From Daniel Hunter, Hales, Norfolk, UK
Economics could also explain why Tutankhamun’s tomb contained so many high-value goods. When his father Akhenaten closed the traditional temples, presumably he seized a lot of their gold. Gold has two key functions: decoration and a medium of exchange. If the temple gold was melted down and turned into a medium of exchange – perhaps to pay for Akhenaten’s capital, Akhetaten – it could have led to a fall in gold’s value. In historic terms, it may have been fairly cheap to fill Tutankhamun’s tomb with gold(14 June, p 34).
