The Story of Tutankhamun: An Intimate Life of the Boy Who Became King by Gary J. Shaw (review)

Reviewed by: The Story of Tutankhamun: An Intimate Life of the Boy Who Became King by Gary J. Shaw Anna Lucille Boozer The Story of Tutankhamun: An Intimate Life of the Boy Who Became King. By Gary J. Shaw New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. xi + 208 pp. Hardcover $25.00, e-book $25.00. In a 1996 talk, Antonio Loprieno, the famous Swiss-Italian Egyptologist, gave a damning description of his profession, noting that "[f]rom the decipherment of hieroglyphs down to the present day, Egyptologists have frequently been in the peculiar position of having to explain that their subject is less interesting than people think it is."1 This statement is as unfortunate as it is apt. The tale of Tutankhamun has suffered just such a fate when told by Egyptologists. Tutankhamun, arguably the most famous of all ancient Egyptians, has dwelt in the public consciousness ever since Howard Carter discovered his [End Page 333] largely intact tomb in November 1922. The Times offered exclusive, vivid coverage of the painstaking reveal of the tomb's contents. Readers paged through the daily newspaper, eager to catch up on the latest revelations. When Lord Carnarvon died at the age of fifty-six in Cairo in April 1923, the Curse of Tutankhamun was born. This too entranced readers, regardless of how far-fetched it might be. And whenever the artifacts from Tutankhamun's tomb travel the world, attendance records are broken. The discovery of this tomb cannot be disentangled from Egypt's antiquity laws, the art deco movement, and even contemporary Egyptian diplomacy. In short, it would be difficult to overstate the importance of the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. Given his popularity, it is high time that the public have access to an engaging and approachable volume about Tutankhamun himself. This is what Shaw has provided. Shaw is an archaeologist and Egyptologist by training, but his career is an unconventional one for those with his background. Rather than remaining in the isolated confines of the ivory tower, he writes engaging books and articles for the interested public, teaches part-time in the Department of Continuing Education for Oxford University, and appears on the occasional television and radio program. This profile prepared Shaw to write a book that strongly indicates that Egyptology is even more interesting than people think it is. The Story of Tutankhamun takes us through the brief life of this pharaoh, beginning with his ancestors and ending with his afterlife in both ancient Egypt and the modern world. Tutankhamun, formerly known as Tutankhaten, was born during the Amarna period at the site of Akhetaten (Amarna), a single-phase capital built by his father, Akhenaten (formerly Amenhotep IV), to support his religious shift toward worshiping the Aten. It is a fascinating period of ancient Egyptian history given the radical religious transformations enacted by Tutankhamun's father and (to a lesser extent) his grandfather, Amenhotep III. That shift appears to have destabilized Egypt. In the wake of Akhenaten's death, his successors (possibly Smenhkare and surely Neferneferuaten) began a slow retreat from Atenism. When Tutankhaten assumed the throne, he changed his name to Tutankhamun to signal his return to the traditional gods. He also sped up the retreat by reconstructing and reconsecrating traditional temples and cults as well as reinstating the traditional priesthood. He returned the capital to Memphis and reburied his family in the Valley of the Kings, opposite Thebes, the traditional burial ground for Egyptian royalty. The restoration of Egypt's religious traditions continued after Tutankhamun's death. Eventually, the worship of the Aten was regarded as heresy. The readers of this journal, in particular, would appreciate the particular attention that Shaw paid to Tutankhamun's boyhood and adolescence in telling [End Page 334] Tutankhamun's story. For example, Shaw addressed the physical and emotional life of Tutankhamun as he lived through and shaped this turbulent period of Egyptian history. He considered how Tutankhamun may have mourned the quick sequence of deaths within his family, the joy of his marriage to Ankhesenamun (formerly Ankhesenpaaten), and the pain of his potential genetic disorders. This embodied approach to the pharaoh enhances the reader's understanding of everyday life while also...