Tutankhamun's mummy

King Tutankhamun

Tutankhamun was the 11th pharaoh during the 18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom; however, the exact dates of his reign are not clear. An educated estimate is that he ruled over Ancient Egypt from about 1355-1346 BCE. After an initial examination of the 3,300-year-old mummy, it was estimated that Tutankhamun was a teenager of approximately 17–19 years of age when he died. Since it was believed that Tutankhamun became king as child no more than ten years old, many refer to him as the "Boy-King" or "Child-King." A majority of his reign was devoted to restoring Egyptian culture, including religious and political policies; his predecessor Akhenaten (recently proven to be his father) had altered many Egyptian cultural aspects during his reign, and one of Tutankhamun's many restoration policies included changing the political capital from Akhenaten's Amarna back to Thebes. Following the discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy, much debate has arisen as to his exact cause of death. This has led to numerous medical studies and procedures performed on his remains, right up to the 2010s. As medical technology has advanced throughout the years, new techniques have been utilized on the mummy to discover the true age, genealogy, and cause of death of the young pharaoh, speculated by some to be from a battle wound or a chariot accident, so that some of the mysteries surrounding the "Boy-King" might finally be put to rest. Tutankhamen was believably poisoned but he was possibly in a chariot accident or suffered a blow to the head.

Discovery of the mummy

Under commission of George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, who is commonly called just Lord Carnarvon, Howard Carter and his team set out to Egypt in 1922 to discover the tomb of Tutankhamun, and because of other recent discoveries during that time in a particular area of the Valley of the Kings, Carter believed he had a good idea of where he would find it. Theodore M. Davis, an archeologist contemporary with Carter, discovered pottery with Tutankhamun's name a short distance from where Carter would on November 4, 1922 discover KV62.

The location at the Valley of the Kings was significant to the New Kingdom because it is where the pharaohs of the time and some other important people to the king were buried. The idea behind burying them there was that it was supposed to be a hidden location in a remote area since tomb robbing was a constant problem during Ancient Egyptian times. Unfortunately the location was not as secret as it was hoped to be, and most of the tombs were broken into and either robbed or damaged. Tutankhamun's tomb did suffer from some tomb robbing, but overall much of it was left intact and some areas including the burial chamber appeared to be left unscathed.

Initial examination

On November 11–19, 1925 Dr. Douglas Derry and Dr. Saleh Bey Hamdi along with Carter and other members of the expedition team began to examine the mummy. It was initially very difficult for the team to unwrap it because it appeared that the anointing oils that were most likely used during the mummification ceremony had caused the mummy to stick to the casket. Although the wrappings were in poor condition, it seemed they were of the same material as that which other kings from the period had been wrapped in. As each layer was removed, the team began to discover many fine objects wrapped between the layers all over Tutankhamun's body, including gold jewelry, daggers, and pieces of armor. Once the layers had been removed and they could finally begin to examine the actual corpse, they began to make anatomical notes on the body. He was determined to have been approximately 5 feet, 6 inches and to have had a slight build with a slightly curved spine. Small bone fragments from the skull were found inside the skull, and a lesion was discovered on the left side of his jaw, but because the chest cavity was filled with wrappings, no further examination of it was done.

Later studies

Since Carter's discovery and examination of the mummy there have been three important further examinations done with more modern medical techniques and equipment. As well, in 2016, studies verify that the dagger's component materials include meteorite.

X-rays done in 1968

In 1968, R. G. Harrison, a professor of anatomy, used a portable x-ray machine to get a better look at the internal structures of the mummy to better determine age and cause of death of Tutankhamun. One of the most abnormal findings was the sternum (breastbone) and most parts of the frontal ribs were missing. Removing these bones was not part of the normal mummification process, which led Harrison to believe they might have been removed because they were badly damaged before his death. Harrison quickly discovered that Carter was not as careful as many of his personal notes had claimed. The mummy was not re-wrapped after 1926, which led to more deterioration due to the extremely hot external elements over the forty-two years. Also many of the limbs had been amputated in the body in order to remove some of the jewellery. Both hands were cut off, both legs were removed from the pelvis, and the head was severed from the body in order to get the mask off. Even more remarkable is the king's right ear and penis were missing, but photographs from Carter show they were both present during his examination. Harrison believed the slight curve in the spine and small bone fragments might have been the result of the embalming process. The lesion on the left jaw showed signs of healing occurred before his death and one of his legs had been broken, but it could not be determined if it happened naturally or as a result of the embalming or Carter's examination. The fact that skull fragments were discovered led many to assume the king was murdered by a blow to the head, but the x-ray could not support or discredit this theory.

