
was covered with a black powder evidently decayed material from objects ?fruit

Mason's pointing marks on walls & ceiling

On walls and ceiling green spots of copper compound suggesting traces left from copper or bronze chisels - a few of these were picked off for analysis

On W. wall 5 units shown in black pigment

See Slip No. 5



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Annexe 8

4
Measurements of marks continued

S. wall
From E. Corner
(1) 47 (2) 103 (3) 158 (4) 215 (5) 257

N. wall
None.

See Slip No. 5.



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Annexe 9

Note

Baskets
Wine jars
Alabaster vases

Mostly in front & on N side of doorway.

Lids of alabaster vases removed with rare exceptions & contents apparently stolen, which may be a reason for the disturbance of these vases the contents of which could have been of no value to the metal robbers

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Annexe 10

NOTE SANDALS

A large number of sandals were found scattered in this chamber.
See Nos. 373, 397, 620-(119).



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Annexe 11

List of shawabti-figures found in Annexe.

Figures Implements
337. 10 23
380 9 28
418 20 100
458 1 -
459 20 84
496 16 68
512 20 98
514 10 24
517 17 98
519 16 68
601 1 -
602 40 32
605 14 27
608 22 79
611 19 106
4 86
620-(113) 1 -
620-(115) - 238

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236 1073



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Annexe 12

TYPE
<>
L. R.
the crozier and flagellum

See Nos. 605.d.
605.e.
605.g.
514.a.
514.b.
514.c.
514.d.
337.a.
337.b.
337.c.

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Annexe 13

<>
L. R.
two flagella
See No. 459.g.



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Annexe 14

Type
<>
L. R.
The ankh and flagellum.
See Nos. 380.b.
459.c.
459.d.




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Annexe 15

Types
<> or <>
L. R. L. R.
Two ankhs.
See Nos. 380.c.
380.e.
418.c.
418.d.
512.c.
608.a.
459.a
459.b
517.c