King Tut’s Tomb: One Hundred Years Later

Instructor: Lynn Ostling

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Mondays, October 24 – November 14, 3:00 – 5:00 PM, Berger Center

4-week session, Cost: $65

When the burial place of Tutankamun was discovered in 1922, the story of the tomb and its spectacular contents became a worldwide news sensation. One hundred years later, revisit the life and times of the young king, and the meaning and purpose of the splendid objects found in his tomb.

Instructor Bio:

Lynn Ostling is an adjunct instructor of Art History at SRJC, published author and freelance lecturer on art history circuits and television.

Course Outline

I: CONTEXT

• overview of Ancient Egypt: geography, history, religion
• continuity in Ancient Egypt: writing, artistic traditions, daily life
• the Old Kingdom: pyramids and pharaohs
• the New Kingdom: grandeur and empire, and slavery

II: AMARNA

• Amenhotep III and Tiye, grandparents of Tutankhamun
• Akhenaten, and his queen Nefertiti, become rulers of Egypt
• worship of one god replaces the many ancient gods
• Akhenaten establishes a new capital city, and a new, more naturalistic style in art: the Amarna style
• Tutankhamun succeeds to the throne, at the age of nine

III: DISCOVERY

• November, 2022, Howard Carter finds the tomb in the Valley of the Kings
• Carter and his patron, Lord Carnarvon, open the sealed door to the only almost-intact tomb yet found of any Egyptian pharaoh
• strange and wonderful things from the Antechamber and the Annex, the first two chamber of the tomb

IV: SPLENDOR

• unimaginable splendors from the Burial Chamber and the Treasury
• Tutankhamun’s mummy found inside a coffin of solid gold, featuring a lifelike portrait of the young ruler
• the discoveries spark a passion for Egyptian-themed jewelry, art and textiles
• new revelations about this legendary tomb and its magnificent contents