The Secrets of an Ancient Death Ritual May Be Hidden in the Tomb of King Tut
The discovery of wooden staffs and clay trays near the sarcophagus of King Tut might be the oldest known evidence of a ritual known as the Awakening of Osiris.
As its name suggests, this ritual is based on the death and resurrection of Osiris, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld.
It is also possible that the staffs and vessels were used for a different ritual, in which torch-bearers guided the pharaoh to the afterlife.
In 1922, when Howard Carter ventured to the Valley of the Kings and broke the seal of a tomb that had been buried in the sands of Egypt for over 2,300 years, he was taken aback by the gilded splendor that had managed to elude tomb robbers for so long. He also opened a literal door to more mysteries than he could have ever imagined.
Tutankhamun—more commonly known today as King Tut—ascended the throne at nine years old, ruled until his death (the cause of which is still being debated) at eighteen, and was the last pharaoh of the New Kingdom's illustrious 18th dynasty. Decades later, the wealth of grave goods that were supposed to accompany him to the afterlife continue to reveal his secrets. While the crudely shaped clay trays and wooden staffs found among his trove of riches may not be made of gold, Egyptologist Nicholas Brown of Yale University now thinks they are possible evidence of a ritual that may have started with the Boy King.
'Originally, these clay troughs were believed to be stands for the emblems found nearby and in close association to them,' Brown said in a study recently published in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. 'However, closer examination of the religious and archaeological context of the artifacts enables another interpretation of their function.'
After the death of his father Akhenaten—thought by many to be a heretic because of his abandonment of the Egyptian pantheon for the worship of the sun disk, or Aten—Tutankhamun and his advisers worked to restore traditional Egyptian religion as fast as possible. The pharaoh even changed his name (he was actually born Tutankhaten). With the religious shift came an opportunity to create new rituals and revive ones that were already ancient at the time.
The trays and staffs are thought to have been used for a funerary rite known as the Awakening of Osiris. Ancient Egyptians believed that Osiris was once a living king whose jealous brother Set murdered him, dismembered him, and scattered the parts of his body throughout Egypt. With the help of Set's wife Nepthys, Osiris's wife Isis reassembled her husband's body and breathed life into it long enough for them to conceive their son, Horus. Osiris was then mummified by the jackal-headed god Anubis and went to rule the underworld. The resurrected king of the dead was thought to give life to everything from below, especially through the yearly flooding of the Nile.
Later artwork in other tombs reveals that the ritual inspired by this myth involves commanding the dead to wake with staffs behind their heads. However, the staffs at the head of Tutankhamen's mummy—along with trays that are thought to have held libations to once again imbue him with life—are thought to be the oldest evidence of the Awakening of Osiris being performed. The staffs and trays were also placed on reed mats because the ground was seen as impure. Mud from the Nile was apparently used to make the vessels, which may have held water from the river, whose fertility is symbolized by Osiris.
There might be an alternative explanation, however. Brown acknowledges fellow Egyptologist Jacobus van Dijk's theory that the ritual carried out could have been the 'spell of the four torches' from the infamous Book of the Dead. During this ritual, four guides (each bearing a torch) stand by the sarcophagus to accompany the pharaoh through the treacherous journey to the afterlife until he reached Osiris and the Hall of Final Judgement. They would then extinguish those torches in clay trays filled with milk from a white cow—possibly symbolizing the goddess Hathor, who is often seen in the form of a cow.
Which ritual these artifacts were actually used for remains unknown. Both would have been a part of the pharaoh's resurrection into a deity in the afterlife, so long as he passed the test of weighing his heart and wasn't thrown to the jaws of a ravenous beast. He could kick back and luxuriate in eternal life after that.
