Tutankhamun's Folding Camp Bed

Nothing new is original.

3,300 years ago, King Tutankhamun died and was entombed in what can be called one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century. A crypt filled with ancient artifacts that are still beyond imagination. "Tut" was sent to his afterlife with so many items that they are still being studied and examined to this day.

This week, the web site LiveScience reported that researchers at Musashino University in Tokyo released information about a folding camp bed, the only one known to have survived to modern day. Made of a wooden frame, bronze hinges, copper-alloy support drums and a linen mat, this bed would not look out of place at Pennsic, today.

However, given the elaborate shape of the legs, folding up the bed was tricky. To solve the problem, the ancient artisans devised some ingenious hinges and placed them over the four auxiliary legs.
"In this way, the legs took the strain off the hinges," when the bed was in use, Nishimoto said.
The complex folding system required two different types of hinges: Single hinges with stoppers were used on the middle and end pairs of legs near the footboard, while a system of double hinges was designed for the foremost pair of the auxiliary legs.
"The double-hinged legs could be turned inwards simultaneously when the bed was folded," Nishimoto said.

The strange thing about this bed is how normal it is: no gold, no engravings, no paint. And the feet look very crude for something to be used for a Pharaoh.

It could be that the bed wasn't finished by the time the tomb was to be sealed. But, why was it made for a dead man? Tut was entombed with a number of gilded beds and certainly didn't need a folding camp bed.

There is a theory that Tut's tomb, and the items stuffed into it,  weren't intended for Tut. Tutankhamun either died unexpectedly (due to malaria, Kohler disease, an infection or complications due to a chariot accident) or expectedly (through assassination). In any case, the theory goes, Tut's Grand Vizier Ay, who seceded Tut as Pharaoh Kheperkheperure, "donated" his tomb and burial offering to Tutankhamun, with the intention of completing  Tut's grand tomb for himself.

This kind of makes sense. As grand and magnificent as the burial items are, they are kind of random and were stacked haphazardly into a relatively small space. Many of the items don't appear to be of the quality intended for a pharaoh. Even his famous death mask appears to have been originally intended for his mother, Nefertiti. (The beard was added as an afterthought, the ears are depicted as pierced, and Tutankhamun's name is inscribed over Nefertiti's). The camp bed might have been originally made for Ay, but then stuffed into Tut's tomb with the intention that if the now King Ay needed a bed for when he traveled, he would have a magnificent traveling bed made for himself.

The question as to whether the camp bed was made for Tutankhamun or for Ay will be debated for years. But we can certainly enjoy the ingenuity of whomever designed and built the bed. I wish that my wood working skills were better; I would love to see a copy of this bed built.