Tablet of Ahkmenrah

The Tablet of Ahkmenrah.

The Tablet in the tomb of Ahkmenrah.

The Tablet of Ahkmenrah is an Ancient Egyptian tablet imbued with the magic to bring the inanimate to life. For a significant length of time, it was kept on display at the Museum of Natural History.

History

4000 years ago during the 20th century BC, Merenkahre and Shepseheret ruled Ancient Egypt. One night, their youngest son Ahkmenrah was born at midnight. Merenkahre loved his son so much that he could not bear the thought of ever saying goodbye to him. To this end, he commanded the High Priest to create a gift for his son using all the knowledge they had of the afterlife. The tablet was forged in the Temple of Khonsu, god of the moon and watcher over nighttime travelers, and Khonsu bestowed his powers upon the tablet so that it would bring the inanimate (dead or otherwise) to life each night; this way, the family would always be together, and not even death could part them. The tomb of Merenkahre's family, where the tablet was intended to reside, was designed to channel the moon's ray's down to the tablet so as to rejuvenate its powers every night. However, should anything or anyone the tablet brought to life be caught in the sunlight by sunrise, they would instantly turn to dust.

Starting around 1918, Mr. Fredericks began searching for the Tomb of Ahkmenrah. By 1938, he headed the Akhmenrah Expedition in Egypt to excavate for it. His son Cecil, who be brought with him, discovered the tomb by accident when he fell through the ground. While Mr. Fredericks was enthusiastic to have discovered the tomb, the fearful locals warned him and his expedition crew that should the tomb be disturbed, "the end will come". Mr. Fredericks ignored this warning and had the tomb's contents, including the tablet, collected to be shipped off.

The mummified remains of at least Merenkahre, Shepseheret, and Ahkmenrah were kept in England for some time. At some point, Ahkmenrah's parents would be put on display at the British Museum while Ahkmenrah himself (and presumably the tablet with him) was kept in the Egyptology Department of Cambridge University. Ahkmenrah's older brother and his parents' first son, Kahmunrah, was discovered at an unknown point in time and eventually sent to the Smithsonian Institute in America.

In 1952, both Ahkmenrah and his tablet were moved to the Museum of Natural History. The night this occurred, the tablet's magic brought everything within the museum to life, and every night since.

Night at the Museum

In the first film, Teddy Roosevelt shows Larry the tablet on his first night as a night guard. He explains to Larry that it has made everything in the museum come to life every night ever since it was placed there. Nights later, Larry shows his son, Nick, the museum at night and how everything comes to life, but nothings happens. Larry then finds out that the tablet has been stolen by Cecil and the other guards and rushes off with Nick to retrieve it.

Battle of the Smithsonian

Two years later, many of the exhibits are being shipped to the Smithsonian as archives as the museum being upgraded by holograms of them. Dexter secretly takes the tablet with them, not wanting to be a nonliving museum archive exhibit. As a result, the tablet brings the entire Smithsonian Museum to life. Larry travels to D.C. to retrieve the tablet and does battle with Ahkmenrah's older brother, Kahmunrah.

Discovering the combination on the tablet has been changed, Kahmunrah coerces Larry into finding out the new combination by trapping his cowboy friend Jedediah in an hourglass. He later learns the combination after Capone interrogates a bobble-headed Albert Einstein (it is pi), and uses it to open to the gate to Duat (the Egyptian underworld), unleashing an army of falcon-headed warriors. These are sent back to the underworld by the Abraham Lincoln Statue. Using the tablet's power, Amelia opens the gate and Larry banishes Kahmunrah into Duat and Amelia closes the door.

Secret of the Tomb

The Tablet of Ahkmenrah slowly corroding.

The tablet is shown to be corroding, as revealed by Ahkmenrah to Larry. When it corrodes, the exhibits completely forget everything (except who they're supposed to be) temporarily, and begin to turn into their exhibit forms as they would during the day. As a result, they infiltrate the London Museum at night to find out how to restore it.

