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Who or what killed King Tut? - Egypt's most famous pharaoh | 60 Minutes Australia

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Hawass, Z. (2011, 03). MUMMY MYSTERY. National Geographic Explorer, 10, 12-17. Retrieved from https://libweb.lib.utsa.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.libweb.lib.utsa.edu/magazines/mummy-mystery/docview/860137194/se-2?accountid=7122

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https://youtu.be/zeqQUhR5Mmc

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How Did King Tut Die? | COLOSSAL MYSTERIES

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Tying the leg injury to the Malaria

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Walking sticks were found in a shrine in the burial chamber of King Tut.

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https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egtut08e.html

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This page has been removed | Canadian Museum of History

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Our online exhibitions and offerings sometimes close, just like our in-gallery exhibitions.

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https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/how-did-king-tut-die/
King Tut possible death by hippo.

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Assign to Google Classroom

You asked us, "How did King Tut die?"

The short answer is horribly. But okay, you might want more details than that.

Since his discovery in 1922, there have been numerous theories. Some of those theories have been pretty bizarre.

X-rays conducted in the 1960s revealed a fragment of bone in his brain cavity, possible evidence of death by bonk on the head. But closer examination showed that the sliver probably broke off after death.

In 2005, a broken leg and massive chest wounds led to the conclusion that not only had he fallen off a chariot while hunting but he also was run over by one.

DNA tests from 2010 pointed straight to malaria. This would have made his broken bones even worse.

And in 2013, a doctor examined CT scans. He stated that the chest wounds actually came from the bite of a hippopotamus. I swear I can't make this up.

So here's MY scenario. The unfortunate boy-king gets clocked in the head by a jealous rival while out hunting hippos by chariot. He tumbles off and is run over.

The hippo charges and Tut manages to get up and run. But his clubfoot, broken leg and malaria slow him down. The hippo practically bites him in half and then Tut spontaneously combusts.

Yes, the most recent theory is that Tut spontaneously caught fire in his coffin.
Source URL: https://www.tweentribune.com/article/tween56/how-did-king-tut-die/
CRITICAL THINKING QUESTION

Why did it take so long to find King Tut?

Write your answers in the comments section below

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Assign to Google Classroom You asked us, "How did King Tut die?" The short answer is horribly. But okay, you might want more details than that. Since his discovery in 1922, there have been numerous theories. Some of those theories have been pretty bizarre.

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/king-tut-died-from-broken-leg--not-murder--scientists-conclude#:~:text=The%20scientists%20have%20focused%20on,an%20infection%20or%20other%20complications.

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King Tut probably died from a broken leg, scientists say, possibly closing one of history's most famous cold cases.

A CT 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 at 19 is a thigh fracture that became infected and ultimately fatal, according to an international team of scientists.

The team presented its results this week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, Illinois.

"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.

But the research effort may add to rumors surrounding the infamous "curse of Tut."

During their investigation, the scientists experienced several mysterious occurrences, from a freak sandstorm to a strange power outage.

"People love to say it's the curse [whenever strange things happen around King Tut]," Selim said, chuckling.

"Of course, being a scientific man, I don't believe in these things."

No Skull Fractures

Tutankhamun, who ascended to the throne at the age of eight, was mummified and buried with other ancient royals.

His tomb, filled with 5,000 artifacts, was discovered near Luxor, Egypt, in 1922 by a team of archaeologists led by Howard Carter.

Tut had been affixed to his coffin by resins used in the embalming process.

Carter and his colleagues dismembered much of the mummy while removing the body from its sarcophagus. The damage they did is in some cases difficult to distinguish from the damage dating back to the king's lifetime or the embalming process.

During an x-ray of the mummy in 1968, scientists found bone fragments in Tut's skull, prompting a sensational theory that the boy king had been bludgeoned to death by his political enemies during a particularly volatile time in Egyptian history.

(See a National Geographic magazine feature on King Tut's life and death.)

The latest scan, however, showed no skull fractures. It did show that the two bone fragments in Tut's cranial cavity exactly matched some missing pieces from the pharaoh's first vertebra, near the skull.

Because the fragments were loose and not covered with solidified embalming material, the damage must have occurred after the pharaoh's remains were prepared for burial, scientists concluded.

