367. Ancient Egypt: “Tut-mania” And Tutankhamun’s Tomb (Ep 6)
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What sparked the global fascination with Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922?
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Well, hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnand.
And me, William de Rumpel. Now, in the last episode, we saw the end of Akhenaten's dynasty with the death of the boy king Tutankhamen, who had no heirs. Today, we bring you a special episode to wrap up the series we are discussing when everyone went crazy for Tut. in the aftermath of the incredible 1922 discovery. We are joined once again by the brilliant and wonderful, my compatriot, Dr. Campbell Price. Hi, hi, hi. Nice to be back.
We're so delighted to have you back. We did a bonus episode for anybody who wants to go and listen where we talked in depth about the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb. For those of you who want to listen to it, join our club, empirepoduk.com, empirepoduk.com. But it You know, we talked about this man, Howard Carter, unlikely because he wasn't from one of the top notches of British education establishment, an Egyptologist who discovers the intact tomb of Tutankhamun. It's the best preserved pharaonic tomb in existence. And Howard Carter, after this 1922 discovery, Campbell, the world goes nuts for King Tut.
They do, Anita, they absolutely do. And it's worth saying 1922 also represented the centenary of the decipherment of hieroglyphs by Frenchman Jean-Francois Champollion. So it was a double whammy of Egyptomania. And it's difficult to, I think, yeah, overemphasize just what Tutankhamen meant, how much he caught the zeitgeist of the moment in the 1920s.
And I suppose that's not a coincidence when so many people are thinking about, you know, the senseless loss of young lives, Tutankhamun, the boy king, and, you know, the world has just come out of World War I where so many young men died.
Well, going into the excavation, Carter and the team didn't know that Tutankhamun was a boy. That was information that came out from the discovery and ageing of his body. But when it became known that he died about the age of 18, of course, yeah, that resonated with... that lost generation of young men in Europe and the aesthetics of the tomb, the idea of discovery, the idea of finding something that was hidden and was secret. But then you've got to remember, yeah, roaring 20s, art deco, all that angularity and geometric design that the tomb was filled with. really spoke to the moment.
And there's also the timing in terms of mass media. After the First World War, you're getting things like photography, illustrated newspapers, radio, all that is beaming this stuff out, isn't it? And it has a kind of global presence in a way that just wouldn't have done in the early years of the century.
Yeah, in a way, it's the first big global news story that's not about war. In the aftermath of the First World War, you're right, there's improvement in communications, there's a greater use of colour. So not just in newspapers, but a lot of the Tutankhamen material was visualised in the Illustrated London News. That's where you could see a lot of the photographs often colorized photographs of the fine so it spread not only because it was a great story but because there was a means to communicate to literally to telegraph this this news around the world and advertisers who are never backwards about coming forwards they jump all over it very very quickly don't they because you have pretty much egyptian motifs on on everything
Yeah, there's a great rage for Tutankhamen. I mean, everything from soap to clothing to contraceptives are Egypt-themed. So yes, yes, it's a big moment. Tell me about the Egyptian-themed contraceptives.
I'm so glad you asked because it was the question I wanted to know the answer to. Yes, do tell us about the contraceptives. What are we talking about?
Hieroglyphs covered? I mean, what's the... I don't think there were hieroglyphs on them.
Was it sort of obelisk?
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What sparked the global fascination with Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922?
0:00–9:50
2
How did the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb influence popular culture?
9:50–16:15
3
What role did mass media play in the rise of Tut-mania?
16:15–24:07
4
What was the significance of Egyptian-themed products in the 1920s?
24:07–31:23
5
How did Cold War politics affect the perception of Ancient Egypt?
31:23–40:59
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from Empire: World History
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