Thanks to four modest trinkets found as archaeological evidence unearthed in Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922 may disclose a millennia-old secret regarding a possible resurrection procedure that has been lost for 3,000 years. More than a century after its opening, the tomb continues to reveal secrets. Although the world has been enthralled with Tutankhamun’s tomb’s gilded treasures for decades, some of the more understated items—four wooden staffs and four plain pottery trays—may conceal one of the most fascinating hints to ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs.
Archaeological evidence has revealed the Performance of the Awakening of Osiris Ritual in the Tomb of Tutankhamun
Recent studies have radically reinterpreted their significance, connecting them to a little-known rite that appears to have attempted to resurrect the young pharaoh by symbolically reenacting the awakening of the god of the dead, Osiris. There was no physical proof that this ceremony, called the Awakening of Osiris, had ever been used in a royal tomb before the 19th Dynasty, although it had been recorded in subsequent texts. These items, discovered adjacent to the sarcophagus in the newborn pharaoh’s burial chamber, may, nevertheless, represent the oldest known example of the rite, according to a careful examination of the archeological setting and old funerary writings.
Furthermore, all the evidence suggests that Tutankhamun himself would have been the first to include it in a royal ceremonial. Stories regarding the death, dismemberment, and resurrection of Osiris, the deity who was killed by his brother Seth, are abundant in Egyptian mythology. Isis reassembled him, and her son Horus symbolically brought him back to life. In addition to being a religious tale, this tale also functioned as a ceremonial manual for the journey to the afterlife. Reenacting this mythological rebirth during a traditional funeral had great significance since it promised the deceased a divine metamorphosis and the potential for eternal life. The four wooden staffs discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb were more than just ornaments used in rituals.
Their placement, composition, and form allude to the hieroglyph “res,” which in Egyptian funeral literature is associated with authority and the reawakening of the dead. Furthermore, as though mimicking the scene where Horus commands his father to return from the afterlife with his scepter, these canes were positioned at the height of the deceased pharaoh’s head. For their part, libations of holy water, milk, or ointments would have been kept in the baked clay trays, which were most likely constructed from Nile silt. The water of the Nile was the ultimate emblem of rebirth in Egyptian cosmology. It should come as no surprise that Osiris was strongly linked to the river’s cycle and the fertility that each yearly flood provided.
What does this archaeological evidence say about this ritual?
As part of the ritual, these liquids were poured around the body, which was the same as giving it life again. This ritual becomes even more relevant if one considers the religious context of Tutankhamun’s reign. Son of Akhnaton, the heretic pharaoh who abolished the cult of the traditional gods to impose a religion centered on the solar disk Aten, Tutankhamun came to the throne during a theological crisis. Under his reign, Egypt gradually returned to the polytheistic system, reestablishing the cult of deities such as Amun, Isis, or Osiris himself. Taking into account the religious background of Tutankhamun’s reign makes this ceremony even more pertinent.
Son of Akhnaton, the heretic pharaoh who imposed a religion based on the solar disk Aten and destroyed the worship of the ancient gods, Tutankhamun ascended to the throne during a theological crisis. During his rule, Egypt progressively reverted to polytheism, reviving the worship of gods like Amun, Isis, or even Osiris. It was not an unintentional choice to place a ceremony similar to the Awakening of Osiris in the center of Tutankhamun’s tomb. It was a declaration of purpose. By doing this, the young king was symbolically bringing himself into line with Egypt’s oldest and most revered tradition while also rejecting his father’s heresy. It was done to restore the state’s weakened theological authority in addition to ensuring his rebirth in the afterlife.