Selim believes the bone fragments may have been dislodged when Carter's team tried to remove Tut's gold mask, which was tightly glued to the body.

"The damage probably occurred because of the bad handling of the mummy," Selim said.

"If these pieces of bone [were dislodged] before death, we would assume they would be stuck to the resin inside the skull, not just loose there."

Severe Infection

The scientists set up a mobile, noninvasive CT scanner in Luxor to perform a full-body scan on the king's remains, obtaining about 1,900 digital cross-sectional images.

Selim says Tut's remains are "in a terrible shape," with most of the bones having been broken after the mummy was discovered.

The scientists have focused on a fracture in Tut's left thigh bone as the most likely cause of death.

The CT scan showed a thin coating of embalming resin around the leg break, suggesting that Tut broke his leg just before he died and that his death may have resulted from an infection or other complications.

"The resin flowed through the wound and got into direct contact with the fracture and became solidified, something we didn't see in any other area," said Selim.

"We could not find any signs of healing of the bone."

There were no antibiotics 3,000 years ago, so the probability of a severe infection resulting from such a break would be quite high, according to Selim.

"It's probably what killed him," he said.

John Benson, who is the chief of radiology at Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor, Maine, has used similar medical imaging to determine what killed a group of French settlers who arrived on Saint Croix Island in Maine in 1604.

He agrees that the leg break likely led to Tut's death.

"But there's always going to be speculation," he said.

"There is a number of possible causes of death for which there would be no residual evidence. Tut could have had pneumonia, or he could have died from a communicable disease.

"Maybe his immune system was a little impaired because he was trying to heal the [leg] fracture, and he caught some other kind of disease that we wouldn't really be able to prove one way or the other."

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King Tut Died From Broken Leg, Not Murder, Scientists Conclude

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King Tut probably died from a broken leg, scientists say, possibly closing one of history's most famous cold cases. A CT 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.

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How Malaria kills. What would've happening if it did, in fact, kill tut.

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Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International

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The Anopheles mosquito breeds in fresh water like ponds, puddles or slow-moving streams. So malaria tends to occur during the wet season. The female mosquito needs a blood feed in order to nourish her own eggs.

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This journal shows probable cause of King Tut's death 

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https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3156.2010.02614.x

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It was believed for a while that King Tut was murdered, however, with much research on King Tut's family, it was discovered that he had a bone disease called Kohler's disease.
Having that disease and having a femur fracture with Malaria must of been the closing point to his death.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123775555

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A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that King Tutankhamun died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria.

King Tut ruled ancient Egypt during the 18th dynasty of Egypt's New Kingdom era, from 1333 to 1324 B.C.

Howard Markel, director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, has concerns about similar studies in the future.

In an editorial for JAMA, "King Tutankhamun, Modern Medical Science, and the Expanding Boundaries of Historical Inquiry," Markel worries inquiries similar to the JAMA study could open a potential Pandora's Box.

NEAL CONAN, host:

Since the day that Howard Carter broke into the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, the boy pharaoh has enjoyed an outside place in Egyptian history and in all of our imaginations. Now, the latest round of forensic study suggests that King Tut's short life may have been a painful one, and that he died not as the result of an ancient murder plot but from complications of a broken leg.

An article in the journal of the American Medical Association is based on DNA analysis and CT scans. And while it tells us a lot about both King Tut and his immediate family, it also raises some questions about the ethics of medical inquiries into history.

If you have questions about that or about the findings of this new study on King Tut, give us a call: 800-989-8255. Email us: talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our Web site, that's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION.

Howard Markel is professor and the director of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan. He wrote an editorial for JAMA that accompanied this article on the study about questions raised about ethics. He calls it a potential Pandora's box. And he joins us now from the studios of WUOM in Ann Arbor. Nice to have you with us on TALK OF THE NATION today.

Dr. HOWARD MARKEL (Center for the History of Medicine, University of Michigan): Nice to be here, Neal.

CONAN: And as you mentioned in your editorial, before this we were all able to speculate that well, yes, there was that murder plot or that maybe he died in a fall from a chariot, all kinds of things about Tutankhamun.

