 "Photo: Lamar James / The Advocate")
A standing room-only crowd joined history professor Manu Ampim in LA-100 Thursday for a W.E.B. Du Bois lecture series event on the inaccuracy with which the media portray the life of King Tutankhamen, popularly known as King Tut.
The seminar focused on his true genealogy and the De Young Museum exhibit by archeologist Zahi Hawass claiming to have newfound DNA.
“This is modern-day fraud,” Ampim said. “People are taking it as far as distorting images to say they know what King Tut looks like. This is all speculation. You cannot present evidence if it has not been proven yet.”
Ampim said that saying they know who King Tut’s parents were is just guesswork.
They release data that says one thing at this moment in time, Ampim said, then release data at another point in time that is completely different information, and as a scholar one just cannot do that.
“This is not forensic science, but this is forensic art,” he said. “For them to have made a bust of King Tut and say this is what he looks like is just an assumption. Although this is helpful, it does not depict an accurate image of the king.”
To totally denounce the African features of King Tut and whiten his skin is not an accurate portrayal of who he was said, Ampim said.
“And to disassociate Egypt from Africa and make it a part of the Middle East is also a way to distort facts,” he said.
Ampim said the work that they are doing is very useful, but one must include all the elements to make the work complete and truthful.
Student Mario Hill said the event went really well.
“It was very informative,” Hill said. “I learned some things that I didn’t know and learned about the inaccuracy of history the media (dish) out.”
Hill said that Ampim did the fieldwork and the research shows that he is very creditable, knows what he is talking about and could be a trusted source.
“It seems as if he just wants to get the correct information out (so) that the masses will know the correct history, and that is that King Tut was an African king,” Hill said. “Because we don’t, as the masses, go out and find the correct information, we hold the information that we get from the mainstream media as the God’s honest truth, but the masses must reach for more, and continue to seek the truth.”
Student Rachel Reaux said Ampim really “knows his stuff.”
“He is very confident in the information he presented and has primary sources, because he has done the research,” Reaux said.
Contact Lamar James at ljames.advocate@gmail.com
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