Friday, August 06, 2010

More re Tutankhamun's chariot

Al Ahram Weekly (Nevine El-Aref)

ONE of the chariots found in the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun travelled to New York last week to meet up with other relics of the golden boy king at the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibition, Nevine El-Aref reports. The gilded chariot arrived to be part of the blockbuster exhibition at the Discovery Times Square Exposition.

"This is the first time that the chariot has travelled outside Egypt," Zahi Hawass, secretary- general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), told Al-Ahram Weekly. "This is a once-in- a-lifetime opportunity for the people of New York to see something of such great significance from the boy king's life."

The chariot is unique and stands out among the five other chariots found among what Howard Carter called the "wonderful things" that made up Tutankhamun's burial equipment. Carter found the chariot in the south-east corner of the antechamber, along with three others. It is completely lacking in decoration and has a very light, open sided construction. The wheels are extremely worn, which suggests that the chariot was "used frequently in hunting expeditions by the young king. Carter described the chariot as "of more open, lighter construction, probably for hunting or exercising purposes".

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