Relics in Tutankhamun’s tomb hint he invented elaborate burial rites

A collection of roughly made clay trays and wooden staffs found among the golden treasures of Tutankhamun’s tomb may offer the earliest evidence of an important ancient Egyptian royal funerary ritual. The idea is the latest indication that the boy king had a burial unlike that of any other pharaoh.

Tutankhamun’s nine-year-long reign in the 14th century BC came shortly after a period of religious turmoil in ancient…