You Might Also Like
The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape
The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere
Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Yahoo
Egyptians prepare for Eid al-Adha, Feast of Sacrifice
Egyptians buy and sell sheep, goats cows and camels at a livestock market as they prepare for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of Sacrifice, in Cairo on Friday. Eid al-Adha runs through Monday.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
These graduating Lowell students were called ‘lottery kids.' The stigma never went away
When the freshmen class walked into San Francisco's elite Lowell High School for the first time in the fall of 2021, they were slapped with a label that stuck for the next four years: lottery kids. Unlike prior decades of Lowell students, those 621 students hadn't gotten in because of exceptional grades and impressive test scores. Those students and the following ninth grade class were admitted through the same mostly random process used at the district's other high schools — a decision based on a lack of grades and test scores in the early years of the pandemic to evaluate the Lowell applications. They were lucky. Some said it wasn't fair. They hadn't earned admission, didn't belong and would fail, a number of parents, teachers and others in the community said. Others, including a majority on the school board, hoped the change would be permanent to help bring more Black and Latino students to a school that was more than 50% Asian American about 1% Black. Lowell returned to merit-based admissions for the fall of 2023, leaving two years of lottery years sandwiched between merit-admission peers. Those two years could help answer a burning question: What if the district randomly admitted students to one of the top-performing and academically rigorous high schools in the country? It turns out that overall, the academic disparities between the lottery and merit students were relatively small, according to district data. The average GPA of the first lottery class was 3.45, compared to an average 3.69 GPA over the previous five years. The average SAT score of lottery students lagged by 78 points compared to the average merit-based SAT taker back to 2020, although lottery scores were still 240 points above the national average. And on average the class of 2025 took 2.65 Advanced Placement courses, compared to an average 2.8 over the previous five years, although nearly on par with the class of 2020's 2.69. Based on the basic academic data available, the sky did not fall as some predicted, said Tony Payne, district executive director of high schools. But that isn't surprising, he said, given Lowell's reputation as a rigorous academic school. 'Even when it was a lottery, I think families and students would self-select around this academic environment,' he said. 'Kids who would have gotten into Lowell anyway, a ton of them applied. 'I think the data makes sense from that perspective,' he added. Benjamin Zhang, who was graduating Monday in red cap and gown as part of Lowell's first lottery class, was perhaps among the kids who would have been at Lowell regardless of the admission process. But he and his classmates would never know. Still, Zhang, the class salutatarian with a full scholarship to Yale University, said in his graduation speech that they were defined by the lottery. 'That title hung over us like an overdue assignment. 'Not merit-based,' they said. 'Just lucky,' they whispered,' said Zhang. 'And … let this be our final act: To say that we are not defined by a lottery, a label or a transcript. We are defined by what we did with the chance we were given.' While the lottery had little impact on academic markers, it did have an impact on student demographics, with random admissions significantly increasing the number of Black and Latino students. The senior class this year, the first lottery group, included 22 Black students and 121 Latino students, for example, while the senior class of 723 students four years earlier had just five Black students and 78 Latino students. At the same time, there was more attrition in the lottery class, with 93 of the original freshmen leaving by senior year, compared to an average of 41 over the previous five years. Other district high schools also saw upticks in attrition, although not as large. District officials said understanding the data is complicated by the fact that the first Lowell lottery class was hit with a double whammy, entering high school after spending all of eighth grade and the end of seventh in online learning because of the pandemic. They started high school, lost among the three buildings and four floors at Lowell with masks secured to their faces, their social skills withered and their grade-level academics and study skills a big question mark. Lowell principal JanMichelle Bautista ticked off the list of challenges for students during that first year back to in-person learning: 'Behavior changes, academic progress, stamina for coursework, sitting in a classroom for 90 minutes.' Teachers would say the lottery kids were so different, Bautista said, but the reality was 'we were all so different.' The pandemic-era Lowell lottery triggered a fierce debate over whether or not the school should remain exclusive to ensure the district's academically motivated students could thrive, even if the student body had few Black and Latino students. For decades, Lowell had been a point of pride for the city, consistently one of the top performing public schools in the country, churning out prominent figures in politics, entertainment, literature and science. Amid the pandemic, the progressive-majority school board moved to make the lottery permanent in February 2021, after voting in October 2020 for a one-year random selection for upcoming fall freshmen. Lowell parents and other city residents were outraged. 