Burying Tutankhamun: Ritual, Politics, and the Making of a King
Lecture by Nicholas Brown, University of Iowa

Abstract:

This talk explores the state funeral in ancient Egypt through the burial of Tutankhamun, one of the few nearly intact royal burials ever discovered. Dr. Brown will analyze the funerary procession scene from Tutankhamun’s tomb, examining how the royal funeral functioned not only as a religious ritual but also as a carefully constructed expression of politics, power, and succession. The participation and placement of the king’s highest officials within the procession reveal the hierarchy of the royal court and the role that burial could play in legitimizing those who sought to inherit royal authority. At the same time, the procession’s imagery—including its funerary barque, canopies, divine emblems, and other ritual elements—transformed the king’s final journey into a cosmic drama of death and rebirth. Together, these political and religious dimensions demonstrate that the royal funeral was more than the burial of a king: it was a powerful ritual performance that secured Tutankhamun’s transformation in the afterlife while helping to negotiate the transfer of power among the living.

Bio:

Nicholas (Nick) Brown is an American Egyptologist who has worked as an archaeologist in Egypt since 2011. He received his MA in Egyptology from the American University in Cairo in 2016 and his PhD from UCLA in 2024. From 2024 to 2026, he was a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale University. Nick’s research focuses primarily on royal funerary rituals and burial rites in New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1550–1070 BC), drawing on the archaeological, textual, and art historical remains from the Valley of the Kings. He also works as a settlement archaeologist at Deir el-Ballas and studies the use and perception of ancient Egypt in modern contexts. As Assistant Professor of Egyptology at the University of Iowa, Nick teaches courses on ancient Egypt while expanding his doctoral research into his first monograph, The Falcon Has Flown: Funerary Ritual and Burial Rites in the Valley of the Kings.