It is November 2022, 100 years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. The centenary of the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun and the bicentenary of Champollion’s decipherment of Hieroglyphs has produced many exhibitions, books, blogs, podcasts, and programmes. It has also provoked considerable reflection about the colonial origins of Egyptology and what its future should be. Amongst the many new and old ‘takes’ on Tutankhamun, Hieroglyphs, and Egypt, I was interested to see the Petrie Museum‘s new exhibition Tutankhamun, the Boy, which accompanies their project of the same name and runs from September 2022- December 2023 at the Petrie Museum (free to enter, Tuesday-Saturday 1-5pm).

Small museum, big impact!

The Petrie Museum is a small museum in terms of its physical space, but its collection is large, with a high proportion of its holdings on display in an almost ‘Wunderkammer-style‘. It also includes many excavated items, which can be contextualised with archival and published excavation records. Many of these artefacts come from settlement sites and include objects from the daily life of ordinary ancient Egyptians, as well as more stereotypical elite products (like the head of Min-Amun right). The curators of the exhibition have used these ordinary objects, together with material from Amarna and Gurob – two probable childhood homes of Tutankhamun – to answer children’s questions about growing up in ancient Egypt.

Child’s eye view

Rather than the curators’ ‘take’ on childhood in ancient Egypt, Tutankhamun the Boy is designed around the questions a Year 3 class from the local George Mitchell primary school would like to ask Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian children. The questions were derived from various workshops undertaken at the school using 3d replicas of Petrie Museum artefacts. In subsequent phases of the project, similar workshops will take place in Egypt with schoolchildren living near the site of Amarna. Their ideas and questions will be shared with the children from the George Mitchell school and will feed into subsequent phases and longer-term displays in the museum. If this proves successful, future displays will incorporate the ideas and questions of both local children and descendant Egyptian communities.

Due to the small size of the museum space, the Tutankhamun: the Boy exhibition occupies a board and two display cases next to the shabtis, in what regular visitors will recognise as the ‘pottery room’. The display board provides the background for the display in English and Arabic and explains how the objects have been chosen based on the children’s questions. The first display case discusses Tutankhamun’s royal childhood, while the second considers the experience of ancient Egyptian children more generally.

Bronzes and Akhenaten

It is always a pleasure to see well-labelled, excavated artefacts and there are a number of fantastic examples of both elite products and everyday objects in the exhibition. The artefacts on display fall into three categories; typical products of ancient Egyptian culture that answer specific questions; objects directly associated with Tutankhamun; and items excavated from Gurob or Amarna, where he probably lived as a child. There are the obligatory statues of deities, but only those deities most associated with children: faience figures of Bes and Taweret, and a nice bronze statuette of Isis with Horus. Three different bead necklaces from child burials are also included in the section about jewellery, a far cry from the famous precious jewels Tutankhamun wore to his burial. No exhibition about Tutankhamun would be complete without reference to his famous predecessor, but Tutankhamun The Boy does not allow Akhenaten to dominate proceedings. He gets a brief mention in the section about Tutankhamun’s family, illustrated by a small limestone triad (UC16021) of Akhenaten, Nefertiti, and a princess. Although the type is familiar from many Egyptian collections, this statue was excavated from Amarna. Even where objects are typical or ubiquitous in Egyptian collections the exhibition focuses on those most relevant to Tutankhamun, childhood in ancient Egypt, or the sites of Gurob and Amarna where he probably lived as a child.

The Tutankhamun connection

The exhibition includes several objects directly associated with Tutankhamun. The calcite (Egyptian alabster) jar, excavated from Gurob, and incised with the names of Tutankhamun and Ankhensenamun is a beautiful object with possible links to Hatnub, that preeminent source of this stone. The beautiful limestone head attributed to Tutankhamun as Min-Amun (UC34503) is also a crowd-pleaser. It’s that heady mixture of royalty, religion, and beautiful sculpture so often associated with Egypt. Personally, I was fascinated to see the wooden cubit rod from Gurob, inscribed with the names of Tutankhamun and Ankhensenamun (UC16050). The royal name might be inscribed for religious, ritual, political, or commemorative reasons as well as marking objects that Tutankhamun actually used.

The unusual suspects

Tutankhamun the Boy also includes some more unusual objects. The rattle (UC59266), rag doll (UC30094), spinning top (UC27984), and wooden horse (UC45015) all represent play. The mud crocodile figures are of a type often interpreted as ‘ritual’ objects, but could equally well be toys. Mehen boards like UC20354 are often included in exhibitions about games, but the mancala-style board (UC44305, UC44306a-f) is rather unusual. These objects came from various sites and date to various periods but all speak to ancient Egyptian childhood and are far less commonly represented in exhibitions.

The painted limestone figurine of two monkeys (UC019), child’s reed sandal (UC769 – image above) and various glazed faience inlays (UC907/909, UC476, UC35943, UC1353, UC1359) come from Amarna, while the scribal palette (UC16055) is from Gurob. Such objects reflect the quality of crafts available to the ancient Egyptian elite, although neither is explicitly linked to Tutankhamun. The faience inlays are a particular specialism of the Petrie Museum, which contains a number of artefacts reflecting the opulent decoration of now-vanished houses and palaces and giving important insights into life (rather than death) in ancient Egypt.

Interesting and potentially transformative

It is refreshing to see a Tutankhamun exhibition that is focused on his life and childhood rather than on his death or the discovery of his tomb. The exhibition is unashamedly child-centred; in terms of its genesis in children’s questions; its subject matter; and its display, with many details at child’s-eye height. Nevertheless, adults will find much to interest them. There is enough background information for adult visitors and plenty of interesting objects to satisfy a range of knowledgeable individuals. Tutankhamun the Boy manages to highlight rarely seen and often under-appreciated artefacts whether directly linked to Tutankhamun, excavated from his childhood homes, or just unusual artefacts from ancient Egyptian childhoods across the ages. The exhibition is an excellent introduction to Tutankhamun the Boy, but the truly transformative aspect of this project is its engagement with children and descendant communities in Egypt. If successful, this work will promote long-term change in the displays of the Petrie Museum and its relationships beyond the archive or display-case.

Acknowledgements

The Tutankhamun: the Boy project is funded by the Esmeé Fairbairn Collections Fund, administered by the Museums Association on behalf of the Esmeé Fairbairn Foundation, and by the Friends of the Petrie Museum.