...As a child of a King, I don’t doubt that the young King Tut was fiercely guarded. When looking at King Tutankhamun’s (Tut) mask, it easy to see that he was young. Yes indeed, he was only 19 years old when he died. King Tut was by far from being the most powerful of the Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs, however, he is the most celebrated Ancient King, now three thousand years after his death; people are still incredibly fascinated about the circumstances surrounding his death. Speculation about the possible cause of King Tut’s death have been swarming around since Howard Carter, British archaeologist discovered the tomb in the Valley of Kings in 1922. Designated KV62 (Kings Valley Tomb 62), it was the first royal tomb to be found almost intact (Kmtsesh). Along with the discovery of his mummified body, his tomb was stuffed with treasures and artifacts. One theory regarding King Tut is murder. Many scientists believe the fracture to the back of the skull which was revealed in an X-ray of his mummy is due to being hit with a blunt object. There is no need to jump to conclusion about this theory. Some scientists are convinced the he was not murdered; however, some are convinced that the crack in the skull was accidental, caused during the process of mummifying the body. If proper care was not taken during the initial process, they are many things that could have occurred such as his corpse being dropped on the ground or a sharp instrument falling on his skull. The two prime suspects...
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...What Happened to “King Tut?” There is no true explanation or clear reasoning on how King Tutankhamen died suddenly, approximately at the age of 18. Theorists have yet to come to any clear explanation on how he suddenly died. Two theories that make the most sense to me are that he died from some sort of sickness, such as malaria combined with a degenerative bone disease, which some studies suggest, or a broken leg, which later lead to infection, that has been discovered and recent autopsies. The theory revolving around malaria has been one of the the lasting reasoning’s on how he died, which was accelerated by a broken leg, recent studies suggest. Several mummies buried along with the remains of King Tut have been examined and 4 out of the 11, including King Tuts remains, showed strands of malaria. In fact, 4 of the 11 mummies, including King Tut’s, had genetic traces of malaria tropica, the most severe form of the infection. He was also plagued with avascular bone necrosis, a condition in which diminished blood supply to the bone leads to serious weakening or destruction of tissue. These two findings have deemed theorists to believe that these findings are a likely reason to his death. In recent studies, Ashraf Selim, a radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital at Cairo University in Egypt, along with a team of scientist set up a noninvasive CT scanner in Luxor to perform a full-body scan on the king's remains, obtaining about 1,900 digital cross-sectional images. The...
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...Curse of King Tutankhamen's Tomb Curse of King Tutankhamen's Tomb King Tutankhamen’s tomb presents an authentic record of a time gone by, one that many only read about. This has made it fascinating, and the events that occurred after its discovery are controversial even now. To be more precise, the tomb of Egyptian boy- King, Tutankhamen was discovered in 1922 by Englishman Howard Carter, under the direction of Lord Carnarvon (Sayre, 2012). The tomb was largely untouched, meaning that many of the artefacts, as well as the sarcophagus were still intact. This was a great find by the archaeologists, which generated worldwide attention. However, a few months after the discovery of the tomb, people present during the find, and those closely related to them started dying. The first of the lot was Lord Carnarvon himself, who passed on just a few months later. Afterwards, several members of the excavation party as well as those related to them started dying mysteriously (Handwerk, 2005). In a few years, more than a dozen of them had passed on, a fact that raised questions. Most importantly, what was behind the mysterious deaths? Many theories have been put forth to explain the deaths, and the most prominent one is that the tomb was cursed. It is said that an inscription at the entrance of the tomb read, ‘Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the peace of the pharaoh’ (Kruszelnicki & Yazxhi, 2006, p. 118). Kruszelnicki and Yazxhi...
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...On this day in 1923, in Thebes, Egypt, English archaeologist Howard Carter enters the sealed burial chamber of the ancient Egyptian ruler King Tutankhamen. Because the ancient Egyptians saw their pharaohs as gods, they carefully preserved their bodies after death, burying them in elaborate tombs containing rich treasures to accompany the rulers into the afterlife. In the 19th century, archeologists from all over the world flocked to Egypt, where they uncovered a number of these tombs. Many had long ago been broken into by robbers and stripped of their riches. When Carter arrived in Egypt in 1891, he became convinced there was at least one undiscovered tomb–that of the little known Tutankhamen, or King Tut, who lived around 1400 B.C. and died...