Dr. MARKEL: Oh, it's a great job being an armchair pathologist because no one can actually prove you're right or you're wrong.

(Soundbite of laughter)

CONAN: And I guess the latest speculation about murder was published in a book last year.

Dr. MARKEL: That's right. A very prominent mystery writer and a historian published a book about who killed King Tut, and came up with a plot that I would say was Shakespearean, but it's actually pre-Shakespearean. In that King Tut's wife who was also his sister, was unhappy with him and worked with an evil general and an evil adviser to kill King Tut and take over the kingdom.

CONAN: I think I saw that picture. Or maybe I haven't seen it yet. Anyway...

Dr. MARKEL: No.

CONAN: ...thee studies of DNA analysis and indeed the CT scans not just of King Tut's mummy, but some of those of his relatives, suggests that instead it was more prosaic, that he was born with a cleft palate and a clubfoot and had a painful time during his life.

Dr. MARKEL: Yes. He probably had an orthopedic or bone disorder called Kohler's disease that leads to a poor circulation to the bones in the foot. He probably broke his foot and walked with a limp. And in fact, in King Tut's tomb there are several walking sticks, his own walking sticks. And they have wonderful evidence of wear and tear.

CONAN: Mm-hmm.

Dr. MARKEL: He may have fallen at sometime and broken his thigh bone or the femur bone, which is the largest bone in the body, and is still a very serious injury even today with modern medicine. If you're not treated with a femur fracture, you could literally bleed to death in a matter of hours. So he had all of these problems and on top of that, he had a raging case of malaria.

CONAN: Hmm. And indeed the studies of the other people suggested they did too, that it was apparently pretty widespread in pharaonic Egypt.

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah. It's a contagious disease and it doesn't care if you're the pharaoh or you're merely a slave. If a mosquito bites you and you're infected, there you have it.

CONAN: So the other things that it tells us about his relations and not only at least according to that novel - was King Tut's sister his wife, but his father's sister was his father's wife.

Dr. MARKEL: Yes. That to me was the most exciting and intriguing part of the study of the conduct of the royal family. They married within the family, so that King Tut's parents were siblings, and King Tut indeed as you mentioned, married his sister. You know, the pharaohs not only considered themselves royal, but they considered themselves to be deities. And so no matter who you brought home to mother was not likely to be accepted...

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. MARKEL: ...unless she too was royal, of a deity of herself.

CONAN: And nevertheless...

Dr. MARKEL: But that...

CONAN: ...if you got some genetic problems in your family, this is only going to increase them.

Dr. MARKEL: Exactly. That's what I was about to say. It really sets yourself up if you're carrying genetic disorders, particularly recessive disorders, it really sets it up to be transmitted generation to generation.

CONAN: And the more prosaic description of the end of King Tut's life suggests that, well, a boy who only ruled for 10 years, and may not have been in total political control for the first part of that at least, may not be deserving of all the attention we've been giving him all this time since Howard Carter in 1922.

Dr. MARKEL: May not but, you know, the discovery of that tomb was so remarkable in 1922, and, of course, the relics and the riches that were found therein. And it had just captured our imagination. And, of course, he has that great nickname, King Tut. And there's even been songs about him as I recall, the Steve Martin hit in 1978.

CONAN: Well, you may have anticipated us. In any case, the other part of this that I found interesting is there has been, as you note in your editorial, an explosion of the use of modern technology in historical research, going back to find the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings' children. That, of course, forced us to reconsider the Hemingses of Monticello and, indeed, our third president.

We've also had to go back and change other ideas about, for example, there were samples left of people who died from the 1918 pandemic flu. So when we were looking again at the question of flu, we had examples of history to go back and look at those.

Dr. MARKEL: Yes. It's a remarkable tool, isn't it, that we can use modern science to better understand the past? And I think that really adds to two really critical questions of these types of studies. Does it really change our view of history, as the King Tut study most definitely does? Or does it help issues of understanding of health and disease today, as the influenza study does? And I think we need to be very careful about answering one or the other or both questions affirmatively before we embark on such studies. But those are very important. For example, the Jefferson study really opens up a whole window of issues of love and intimacy during the era of slavery.

