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British archaeologist Howard Carter described the moment he first set eyes on Tutankhamun’s glittering funerary mask with quiet reverence. It was 1923; more than 3,000 years had elapsed since anyone had gazed upon the coffin of the 18-year-old pharaoh who had become, he scribbled in his notebook, “little more than a shadow of a name”.
“In contrast to the dark and sombre effect, due to [the anointing] unguents, was a brilliant, magnificent, burnished gold mask of the king,” he wrote. The mournful face of the dead teenager was crowned with a headdress of gold and lapis lazuli; below it was a broad