Tutankhamun: plain-looking mud trays in pharaoh’s tomb have been key part of complex afterlife rituals

Tutankhamun's gold burial mask and one of the plain clay trays. Roland Unger/Canva, CC BY

More than 100 years after the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, new interpretations of the burial are still emerging. A recent article published in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology proposes that a set of seemingly plain, functional objects are in fact a key part of the complex rituals which would ensure the transformation and regeneration of the young king in the afterlife.