Tutankhamun’s 3,300 year old beard has been GLUED back on after it was broken by cleaners

Tutankhamun’s 3,300 year old beard has been GLUED back on after it was broken by cleaners

Mangalore Today News Network

Jan 23, 2015: Experts are furious the beard has been glued back on and say the whole death mask of the boy pharaoh should have been restored.

Broken: The death mask of Tutankhamun has been fixed with glue

Tutankhamun’s beard has been stuck back on with glue after it ­apparently broke during cleaning, it has been revealed.

But the move sparked fury among experts who said the 3,300-year-old death mask of the boy pharaoh should have been restored.

Accounts differ on when the blue and gold beard was damaged but staff at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo all agree the order to use glue “came from the top”.


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A chunk was knocked off the famed pharaoh’s death mask in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

The burial mask, discovered by British archeologists Howard Carter and George Herbert in 1922, sparked worldwide interest in archaeology and ancient Egypt when it was unearthed along with Tutankhamun’s nearly intact tomb

One conservator said: “Unfortunately they used a very irreversible material.

Gone: The sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun remains empty in its burial chamber after the mummy was placed in a glass urn

“Epoxy has a high ­property for attaching and is used on metal or stone but it wasn’t suitable for Tutankhamun’s golden mask. They were in a rush to get it displayed quickly again.”

A nother museum expert revealed the epoxy had dried on the face of the boy king’s mask and a colleague scraped if off with a spatula leaving scratches on the death mask.

Egyptologist Tom Hardwick said: "From the photos circulating among restorers I can see that the mask has been repaired, but you can’t tell with what.

"Everything of that age needs a bit more attention, so such a repair will be highly scrutinised.”

 

Courtesy: Mirror.com