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...The Mystery of King Tutankhamen's Death (Assignment 1) John Clevenger Strayer University World Cultures I HUM 111 Mark Tolf May 02, 2013 The Mystery of King Tutankhamen's Death (Assignment 1) Since his lavishly furnished, nearly intact tomb was discovered in 1922, the cause of Tutankhamen’s death more than 3,000 years ago has been at the center of intense debate. There have been theories of murder, leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, sickle-cell anemia, a snake bite and a fall from his chariot. Speculation about a mummy’s curse became a popular superstition due to his tomb being broken into by archaeologist Howard Carter and his team. The two theories that I found the most believable are King Tut died from complications from disease and dying from a fall from his chariot. Due to forensic evidence, murder has been ruled out but they did find other traces that can account for claims involving his frailty. “A pair of unusually large breasts on a male statue has convinced one scholar that he’s solved the riddle of King Tutankhamen’s early death. According to Hutan Ashrafian, a surgeon and lecturer at Imperial College London, the ancient Egyptian pharaoh is often depicted with feminine features and suspiciously large breasts a sign of gynecomastia, which points to temporal lobe epilepsy. Other factors play into the epilepsy diagnosis: a family history of early deaths, strong religious visions and fractures from falling, all of which suggest a history of epilepsy. There’s one...
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...The Death of King Tut Assignment 1 By Angela Faison Humanities 101 Professor Charles Fleming King Tut was born 1341 B.C.E. and was the 12th king of the 18th Egyptian dynast. King Tutankhamun was in power from approximately 1332 to 1323 B.C.E. After King Tutankhamun (also known as King Tut), death at age 19 he disappeared from history, until the discovery of his tomb in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter. (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history) With this discovery came a fascination into King Tut’s life and death. There have been many theories surrounding his death. Two theories I find interesting are that an accident caused the untimely death of teenage pharaoh King Tut. The other theory is that King Tut was murdered by his advisor Ay. King Tutankhamun's mummy has been X-rayed three times, in 1968, 1978 and in 2005. (ancientegyptonline.co.uk) But these scans have not been able to confirm the cause of his death. The first theory is that King Tutankhamun was genetically inferior. In 2010 DNA tests published revealed that Tutankhamen’s parents were likely brother and sister. (www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/tutankhamen) This left King Tut with a bone disease in his clubbed left foot. It also made it difficult for King Tut to stand in the chariot while performing his Kingly duties. Theorist believe that King Tut may have crashed his chariot leaving him with a broken leg. (www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/tutankhamen) In 1995 CT scans...
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...University Dr. Caren Stayer HUM111: World Cultures I August 10, 2015 Comparing Sculptures of Ancient India and Greece In this essay I will be comparing the way gods and humans were depicted in sculpture in ancient India and Greece, and identifing the cultural values and ideals that these art works reflect in each culture. There are two theories that have been the main debate on the death of Tutankhamun. The first theory is that King Tut died from a leg infraction that was caused by a bone disease that was due to malaria. The second theory is that Tutankhamun's death was caused by a chariot accident based on a head injury. Many scientists theories have been based off their investigations using microscopes, X-ray machines, and DNA/chemical analysis. According to author Dan Vergano, Zahi Hawass the Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities found traces of malaria genes in Tutankhaum. By taking xrays it revealed that King Tut's broken leg was caused by malaria. These xrays also showed that Tutankhamun had a painful deterioration of his bones. Hawass also performed tests that showed patchy skin on his neck and cheek which at first thought to be a boil or plague. Later it was determined to be the mark of a severe form of malaria known as malaria tropical. According to Husna Haq from the Christian Science Monitor there was a 2 year investigation that determined through DNA study that Tutankhaum had a cleft palate and...
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...King Tut Vincent Johnson Strayer University World Cultures I Professor Leonard Lowe July 23, 2013 The topic that I chose to write about is the mystery surrounding the death of King Tutankhamen. There are many different theories as to how he died and all of them are controversial topics. Some will argue King Tut was likely murdered due to greed and power, while others believe he fell from his chariot or died from an illness (Kingtutone.com, 2010). Those that believed that he was murdered believed that this happened due to changes that Akhenaten (King Tut’s father) had made. Akhenaten had brought about a major change in Egypt when he started to push the idea of one god, and this concept went against everything Ancient Egyptians believed in. Other experts argue that King Tutankhamen died from malaria and osteonecrosis. Imaging results in a report, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, indicate that Tutankhamen had osteonecrosis of two metatarsal bones in one foot, according to the authors, and DNA evidence suggests that he was infected with the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Still others say that the king died due to an infection. New CT scans performed on King Tut shows a broken leg that could have become infected and ultimately caused his death. I feel as King Tutankhamen was murdered maybe by one of his servants. Researchers say that it was a known fact that Akhenaten brought a major change in Egypt...