'The job market is merit based, college is merit based,' said parent Surveen Singh during the school board meeting that made it permanent in 2021. 'Lowell's high standards, training and rigor have given many students, especially immigrant families, the impetus and skills to attend college and succeed. 'Why on earth would anyone want to take that away?' Critics of the merit-based system argued back. 'There should be no sacred cows in the SFUSD schools,' said Virginia Marshall, representing the San Francisco Alliance of Black School Educators. 'Every child should have the opportunity to go to Lowell High School.' A year later, following a recall of three progressive school board members and a lawsuit, the school board returned Lowell to a merit-based system. It does not appear the school board will reconsider the Lowell admissions policy anytime soon, even with the lottery class data in hand. 'We absolutely want to preserve the rigorous instruction and academic programming offered at schools like Lowell,' said school board President Phil Kim. 'We know students are up to the challenge, and families are asking for more of these opportunities across all our high schools. The demand is there.' Some members of the two classes of lottery students and their families said they felt the stigma of being at Lowell under the random admission process in the halls and classrooms. 'I heard those stories from the students,' Bautista said. On Monday, the four years of hard work and stress seemed to fade into the background as parents sat in the stands at Kezar Stadium watching the Lowell graduates walk across the stage as their names were called. 'I'm beside myself with joy,' said parent Jameelah Hoskins. Her son, Yusef, was among the 22 Black students in his class. He had been a straight-A, honor roll student in middle school, who at times — like many if not most Lowell students — struggled to keep up with his courses, especially after COVID, Hoskins said. 'The thing I remember is his determination to stay (at Lowell). He wanted to do the work,' she said. 'I was the one saying, 'if you want to go somewhere else, it's OK.'' Yusef will attend City College of San Francisco in the fall and enter the entrepreneur program, perhaps combining it with an electrician trade program, his mom said. Yet among the smiles and goodbye hugs on graduation day, the lottery lingered, a topic in family conversations and in nearly every commencement speech made by a graduate or adult, including Bautista. 'You were scrutinized, second-guessed, and demeaned. People including yourselves questioned your worth, your ability, your presence,' the principal told her lottery kids. ' Never did you shrink in the face of unfair judgment … You turned doubt into drive, exclusion into excellence, criticism into community. 'You belong in every room you walk into. You belong at every single table where decisions are made. You belong in every dream you dare to dream.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
FBI, DHS warn of 'elevated threat' to Jewish communities after recent attacks
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a joint public service announcement Thursday, warning the public to be aware of an "elevated threat" to Israeli and Jewish communities across the U.S. The announcement highlights potential public safety concerns regarding ongoing threats during the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. In the most recent incident on Sunday, an Egyptian national, 45-year-old Mohamed Sabry Soliman, allegedly created 18 Molotov cocktails before driving to Boulder, Colorado, where peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators prepared for the Run for Their Lives in support of the Israeli hostages. As participants assembled in Boulder's Pearl Street area, Soliman allegedly yelled "Free Palestine" and launched two lit Molotov cocktails into the throngs of people. He was arrested shortly after. Boulder Terror Attack Suspect Showed Signs Of Growing 'Lone Wolf' Radicalization, Says Former Fbi Supervisor The incident, which the FBI described as a "targeted terror attack," left over a dozen people, ages 52 to 88, with injuries, including one in critical condition. Read On The Fox News App Soliman, whose visa granted during the Biden administration expired in March 2025, told federal authorities the violence was a long time in the making. Soliman later told investigators he specifically targeted what he called a "Zionist group" and wished they were all dead. Boulder Suspect Spent A Year Planning Molotov Cocktail Attack On Pro-israel March: Docs In a separate incident May 21, a pro-Palestinian man allegedly killed two Israeli embassy staff members who were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were about to become engaged the following week, but their lives and dreams were cut short. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago was taken into custody and was believed to have acted alone. Boulder Illegal Immigrant Terror Suspect's 'Possible Radicalization' Probed By Authorities: Retired Fbi Agent Shortly after being taken into custody by security at the museum, Rodriguez was seen on video shouting, "Free, free Palestine." "The ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters," the FBI and DHS said in their joint announcement. "Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the U.S. "The FBI and DHS therefore urge the public to remain vigilant and to report any threats of violence or suspicious activity to law enforcement." Anyone who witnesses what they believe to be concerning or suspicious activity is encouraged to notify the FBI by contacting the agency at or by contacting their local field offices at Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumph-Whitten contributed to this article source: FBI, DHS warn of 'elevated threat' to Jewish communities after recent attacks
