For many years the mystique of boy King Tutankhamen and his fabulous tomb has enthralled us, and now scientists have worked their wonders and revealed the real King Tut.
In November of 1922, Howard Carter, archaeologist and Egyptologist, excavating in the Valley of the Kings, (the place where other embalmed remains of Egypt's ancient kings were buried) found the steps down to King Tut tomb. He hit the jackpot! A tomb of Egyptian royalty that hadn't been robbed...and it was filled with wonders. He spent the next 4 months going through and cataloguing the sumptuous find, before finally opening the actual burial chamber and finding King Tutankhamen's sarcophagus, untouched. Within the sarcophagus lay the preserved body of a young king, covered by the most incredible and beautiful golden death mask.
In November 1922, Howard Carter found steps that led to Tutankhamun's tomb. He spent several months cataloguing the antechamber before opening the burial chamber and discovering the sarcophagus in February the following year. Carter and an unnamed assistant are shown inspecting Tutankhamun's inner-most coffin
But in all these years, we have managed to discover very little of the actual boy king. Why do we know so little of this enigmatic king and what have recent discoveries revealed?
Step past the orange hieroglyphic to find out
On the outside of the tomb, decorations depicted Tutankhamun as underworld god Osiris, while wall paintings (pictured) showed the king being embraced by the underworld god. It is believed that if Tutankhamun was shown to be this powerful god it would quash a religious revolution taking place in the 1320s BC
In the last few years, speculation on King Tutankhamun's death have led us to believe the young king died at the age of 19 from a chariot accident or from murder. These theories were brought about by the x-rays of Tut's embalmed body, which shows several fractures to his bones and skull.
Examination of the young king's body has been hampered by the fact that his entire body was painted with a black liquid, thought to make him resemble the god Osiris. Funnily enough, Tut's penis was embalmed at a 90 degree angle....in other words..erect. This was also supposed to resemble Osiris.
I'm speculating that the reason for these additional changes to Tut's body (the only mummy found so far with these additions) were a response by the priests at the time of his death. You see, Tutankhamun's father, Akhenaten, tried to change the religion of his country. He believed in one god - Aten, god of the sun. Up until this time Egyptians worshiped many gods (Ra, Isis, Osiris, Hathor, etc) and the priests controlled the temples and the revenue from the worshipers. When Akhenaten tried to change things, even going so far as to build a new city dedicated to his god, the priests (and populace, no doubt) refused to accept this new god. The immense damage done to the new city and the statues of Akhenaten, after his death, reveal just how angered Egyptians were. It's likely that Tut's father had almost caused a civil war, and that Tut had to deal with the revolution, too. I think the priests probably insisted that these extra alterations to Tut's body were done to signify a return to the old religions.
In the last year, several lines of study have revealed not just Tutankhamun's death, but also what he looked like and who his parents were.
There were two different physical studies done: The first was a study of the genetics from Tutankhamun's family ( his father, mother, and grandparents, possibly even great grandparents). Albert Zinc from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy has deciphered the truth about Tut's parentage.
The second line of study was a virtual autopsy, done by checking 2000 computer scans of Tut's mummified body. Several people were involved in this aspect of the study: Egyptian radiologist Ashraf Selim and Hutan Ashrafian, a lecturer in surgery at Imperial College in London.
What they found was both amazing and shocking.
First, the DNA study found that Akhenaten, Tut's father, married his own sister. This was not unusual for kings of Egypt. They believed it kept the family line pure, and had no idea of the genetic consequences if such interbreeding. In fact, Tut married his own sister, Ahnkesenpaaten. But the results of several lines of interbreeding had disastrous results for Tut. He was born with a severe overbite, womanish hips, and a club foot. His tomb held 130 walking canes. Tut had a severe limp and would never have been able to ride a chariot, as some previous theories speculated was the cause of his early demise.
Hutan Ashrafian, a lecturer in surgery at Imperial College London, said that several members of the family appeared to have suffered from ailments which can be explained by hormonal imbalances. He said: ‘A lot of his family predecessors lived to a ripe old age. Only his immediate line were dying early, and they were dying earlier each generation.’
Second, Mr Ashrafian found that Tutankhamun cause of death was an infection that has set in after he had broken his leg. The broken leg was the only damage done before death.
Sadly, Tut's life was unpleasant and short. He had to walk with a cane, suffered from malaria, had hormonal problems, and at the age of 19, broke his leg and died of a resulting infection. He wouldn't likely have lived more than another few years at any rate. The genetic stew he inherited through inbreeding would have shortened his life anyway.
I very much advise reading the article which also contains a video of the findings.