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DEATH OF A BOY KING
A scientist thinks he's solved one of history's greatest mysteries
King Tut was just 9 years old when he became the ruler of Egypt 3,300 years ago. The boy king, whose full name was Tutankhamen (TOO-tahn-KAH-men), died only 10 years later.
The teen pharaoh, or ancient Egyptian ruler, has fascinated the world since his tomb was found in 1922. Scientists have since learned a lot about Tut, but one thing has remained a mystery: How did he die?
Now Chris Naunton, director of the Egypt Exploration Society, says he may have finally solved the puzzle. He studied nearly 100 years' worth of evidence to come up with his answer: The boy king was killed in a chariot accident.
A Golden Discovery
Not much was known about Tut until British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled upon his tomb in Egypt more than 90 years ago. Filled with gold statues and other artifacts, it was the best-preserved ancient Egyptian tomb ever found. At the center of the tomb was a gold coffin. Inside was the mummy of King Tut. The ancient Egyptians preserved people as mummies because they believed they would need their bodies in the afterlife.
Over the years, history buffs and scientists have come up with many theories about the cause of Tut's death, including an infection and a blood disease. But Naunton wasn't convinced that the answer had been found. In 2012, he decided to try to crack the case.
Mummy Mystery
Naunton began by looking back at Carter's notes describing his discovery of Tut in 1922.
"We [wanted] to see if there was anything in there that might be worth following up," Naunton tells Scholastic News.
Carter's notes show that Tut's mummy wasn't prepared like most other mummies. For one thing, his chest had been stuffed with linen and other materials.
That led Naunton to examine X-ray images of Tut's skeleton that had been taken over the years. The images showed that the young pharaoh's heart and some of his ribs were missing. Naunton thought that Tut's heart and ribs must have been so badly damaged that they were removed from his body before his burial. He thinks that's why Tut's chest was stuffed with linen -- to keep it from collapsing.
The question was: What could have caused that much damage to Tut's ribs and heart?
Case Closed?
Ancient Egyptian rulers often rode in horse-drawn chariots while hunting or during battles. In the past, some experts had suggested that Tut may have died in a chariot crash. Naunton had the same idea, so he decided to put that theory to the test. He asked a group of car-crash investigators to use computers to simulate a series of chariot accidents. They determined that if a chariot had struck the young pharaoh in a certain way, it would have crushed his ribs and heart. Naunton believed he had his answer.
However, many archaeologists don't agree with Naunton's theory. Some say Tut's ribs didn't go missing from his body until thousands of years after his death. They think Carter's team removed the ribs to make it easier to carry the mummy out of the tomb. They also point out that Tut wasn't the only pharaoh to be found without his heart. Other archaeologists think Tut's ribs might have been damaged by another powerful force, like a kick from a horse.
Still, Naunton stands by his answer. "At this point, this is as good of a hypothesis that we have," he says. But, he adds, "I wouldn't want to think that this discussion is completely over."
Words to Know
simulate (SIM-yoo-layt) verb, to re-create an event or a process, often using a computer
hypothesis (hye-POTH-uh-sis) noun, an educated guess about the answer to a research question
