King Tutankhamun Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Playing Cards

King Tutankhamun Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Playing Cards ... The Boy King Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh ruled from about age 9 through about age 18-19 approximately Also spelled Tutankhamen. He was born Tutankhaten about 1342 BC. He became pharaoh about 1334 - 1332 BC until his death about 1325 - 1323 BC., the end of the 18th Dynasty. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. So the 100 year centennial of the discovery of the tomb will be in 2022 coming soon as I write this in 2020. The innermost gold coffin (of several nested coffins) was finally opened in 1925 ... so the 100 year centennial for the discovery of the gold mask will be in 2025. The several nested coffins were inside several nested outer layers all barely fitting in the burial chamber. The pure gold burial mask is 22 pounds of pure gold plus expensive rare blue stone Lapis Lazuli imported from Afghanistan and at that time worth as much as gold. The Lapis Lazuli stone was used for the eye liner and eye brows. The Ancient Egyptians were skilled enough to be able to make matching blue glass for the Nemes headcloth. The mask is the pharaoh dressed as the god Osiris, god of the afterlife. A cobra and vulture on the forehead crown represent goddesses of lower and upper Egypt respectively. The nemes headcloth is an ancient Egyptian style going much further back. How ancient was 1323 BC? Add 2020 ... the current year ... so, approximately 3,343 years ago to 3,345 years ago that this burial mask was made. I think it is amazing that they had such abilities so long ago. They were capable of molding pure gold, importing and carving precious blue stone Lapis Lazuli stone, and even making matching Egyptian Blue glass. Even white quartz and black obsidian stone for eyes. There is a mystery as to the exact cause of his death. But, science has determined that his father was Pharaoh Akhenaten, the pharaoh who had spurned traditional gods and was closer to the idea of a monotheistic single god religion, the Sun disk, pictured with radiating arms embracing the the royal family. But, sometime after Tutankhaten was born and after his father had died, the traditional priests of the god Amun (also spelled Amen, Amon) regained their power ... so Tutankhaten's name was renamed Tutankhamun. The worship god Amun was not a monotheistic single god belief, but Amun was the chief god of many gods ... including the god Osiris which is who this mask is dressed as. Osiris was married to his sister Isis and they had together their son Horus. So every traditional ancient Egyptian pharaoh was Horus with a Horus name until he died when he became one with the god Osiris which became connected with their traditional Sun god Ra (or Re) ... So, in death, traditional pharaohs were said to become one with Osiris / Ra ... Ra being the Sun renewing every new day ... Osiris being the god of afterlife. Many of the pharaohs married several wives with some being their own sister because this kept the power within the family dynasty. It is likely that Tutankhamun's own parents were brother and sister (or half brother and half sister) and he himself married his own sister or half sister. This often went on for generations. If a new pharaoh was not from the same ruling family he might marry the daughter or the chief wife (queen) of the previous pharaoh to legitimize his rule. Ancient Egyptians were a mixed race being between Middle East semitic tribes and the African Nubian tribes ... at times the royal family included Nubian members especially in the whole 25th Dynasty. Even when the Greek Macedonian Ptolemy dynasty ruled after Alexander the Great was accepted as pharaoh, the ruling family followed the traditional Ancient Egyptian practices including intermarriages between brother and sister. For example for a time Queen Cleopatra was married to her own brother before she married Mark Antony ... she portrayed herself as Isis reborn. Altogether, in some form, the ancient Egyptian traditional beliefs and some of the same hieroglyphics and the Book of the Dead spells continued almost the same for almost all of 3,100 years of dynastic Egypt ... and parts of which had beginnings long prior to 3,100 BC. All of this was present in 3100 BC so it must had taken a long time to develop all these beliefs prior to 3100 BC. The nemes headcloth for example and he worship of bulls and cows, ... probably came about during nomadic herding times when the Sahara Desert was greener pastures for their herds of cattle. going further back thousands of years. Written language hieroglyphs had earlier beginnings as seen in labels of found clay jars. The ancient Egyptian calendar was far more accurate than the Roman one so the Roman Empire adopted the Ancient Egyptian calendar yearly number of days. Ancient Egyptians had knowledge of the stars especially Venus which they knew well enough to predict the yearly rise of the Nile River to flood the land bringing black soil to the desert oasis country. Ancient Egyptians had an accurate calendar, an established civilization, a set of laws similar to the Ten Commandments but written in reverse as a declaration before the gods after death that they had not done certain evils on the list. They had a mother goddess Isis and child Horus imagery similar to modern Virgin and Child imagery. They had the idea of the pharaoh being the son of god ... being the son of Ra ... or as Horus the sun of Osiris ... then becoming one with the father after death. In many ways their ideas were very similar to what later became the Biblical stories we are more familiar with. Including the land arising after a great flood. Isis becoming pregnant by Osiris after his death ... indeed his rebirth after death. She had found all his body parts (Seth their brother had killed and dismembered Osiris and Isis found all the body parts and breathed new life into Osiris by flapping her wings to create the breath of life in his restored body.) It is remembered that the Hebrews survived in Egypt for many generations having come from their own country during famine. And so it would not be unexpected that they shared certain beliefs, legends, ideas, hopes, fears. What surprises me is their skill to create such beautiful art work such as this or to be able to built the great pyramids that they did. They built a dam across the Nile River and there built a city called Memphis (near where the pyramids were later built (and where is now Cairo). In Biblical stories the Hebrew Joseph ruled Egypt for a pharaoh. The Hebrew Moses was himself adopted and raised by the royal family as a royal prince of Egypt.