How did King Tut die??
I read this article on National Geography.com and I just thought it was really interesting and unique to read. Do you remember learning about King Tut in 7th grade? Well here is a fun fact that we did not learn!
It is one of history's most famous cold cases scientist say. A scan of King Tutankhamun's mummy has "disproved" a popular theory that the Egyptian pharaoh was murdered by a blow to the head more than 3,300 years ago. Instead the most likely explanation for the boy king's death (19 years old at time of death) is a thigh fracture that became infected and ultimately fatal, according to an international team of scientists. "I think it is the end of the investigation. … We can now close this file," said team leader Ashraf Selim, a radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital at Cairo University in Egypt. Tutankhamun, who ascended to the throne at the age of eight, was mummified and buried with other ancient royals. His tomb, along with the 5,000 artifacts in it, was discovered near Luxor, Egypt, in 1922 by a team of archaeologists led by Howard Carter.Howard Carter and his colleagues "dismembered" much of the mummy while removing the body from its sarcophagus. The damage they did is difficult to distinguish from the damage dating back to the king's lifetime or the embalming process.
Who would have thought? King Tut was not murdered, according to these scientist, he died of a leg fracture that became infected!
posted by Anonymous @ 12/01/2006 05:26:00 PM
1 Comments:
Go figure. King Tut has been in National Geographic quite a few times (I distinctly remember seeing an article about how "modern MRI and CGI technology" had allowed them to create what they assumed to be Tut's real face; it was their cover story a while back, possibly sometime in 2004/2005). I find it amazing that technology, and better education (because one can certainly rule DNA testing out of the question), can lead to a centuries old mystery to be solve. I honestly think that the "head blow" theory might have surfaced from the mistaken injury from Carter's original expedition. None of this holds any relevance to College Geo that I can see (unless Ch. 7 comes into play), but its always nice to learn something abstract/new.
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