Talk:Mask of Tutankhamun

This  level-5 vital article is rated B-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Ancient Egypt Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ancient Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egyptological subjects on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Ancient EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject Ancient EgyptTemplate:WikiProject Ancient EgyptAncient Egypt articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. WikiProject Ancient Egypt to-do list: edit history watch purge Needed articles. We should have an article on every pyramid and every nome in Ancient Egypt. I'm sure the rest of us can think of other articles we should have. Cleanup. To start with, most of the general history articles badly need attention. And I'm told that at least some of the dynasty articles need work. Any other candidates? Standardize the Chronology. A boring task, but the benefit of doing it is that you can set the dates !(e.g., why say Khufu lived 2589-2566? As long as you keep the length of his reign correct, or cite a respected source, you can date it 2590-2567 or 2585-2563) Stub sorting Anyone? I consider this probably the most unimportant of tasks on Wikipedia, but if you believe it needs to be done . . . Data sorting. This is a project I'd like to take on some day, & could be applied to more of Wikipedia than just Ancient Egypt. Take one of the standard authorities of history or culture -- Herotodus, the Elder Pliny, the writings of Breasted or Kenneth Kitchen, & see if you can't smoothly merge quotations or information into relevant articles. Probably a good exercise for someone who owns one of those impressive texts, yet can't get access to a research library. Egypt Mid‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject Egypt, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Egypt on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.EgyptWikipedia:WikiProject EgyptTemplate:WikiProject EgyptEgypt articles Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale. Visual arts This article is within the scope of WikiProject Visual arts, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of visual arts on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Visual artsWikipedia:WikiProject Visual artsTemplate:WikiProject Visual artsvisual arts articles project-independent quality rating in the banner shell. Please resolve this conflict if possible. Low This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

A fact from Mask of Tutankhamun appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 18 December 2015 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that Tutankhamun's mask (pictured) contains many gemstone inlays, including lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, obsidian, turquoise, amazonite, and faience? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2015/December. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Tutankhamun's mask.

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on October 28, 2017 and October 28, 2019.

The article says the beard is inlaid with lapis lazuli. I know of no lapis lazuli that is this grey-blue color. lapis lazuli is a very dark blue. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ianbrettcooper (talk • contribs) 14:56, 17 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"The king is wearing a false funerary beard with a curved end, which is again inlaid with lapis lazuli." – Abeer El-Shahawy and Matḥaf al-Miṣrī, The Egyptian Museum in Cairo (2005), p. 212. Firebrace (talk) 23:58, 17 November 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a name for the “headdress”: especially for the flared/ flange-bit behind the ears.

Do the alternating blue and gold lines represent anything in particular (North-South, Nile-sand, sun’s rays)?

Did blue mean something special (eg like purple in Rome)?

Are the blue-bits lapis lazuli or glass (the article doesn’t currently say)? MBG02 (talk) 05:53, 2 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

MBG02: The headdress is a nemes headcloth. I think I read once that the colors of the nemes were a reference to Ra, the sun god (yellow and gold commonly symbolized Ra, but I don't know about the blue). However, I can't remember what the source was and don't know of any textual evidence that would back up the claim.

As the article says, the eyebrows and eyeliner are genuine lapis lazuli, but I read somewhere, can't remember where, that the stripes in the headdress are colored glass. Once you look at detailed photos, it becomes obvious. I should track down the sources to state that. A. Parrot (talk) 06:15, 2 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That is not the original mask displayed 2601:243:2180:2AA0:21B0:99EF:89DD:DB10 (talk) 05:51, 14 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

On the contrary, it certainly is the original mask. On this page you can see all of Wikimedia Commons' photos of the mask on display at the Cairo Museum, including the photos used in this article. Compare those photos with the ones on this page, which are of replicas of the mask. A. Parrot (talk) 14:28, 14 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]