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...had an injury to the back of his skull. He also had visible broken bones when his tomb was excavated. Many think that he was murdered because Tut died when he was only 19 years old. For many years, it was assumed that the so called Boy King was a murder victim by either one of his successors. Although Many speculate that King Tut was murdered, Scientist have their own theories about the death of King Tut as well. Scientist believe that he may have died from natural causes, or simply by an accident. The first theory that King Tut was murdered was because of the head injury to the back of his skull. After extensive research, I found an article in The National Geographic magazine that states a team of specialist in radiology, forensics, and anatomy did a ct scan and found no traces of lethal trauma to King Tuts head. It also states that embalmers apparently entered the skull through the nose as well as the neck, perhaps breaking off bones in the process. This would explain the injury to King Tuts head. The team found no evidence for a blow to the back of the head, and no other indication of foul play. The second theory is that King Tut may have died from natural causes. Tut may have died of severe malaria and a rare bone disorder called Kohler disease. Researchers spent 2 years subjecting Tut to anthropological, radiological, and genetic testing. They were able to rule out Gynecomostia and Marfans syndrome but did find evidence...
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...mummies of Amenhotep III, Tiye, Tutankhamun and Semenkhare(5) have all been identified with a great deal of certainty. Scientists are currently trying to extract DNA from small samples taken from these and other 18th Dynasty mummies.(6) If this effort is successful it could provide a non-controversial solution to the particular mystery of Tutankhamun's parentage. With Akhenaten in exile, the line of David (Thutmose III) became divided. One Pharaoh lived on in the Sinai. The other "Branch" (Isaiah 4:2, 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5) now "sitting on the throne of his father [Amenhotep III or Akhenaten]," was the young Tutankhamun. After his coronation, or perhaps as part of the coronation itself, Tutankhamun's name was changed. His birth name had been Tut-ankh-aten. The change in his name was likely part of a compromise with the priests of Amun. Because Tutankhamun was only a child of seven to ten years old at his ascension, it could hardly have been a deliberate decision on his own part in contrast to the name change of his father (from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten). Under the supervision of the elderly prime minister, Aye (second son of Yuya and identified with Ephraim, the second and more favored son of the Biblical Joseph), Tutankhamun continued to rule Egypt from the city of Akhetaten until the third or fourth year of his reign (when he was persuaded to change the royal residence as well from the city of Akhetaten to Memphis). In his tomb it is written that "he spent his life in making...
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... Tutankhamen Speculation has surrounded the death of King Tutankhamen ever since the discovery of his tomb. The questions have been asked, was he a victim of some sort of curse? Or could he have been affected by generations of in-breeding, which caused imperfection within his genes, or was he just a sickly man because in that time of the BC ages, a lot of men only lived to get in their early 30s. There are two strong theories, King Tutankhamen died from his illness and was he murder. King Tutankhamen has been described as a “frail boy" in need of a cane and found to have had the oldest genetic proof of malaria, this is the best theory surrounding his illness. There are quite a few theories that I have read about. But the experts found he had malaria and due to an infection he died not murder. They also found he had a crack on the skull along with a broken leg, which may have also been a contributing cause to his death. Some have even suggested that the King fell from his chariot while hunting (Ker Than, 2010). I choose to believe the King was murdered because there was so much at stake. And that the theory of Ay killed King Tut out of greed. In this theory, the motives behind his murder were substantial. He was the son of Akhenaton who changed the practice of worshiping many pagan gods to worshiping one god which was a new environment for the people of the Egyptian dynasty. References King Tut Death Remains a Mystery www.kingtutone.com Retrieved 11/2/2012 ...
