Introduction by Dr. Renee Dreyfus, Curator in Charge of Ancient Art and interpretation, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and curator of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs at the de Young through Sunday, 28 March. The burial of King Tutankhamun has continued to amaze. When confronted with such a huge amount of high quality, high cost burial goods, one of the first questions asked is: Why was there such intense and systematic preparation for the burial of the Egyptian king and elite? Why did the ancient Egyptians participate in so much conspicuous consumption—all for death? Why did they bury so much gold in a hole in the ground, never to be seen again? In fact, intense preparation for burial could mirror human preparation for one's inevitable death, in a way that Americans might find wholly unfamiliar. This lecture will address how Egyptian materialism encapsulates preparation for death, on a spiritual and on a very practical level. It will also confront the topic of race in ancient Egypt. Was King Tut black, white, or neither? And why do we care so much in the United States about his racial identity?