King Tut, Act II

New Artifacts Tour Seeks To Put Him In Perspective Of His Times

(CBS)  King Tut, a star of Egyptian antiquity, kicks off his second American museum tour Thursday after an absence of almost 30 years.

Since the discovery of his tomb in 1922, the mystery behind Tut has fascinated people around the world.

CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes got a sneak peek at the highly anticipated exhibit.

The sequel was almost a quarter century in the making, but was well worth the wait, Hughes observes.

"We're trying to put Tutankhamun in his social, religious and political context," says Kathlyn Cooney, co-curator of the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit, whose first stop is the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "That's what is different from the 1970s exhibition, which I like to call, 'All Tut, all the time.' "

What's new this time, says Hughes, are 50 amazing items from the inside Tut's burial site.

Believed to have become king at nine years old, he was not buried in a royal tomb.

Still, comments Hughes, the treasures are amazing: a knife that was actually laying on his body, a diadem, inlaid with colored glass and semi-precious stones that was still around his head when the tomb was unearthed in 1922.

Unfortunately, under Egyptian law, the mummy, his mask and his sarcophagus, or coffin, must remain at home.

"(We have an item that is) almost an exact replica of the coffin," notes David L. Silverman, the exhibit's national curator. "So, if you come to see it, imagine that it is 7-and-a-half feet, and it's just like the one in the Cairo museum."

Tune in Wednesday for the rest of Hughes' report.