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KING TUT'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH
HIGH-TECH SCIENCE BRINGS NEW ANSWERS
King Tutankhamun's army just lost a major battle. His subjects could be facing a terrible plague. Egypt's king probably has a lot on his mind as he goes to bed for the night. Suddenly someone leaps out of the shadows and strikes the king with a fatal blow to the back of the head. Tut's nine-year reign comes to a quick and mysterious end.
That's one of many theories about how Egypt's most famous king died at age 19. The puzzle has fascinated researchers since 1922, when British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tut's 3,300-year-old tomb. Determined to find the answer. National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Zahi Hawass used modern technology to put this old theory to the test.
THE INVESTIGATION
"I was almost trembling when I arrived at the tomb," Hawass says. His team of experts carefully removed King Tut's mummy from its royal grave and placed it in a computed tomography (CT) scanner. The machine created detailed images of Tut's mummy, which were reconstructed on a computer. That way scientists could examine Tut from any angle without damaging him. The result? New clues in this ancient mystery!
FIRST SUSPECT
An old x-ray of King Tut, taken in 1968, showed a bone fragment loose in the back of the mummy's skull and a possible head injury. Many investigators supected that Tut had been fatally hit from behind. But who would gain from the pharaoh's death?
Perhaps it was his close advisor Aye. Much older and more experienced than the king, Aye had great power. Was he hungry for more? After all, Aye did take over as pharaoh after Tut's death.
SECOND SUSPECT
Maybe Tut's army commander, Horemheb, was the culprit. As Egypt's military leader, Horemheb was supposed to protect his country. But did the king need protection from him? Horemheb became pharaoh after Aye and removed all mentions of Tut from public monuments.
Aye and Horemheb make good suspects, but Hawass's team concludes that Tut wasn't hit from behind after all. The CT scan shows that the bone broke into fragments after Tut's death. The damage probably occurred when Tut's body was mummified or when Carter removed the mummy from its coffin.
MORE CLUES
It's unlikely that a teenage king would have died of natural causes. So what really happened?
Could Tut have died as a result of an accident? The mummy's breastbone and many of its Fibs were missing. Some think Tut may have fallen in battle, OF taken his chariot for a deadly joy ride. "If that were true, the CT scan would have shown damage to Tut's spine," Hawass says. "But it didn't."
Could the king have been poisoned OF did he catch a deadly disease? CT scans can't tell us everything, but the scientists found no evidence of long-term poisoning or illness.
A BREAK IN THE CASE
The CT scan did reveal an important clue: a broken left leg. Some experts think the break happened just days before Tut died, which caused a life threatening infection. Others think Carter's team accidentally broke the bone. That makes this just one more theory in King Tut's unsolved death. Says Hawass: "The mystery continues."
Go online for more information about King Tut on tour. nationalgeographic.com/ngkids
Discover More About Tut
• Read the new book Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Boy King, by Zahi Hawass.
• Explore the wonders of ancient Egypt with Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and their pal Kid Y in the DVD, Scooby-Doo in I Want My Mummy out this December.
