The Boy King
Tutankhamun is as a fact the most known pharaoh of all the ancient Egyptian kings! Even though he did not make such a big mark, other than changing Egypt back to polytheistic worship. Maybe one reason is that king Tutankhamun was no ordinary pharaoh, but he had a special gift. He claimed throne at the young age of ten and was from then known as the boy king. It was his fathers reason that Tutankhamun died at such a young age.
His father was Akhenaten, formally known as Amenhotep III. He had changed his name from Amenhotep III to Akhenaten due to his unique religious beliefs. He was part of the cult of the Aten. The Aten was the religious primary god of Akhenaten, and believed that the Aten deserved its spot above Amun, which was the primary god of egyptian religion. Akhenaten believed the Aten was the creator of Earth, creator of the stars, creator of the Universe. But at a point of time, after celebrating one of Akhenaten's seed-festivals early, he died at the age of 31. Nefertiti, the main wife of Akhenaten, claimed throne. But soon after she did, she mysteriously disappeared. After her mysterious disappaerance, the boy king became pharaoh.
Tutankhamun was at the age of ten when he succeeded the throne. Luckily he lived during a very powerful time of Egypt. During a time of great wealth and excellent military power. Where war was scarce. Because Tutankhamun was not much of a military leader, he had his generals and officials lead his armies into the heat of battle. Pretty much his only role was to rule Egypt. But there came a point in his early reign, where he had to make a decision upon the fact that his father left Egypt with a monotheistic religion. With the Aten as their primary god. Most ancient Egyptians found this upserd and did not want to follow this new cult. For ancient Egypt had been serving a span of 3,000 years of constant polytheistic religion, but Akhenaten changed all of that, and made Egypt monotheist.
Ancient Egyptians were not proud of his decision and forced Tutankhamun to reclaim the old deities back into their ancient religion. He did as they wished. A short while after this all went well into his teen years, around the age of 18 he was murdered, as many believe. But it is not certain if he really was killed or not, no records state anything of related accidents. Some believe maybe he got sick, but nowhere in ancient Egyptian records does it state the cause of Tutankhamun's early death.
Not to a surprise, a high ranking official claimed the throne of this boy king. Ay was the man who succeeded to the throne, but not by blood-relations, but by he being the highest ranking official. No one remained blood-related to Tutankhamun, so it was convenient for Ay to assume role of Pharaoh. Roomers spread that Ay and Tutankhamun got in a fight for kingship. Perhaps while Tutankhamun was asleep, or maybe during a ceremony where as the king would be left alone under the care of no one, maybe then Ay decided to make his move and murder Tutankhamun.
Most Egyptologists believe this because there is enough proof to show that it could be true. In recent studies there shows an X-ray of the skull of King Tut, and compared it to a skull that is the way a mummy-conditioned skull should be shaped. It appears that there is a slight curve on the back of Tutankhamun's skull. A crack of some sort, which was cause by a severe blow to the head. But the question still stands. Was Tutankhamun murdered? Lots of questions still remain, and only few can be answered. Even without Tutankhamun's great treasures and gold, without his lavish tomb and conditioned coffin, Tutankhamun has a reputation a great king deserves.
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