Mystery of Tutankhamun’s death ‘solved’ as academic claims infection after leg fracture killed boy king
A LEADING Egyptian archaeologist has claimed he is close to solving the mystery surrounding the death of King Tutankhamun.
The boy king died over 3,000 years ago aged just 19 and was apparently finished off by an infected leg following a horrific chariot crash.
King Tut is the most famous of Egypt's Pharaohs, and experts have spent decades bickering over the cause of his untimely death.
Bone fragments found in his skull suggest he was assassinated, while a fractured leg bone hints that the Golden Boy's demise was an accident.
Now a prominent Egyptologist has told the he is close to proving the latter.
Dr Zahi Hawass, from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, said his team was using a "new machine" to investigate the young king's corpse.
He said he believes Tut died following a broken leg sustained in a chariot accident. The leg wound became infected and killed him.
"We will find out through a new machine that we have [to scan his] DNA. We will find out all the genetics diseases that he had," Dr Hawass said.
King Tut was born with deformities as his father, Akenathum, and mother, known only as The Younger Lady, were brother and sister.
It's thought he had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder that can leave someone with unusually long fingers, arms and legs.
Who was King Tutankhamun?
Here's what you need to know...
- King Tutankhamun is the most famous of Egypt's ancient pharaohs
- He ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago from 1332 to 1323 BC
- Tut is known as the "boy king" as he was just 10 years old when he took the thrown
- When he became the king he married his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten. They had two daughters together but both were stillborn
- Tut died aged just 19 under mysterious circumstances
- Some believe that he was assassinated but most think his death was an accident, likely the result of an infected leg following a nasty break
- The pharaoh is also famous for the supposed curse that haunts his tomb
- After the tomb's discovery in 1922, archaeologists, and even their family members, died from horrible illnesses or in strange accidents – and some say the deaths weren't a coincidence
"We know that he had a fracture on his left leg and that fracture was an accident that happened to him two days before he died," Dr Hawass said.
"We will find out through this machine if he had an infection or not.
"If he had an infection then this will confirm the idea that he died in an accident. It meant that he died in a chariot."
Dr Hawass said the results of the project would be announced next year.
Reports suggest Tut regularly went on chariot hunting expeditions from his home city of Memphis.
He was interested in hunting wild animals in the valley of gazelles that connected between the Valley of the Sphinx and the Saqqara.
The idea that Tut sustained a fatal injury during one of these expeditions is not a new one.
A CT scan carried out in 2005 suggested he snapped his left thigh bone just a few days before death.
A brief history of Ancient Egypt
Here's everything you need to know...
- The Ancient Egyptians were an advanced civilisation who at one point owned a huge portion of the globe
- The civilisation began about 5,000 years ago when ancient humans began building villages along the River Nile
- It lasted for about 3,000 years and saw the building of complex cities centuries ahead of their time – as well as the famous Great Pyramids
- The Ancient Egyptians were experts at farming and construction
- They invented a solar calendar, and one of the world's earliest writing systems: The hieroglyph
- The Egyptians were ruled by kings and queens called pharaohs
- Religion and the afterlife were a huge part of Ancient Egyptian culture. They had over 2,000 gods
- Pharaohs built huge elaborate tombs to be buried in, some of which were pyramids – at the time among the largest buildings in the world
- The Egyptians believed in life after death, and important people's corpses were mummified to preserve their bodies for the afterlife
- The Ancient Egytpian empire fell due to a mix of factors, including wars with other empires and a 100-year period of drought and starvation
"Although the break itself would not have been life-threatening, infection might have set in," Egyptian antiquities researchers said in their report.
Another analysis in 2013 found he was crushed on one side of his body, likely while on his knees. The impact apparently shattered his pelvis and ribs.
Some experts believe that bone fragments found in the boy's skull 60 years ago reveal that Tut was assassinated with a heavy blow to the head.
However, later analyses have shown the damage occurred after death, likely during the embalming process.
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In other archaeology news, ancient false teeth crafted with gold and hippo bone 200 years ago were recently unearthed near Oxford.
From a ‘cursed’ sarcophagus to a trumpet that "started WW2" – here are Tutankhamun’s most mysterious relics.
And, the face of a 1,000-year-old Viking warrior woman with a gruesome battle wound across her skull was revealed earlier this month.
How do you think King Tut died? Let us know in the comments...
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