Once they’d gathered enough gold, it was moulded into ingots and sent to craftsmen to be beaten into shape. Toiling in the desert heat, workers ground up chunks of quartzite to free tiny fragments of gold, while others panned the sand. The gold used to make Tutankhamun’s mask 3,300 years ago was brought to the palace workshop either from Egypt’s eastern desert or Nubia, the resource-rich region south of Egypt, which the pharaohs had integrated into their expansive empire. Here are four things you probably did not know about one of the world’s most recognisable artefacts.
It has been seen by millions of people, either in Cairo or as part of travelling exhibitions, scrutinised and analysed, yet researchers continue to make new discoveries about its history.
In the century since the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, the pharaoh’s gold death mask has become a symbol of ancient Egypt, celebrated the world over as a masterpiece of ancient art.