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...especially those within ancient times, happen to be one of my most favorite subjects throughout school and even more so as personal interest. I chose the topic which involved the “Mummy’s Curse,” a series of unexplainable, unfortunate, or tragic events that happened to the people who were present at the opening of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Believed to be under a kind of enchantment, rumors of such misfortune by engravings have been proven untrue as science and technology, not to mention common sense, continued to enhance. For many years people deemed that the very act of entering into a King's tomb would inflict death upon them, in specific ways I might add. Coincidence of a mosquito bite on Lord Carnarvon's left cheek (which after his unraveling king Tut also possessed this mark) and along with inscriptions of impending death by wings, sparked even more rumors and notoriety of the Mummy's curse. Dr. Hans Merk, a dermatologist at the University of Aachen, Germany and a German microbiologist, G. Kramer, from the University of Leipzig both believe that the cause of the curse was to be blamed upon some type of mold spores such as anthrax. As anthrax is known to have existed in Ancient times, it is unclear whether it was purposely placed inside the tombs to ensure a "curse" upon looters, or if it was naturally created inside the tomb under the right conditions. Other researchers reported that bats inhabit many excavated burial chambers, and their droppings carry a fungus that can cause the...
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...inside are an indication of the concern the Ancient Egyptians held for the after-life of their king. In 26th Nov. 1922, the English archaeologist Howard Carter opened the virtually intact tomb of a largely unknown pharaoh: Tutankhamen. This was the first, and to date the finest royal tomb found virtually intact in the history of Egyptology. It took almost a decade of meticulous and painstaking work to empty the tomb of Tutankhamen. Around 3500 individual items were recovered. When the Burial Chamber of Tutankhamen was officially opened, on 17 February 1923, the Antechamber had been emptied. It had taken near fifty days to empty the Antechamber; the time required to dismantle and restore the contents of the Burial Chamber including the gilded wooden and the sarcophagus was to be greater, and the work was not completed until November 1930, eight years after the original discovery. One must examine both the tomb itself, and its contents, to see the connection between the tombs and burial rituals and the doctrine of eternal life. The royal tombs were not merely homes in the hereafter for the kings, as are the private tombs of commoners and nobility. Instead the tombs are cosmological vehicles of rebirth and deification as much as houses of eternity. As the king is supposed to become Osiris in a far more intimate way than commoners, he is equipped with his very own Underworld. And as the king is supposed to become Rê in a way entirely unavailable to commoners, he is equipped with his...
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...Assignment 1: Exploring Ancient Mysteries Diane M. Hall Dr. Chad Redwing Humanities 111 5/01/2016 No other king is more well-known or studied than a pharaoh named Tutankhamen. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the king, but among the most popular is the way the young pharaoh died. Some theories state it was an injury; others say the pharaoh died due to illness, and yet, still others indicate he was murdered. This paper will reveal the most likely and acceptable theory on the cause of King Tuts death. A team of British scientist, working with vehicle accident investigators at the Cranfield Forensic Institute in Swindon, England stated that the king died on his knees while being run over by a chariot. The team used x-ray and other data received from the results of a virtual autopsy. The results showed injuries in a manner of a particular pattern on one side of Tuts body. By using the computer to simulate related injuries in a car accident, the team put together a crash scenario involving a chariot that resulted in his death (Knapp, 2013). Although this is one possible theory from evidence gained during research, the pharaoh could have lived through the chariot accident. According to Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, the real cause of the young king’s death was an inherited bone disorder called Kohler disease that made the King week, followed by an infectious disease called Malaria. This conclusion came from x-rays and DNA analysis performed. Hawass found genes...
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...Did King Tut die from a sickness or was he murdered, that’s the question. Some Egyptologists and Scientists argue over the fact regarding King Tut’s death. The first theory is that King Tut was murdered because he had a lot of power. King Tut’s father (Akhenaten) changed Egypt in a big way. He wanted Egyptians to only believe in one God, in which it was against what they believed in. Some of the Egyptians wasn’t happy with that decision. King Tut’s father changed the way that the priest thought and it would have forced the priest to close down their temples and believe in what he believed in. The change caused the environment to be unstable. This change would also change the thinking from hundreds of years prior. When King Tut was a child, his father died and that’s how he received the throne. With King Tut being so young, he had little knowledge of how to run Egypt so that meant that he needed someone with a lot of experience to help him, so they would also look at the help that he had. Meaning, the help may have had something to do with his death. The second theory from Forensic experts was that King Tut may have had an infection. Doctor Zahi Hawass, stated that King Tut had a crack in his skull and it may have been caused during the process of mummification. Doctor Zahi Hawass also stated that King Tut had a fracture in left leg, supposedly to have happened a few days before he died. Doctor Hawass states that King Tut could have broken his leg but there is...
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