5/26/2023 0 Comments The last crystal of the carioathIf his flesh had burned, wouldn't his cap show similar effects? King Tut wore a beaded linen cap on his shaved head. A modern cremation is much hotter, occurring at 760 to 982☌.īut even if mere charring were possible, the burial holds more evidence that argues against a fire. Some Egyptologists believe that carbonisation-a chemical reaction between the mummy and the resins, fostered by the stuffy heat of the tomb-turned Tut the colour of Osiris.ĭoes that mean the fire was serious enough to make him sizzle and char but not so hot that he was reduced to ashes? According to reports, the researchers believe the fire burned at about 200☌. But did a fire really turn him into a fried pharaoh? That conclusion is based on tests done to a scrap of Tut's flesh, which was apparently collected at the time of the 1968 examination of the mummy. The great quantity of resins and oils that were poured over Tut's mummy to prepare him for eternity somehow burst into flames after the mummy had been sealed in several nested coffins. That goop features in the most surprising revelation of the new research. Other experts have wondered if modern thieves-likely operating during World War II when Tut's tomb was unguarded-sawed through the pharaoh's ribs to remove the last beads stuck to the goop that coated his chest. Victims may suffer massive tearing, deep puncture wounds, and crushed bones, any combination of which could be fatal. Today hippos are extinct in Egypt, but farther to the south in Africa these aggressive 1,360-kilogram (3,000-pound) creatures with powerful jaws and sharp incisors are legendary for their attacks. Or was it a hippopotamus that killed Tut? Perhaps the pharaoh was in the wrong place at the wrong time-hunting on foot in a marsh when a hippo charged. The damage to Tut's chest might also be explained by a swift kick from a horse-entirely possible, since horses pulled the pharaoh's chariot. ![]() The king might have been riding in a chariot during a hunt or a battle-activities that ancient Egyptian rulers routinely performed as part of their kingly duties. One cause of death proposed at the time of the CT scan was a chariot crash. It's a likely scenario, but there are other possibilities. The recent British research used car-crash simulations to show that a speeding chariot could have run into Tut while he was on his knees. The resulting images were never released to the public, but they also revealed the extreme damage to the rib cage as well as a broken leg.Ĭlearly, King Tut had suffered some kind of massive trauma. It reveals a missing breastbone and the stubs of ribs lined up along the backbone-probably all smashed and removed by the embalmers.Ī true CT scan was performed in 2005 under the direction of Zahi Hawass, then head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. ![]() One report includes an image resembling a CT scan, which is perhaps an x-ray massaged with computer-imaging technology. According to press reports from the U.K., the team worked with x-rays taken of Tut in 1968. ![]() Now a British team apparently believes that it has solved the mystery. It was also momentous, for his death meant the beginning of the end for ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty.Įxperts have speculated about possible causes ever since British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tut's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. For an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, presumably well fed and fiercely protected, this was a premature demise. King Tutankhamun was just a teenager when he died.
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