It is later revealed by Ahkmenrah's parents Merenkahre and Shepseheret that it needs moonlight to restore itself. Shortly after realizing this, Sir Lancelot believes it is the Holy Grail, and steals it from the main group, setting out for Camelot, which is revealed to be just a play. After cornering Lancelot, it is almost too late, as the tablet completely corrodes, they are almost in their day forms, and Dexter temporarily dies. However, eventually, after finally receiving it, Larry shines it in the moonlight, restoring the tablet and having the exhibits return to normal. They eventually decide to bring it to the London Museum to have it stay in it's normal condition forever. The Tablet of Ahkmenrah is later shown in Tilly's possession during a special traveling tour that she is overseeing and shows Dr. McPhee it's magic with the exhibits coming to life.

Kahmunrah Rises Again

In the fourth film's separate continuity from the original trilogy, the tablet remains at the Museum of Natural History, allowing its exhibits to continue to come to life every night.

Kahmunrah, who has "returned" after his prior defeat by Larry, obtains the tablet with the intent of once again opening a portal to the underworld and summoning an army to take over the world. To this end, he takes the tablet to the Museum of Modern Art with the intention of using its powers to animate the Temple of Dendur and use it as a portal to travel back in time to Ancient Egypt.

TBA

Video Games

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (Video Game)

DS Port

In the DS version of the video game based off the second movie, it is mentioned that the tablet was shipped with the rest of the exhibits, being there to where Larry is able to grab it when he is in the Smithsonian. While there, the tablet’s magic actives and Kahmunrah takes the tablet, talking about his plan with the world before breaking it, leading to both the 7 ingots on the tablet as well as magic dust to be spread around a few museums.

Throughout the game, Larry has the tablet with him, going through a handful of museums to collect the different ingots to put the tablet back together. The tablet here has 6 different powers the player can use while the last one is used to go into the underworld. By the end of the Modern Art Gallery Museum, the Tablet will be fully put together to where Larry can go into the underworld to defeat Kahmunrah.

Wii/PC/Xbox 360

In this version of the video game, Ahkmenrah explains to Larry the magic that the tablet holds, based off the ingots, like a tutorial. Only a few of the ingots' powers are shown, seeing as Ahkmenrah doesn't actually know what the last one does. When Larry leaves the museum, Dexter comes in and takes the tablet like he does in the movie, leading Larry to go and grab it at the Federal Archives. When he does, the tablet's powers active and Kahmunrah comes in, taking the tablet from Larry and explains his plan to him. This leads to Kahmunrah speaking to the tablet to cast a spell, in which will lead to the underworld being opened to him, before he breaks the tablet, leading 8 outta the 9 ingots to break off of it. He gives Al Capone 3 ingots, Ivan the Terrible 2, and Napoleon 1, before telling them to hide them from prying eyes.

Throughout the game, Larry will collect all the ingots for the tablet, going from different museums to do so to gain it's full power while repairing it. We also learn that from Cleopatra, the spell that Kahmunrah had cast can be reversed by placing the last ingot in the tablet backwards, leading to his defeat.

Trivia

• In the original script for the first film:
  • The tablet is instead described as a puzzle whose panels are inscribed with words and phrases that can be moved and rotated to form different sentences. Depending on the sentence formed, the puzzle would have different effects on those associated with Ahkmenrah's tomb (i.e. the museum), such as giving the temple's guards absolute authority over the exhibits or other guards and allowing them to give irresistible commands.
    • In the deleted scenes for Night at the Museum, the tablet is instead a puzzle, more bulky and large in size compared to how it is in the movie. It also glows blue and has smaller other colors also glow after a command is said instead of glowing yellow.
  • The tablet was discovered in the (erroneously dated) "Nile Expedition of 1927", and arrived at the museum sometime after 1915 and around 1930, instead of in 1957.
• The tablet was exposed briefly to moonlight during the first film, but not enough to restore its magic fully.
• In Night at the Museum 3: Secret of the Tomb, Khonsu is mentioned as the god of the tablet.
  • A fan translation of the tablet's hieroglyphs revealed that the inscriptions on the tablet's panels, as depicted in the third film at least, are names of various Egyptian gods. These names align with those spoken by a disembodied voice when the tablet activates each night in the first film's original script.
• In both versions of the video game, which is based off the 2nd movie, the tablet is broken into pieces, by the base of it and the ingots.
  • In the Wii/PC/Xbox 360 version of the game, the ingots' order does not match the way it was in the beginning of the game. This is most likely due to how Larry had to collect the ingots as the game processed.

Gallery

Image of the tablet in majority of the games.

The Tablet in Kahmunrah Rises Again.

an earlier version of the tablet

an earlier version of the tablet, this time glowing