CT Scan done in 2005

On January 15, 2005, under the direction of Dr. Madeeha Khattab, the Dean of the School of Medicine at Cairo University, Tutankhamun was removed from the tomb and a CT scan (computerized tomography) was performed on the mummy. The scan allowed for accurate forensic reconstruction of his body and face, as well as further evidence of his cause of death. Testing showed there was no traumatic injury to the head, he had a small cleft palate that went probably unnoticed, and the elongated shape of his skull was within the normal range and appeared to be a family trait after some studies were done on mummies that were believed to have been related to Tutankhamun. Based on bone maturity and his wisdom teeth, Tutankhamun was confirmed to be 19 years old at the time of his death. The CT scan proved Tutankhamun was in good health and did not show any signs of disease that would have affected his build. Study concluded he was not murdered from traumatic head injury, but a non-violent murder could still not be ruled out. There appeared to be no indication of any long-term disease.

DNA testing done from 2007 to 2009

From September 2007 to October 2009, 11 royal mummies of the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty have undergone extensive genetic and radiological testing. A team of doctors, under the leadership of Dr. Zahi Hawass, took DNA samples from bone tissue of the 11 mummies to determine a family pedigree and to determine if any familial, pathological diseases caused Tutankhamun's death. The study was able to provide a five-generation pedigree, and the KV55 mummy and KV35 Younger Lady mummy were identified as Tutankhamun's parents. KV55 is believed to have contained the body of Ahkenhaten and in KV35, a young lady mummy was discovered and believed to be either Kiya or Nefertiti. It was discovered that Tutankhamun's family had a large number of irregularities. Four of the mummies, including Tutankhamun, were shown to have had malaria tropica. Based on all the data, the study concluded the most likely cause of death for the young king was the combination of avascular necrosis and malaria. The fact that a cane and Ancient Egyptian-style medicines were found in the tomb backed up Hawass's claim that Tutankhamun suffered from a walking impairment.

Popular speculation

Since the discovery of Tutankhamun's mummy, there has been a lot of speculation and theories on the exact cause of death, which until recent studies had been hard to prove with the evidence and data available. While it was a widely debated topic for many Egyptologists, it had also spread to the general public as popular culture has come up with many conspiracy theories that played out in movies, TV shows, and fictional books. Author James Patterson has even recently written his own take in his book, The Murder of King Tut. There are many educated and respected Egyptologists as well as trained professionals in other fields who have devoted a lot of time researching Tutankhamun and who have varying beliefs to his cause of death. Some have stood by their theories even in light of new evidence. Some of the theories are better known and supported than others.

Bob Brier

Bob Brier, an Egyptologist who specializes in paleopathology, uses evidence of the condition of the mummy including the skull fragments as well as other historical data from the period to illustrate his belief that Tutankhamun was murdered by his Grand Vizier, who stood to gain the most when Tutankhamun died.

Paul Doherty

Paul Doherty, a British historian who has written many articles and books on the subject of Ancient Egypt, uses physical evidence collected about the mummy to suggest his theory that Tutankhamun suffered from Marfan Syndrome. He believed Tutankhamun must have genetically inherited the disease, and it eventually led to his death.

Christine El Mahdy

Christine El Mahdy, an Egyptologist, argues that Tutankhamun died of natural causes, which she believes was most likely a tumor of some sort. She uses the original assumption from Carter's examination that Tutankhamun had a quick burial ceremony since some elements of the mummification appeared rushed, as proof that he needed to be buried quickly following his unexpected death because the man who was next in line for the throne wanted to avoid a power struggle that might have occurred if the burial process had taken too long. By speeding up the burial ceremony, the new pharaoh maintained order in Egypt.

Michael R. King

Detective Michael R. King and FBI profiler Gregory M. Cooper came together with an actual Egyptologist to form their own theory which was Tutankhamun was murdered. With the use of forensic evidence and their extensive backgrounds in criminology, they came to the conclusion that he was likely murdered by one of his closest advisors, Ay. Ay did succeed Tutankhamun on the throne, so they used that as the motivation for the murder.

Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer

Christian Timmann and Christian Meyer, medical doctors and scientists at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany, have used the most recent medical testing done on Tutankhamun's mummy by Dr. Hawass and have concluded that Tutankhamun did not die from a combination of bone disease and malaria, but instead had sickle-cell disease. Dr. Timmann and Dr. Meyer believed the sickle-cell disease turned fatal when Tutankhamun also contracted severe malaria that was rampant in Ancient Egypt during his era. He is expected to have been homozygous recessive for the sickle cell gene, thus making him not immune to severe malaria, which would have been fatal.

Significance of discovery

The royal bloodline that Tutankhamun's family shared ended with the death of the young pharaoh, and with that came a question of the legitimacy of the following rulers. His tomb was the only one discovered that was not very disturbed by grave robbers, which allowed Carter to uncover many artifacts and the untouched mummy. It gave amazing insight into the royal burials, mummification, and tombs of the New Kingdom's 18th Dynasty. Since its discovery and widespread popularity, it has led to DNA testing done on it and other mummies from the time period that now give a proven family tree for many of the royalty during the 18th Dynasty. Since his death was unexpected and either poorly recorded or simply the records were lost over the years, with the discovery of his mummy and advances in modern technology, there is now strong and supported evidence as to Tutankhamun's death, and with that one of Egypt's most popular mysteries appears to have been solved.

Current location

At present, Tutankhamun's mummy is in the Valley of the Kings in his KV62 chamber.