Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, the exhibition that drew nearly four million visitors during its two-year, four-city tour, will return to the United States for a three-city encore tour. Following the success of the first tour, which broke records at each of the four museums it visited in the United States from June 2005 through September 2007, the exhibition will return from its current London engagement to open at the Dallas Museum of Art in October 2008.

The Dallas exhibit marks the first time these artifacts will be seen in the Southwest region. The current exhibition includes an extensive array of more than 130 extraordinary artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun and other ancient Egyptian sites. The return of the exhibition to the United States will include a selection of artifacts that are new to the exhibit and have never before been seen outside of Egypt.

Opening on October 3, 2008, at the Dallas Museum of Art, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs provides insight into the life of Tutankhamun and other royals of the 18th Dynasty (1555-1305 B.C.). All of the treasures in the exhibition are between 3,300 and 3,500 years old.

Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt's 18th Dynasty and ruled during a crucial, turmoil-filled period of Egyptian history.The boy king died under mysterious circumstances around age 18 or 19, in the ninth year of his reign (1323 B.C.).

Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs offers glimpses of that evolving period. On display are fifty of Tutankhamun's burial objects, including his royal diadem — the gold crown discovered encircling the head of his mummified body that he likely wore as king — and one of the gold and precious stone inlaid canopic coffinettes that contained his mummified internal organs.

More than seventy additional objects from tombs of 18th Dynasty royals, as well as several non-royal individuals, are also exhibited. These stone, faience, and wood pieces from burial sites before Tut's reign give visitors a sense of what the lost burials of other royalty and commoners may have been like.