CONAN: And, indeed, we did find out a lot about influenza. Of course, it was tremendously important - nevertheless, still important to remember the dignity of the dead even the very distantly dead.

Dr. MARKEL: Absolutely. And, you know, this is something that goes across cultures and nationalities and eras, but we tend not to exhume the dead. We tend not to disturb the dead for all sorts of ethical issues.

But particularly when you're talking about the pharaohs, I mean, the reason why King Tut was buried in a tomb that was impossible to get to until several thousand years later was not only did they not want to be disturbed - and there was supposedly a curse laid on those who would disturb King Tut - but these people also felt that it would affect their chances in the afterlife if they were disturbed. So these are things that we have to be very careful about to temper our curiosity.

CONAN: Well, there are all kinds of questions asked for - about all kinds of historical personages. You think of William Clark, of the Lewis and Clark expeditions - excuse me, Meriwether Lewis, about whether he committed suicide or not, questions like that. Is that kind of curiosity worth going back to satisfy?

Dr. MARKEL: Well, again, if you look at those two major questions, does it really change our understanding of the Lewis and Clark expedition or does it really help our issues of health and disease? I'm not so sure on that. Similarly, you know, would it really matter if we exhumed Abraham Lincoln to find out if he had an upset stomach the day before he was murdered? I don't think so. But there are other examples where we may have thought about foul play or problems that may have existed that would be very interesting to find out. Now, the real...

CONAN: For example.

Dr. MARKEL: Well, for example, Woodrow Wilson's final stroke. How incapacitated was he? But I doubt that you would be able to find that information out on a body that was buried in the 1920s and exhumed in the 2010 era. That's what's so remarkable about the mummies is that they were embalmed in a very specific way that allows us to examine these bodies to this very day.

CONAN: We're talking with Howard Markel about a study that appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association today that goes into the results of DNA and CT scans of King Tutankhamun, the fabled boy pharaoh of Egypt, whose body was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. Of course, the fabulous treasures of his tomb uncovered as well.

Let's see if we can get Sarah(ph) on the line. Sarah is calling us from Kerrville in Texas.

SARAH (Caller): Yes. I was curious if - I heard your - I heard it mentioned that Tut's mother or father were brother and sister. I'm curious, has it been definitively determined that Akhenaten was Tut's father and, therefore, Nefertiti, his mother?

Dr. MARKEL: It was definitively discerned that Akhenaten was his father.

SARAH: Oh. Okay.

Dr. MARKEL: The scholars who did the study have identified the mother as a mummy called KV35YL, which was probably not...

CONAN: What a romantic name.

(Soundbite of laughter)

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah - but probably not Nefertiti as thought. But this group of scholars is actually doing more studies as we speak to determine that more closely.

SARAH: Wonderful. Thank you very much.

CONAN: Thanks very much for the question, Sarah. And that suggests that, indeed, there are so many people curious about this one personage and his place in history. Of course, his father was the one who brought monotheism to Egyptian - to prominence in Egypt.

Dr. MARKEL: Yes. He was a far more prominent pharaoh. He brought about many changes and reforms in ancient Egypt. Yet it's his son who we talk about today.

CONAN: And, indeed, the studies of the Necropolises, the burial grounds around the pyramids, suggest studies of all those findings have proven, or at least the current theory is that they were not built by slaves but rather erected as civic enterprises.

Dr. MARKEL: Yes, that's absolutely true.

CONAN: And this email question from Patricia Fletcher(ph). If King Tut was not murdered, then how did that begin to be told? If he died of complications from a broken leg, what sort of complications were they? Well, we answered that part. It was the malarial infection that contributed. But how did the story of the murder start to be brooded about, do you think?

Dr. MARKEL: Well, it started in the late 1960s. And in 1968, a team of physicians and historians and anthropologists looked at King Tut's mummy and did an old fashion X-ray of his skull and of his skeleton, what used to be called a flap plate X-ray. And they found a fracture to the back of the skull, and they found this fractured leg. And then as doctors are want to do, we all love to make diagnoses whether we're looking at a patient or not. People began to read that paper, and people wrote articles and medical journals and such.

And one good story led to another. And he - it was suggested that he either fell off his horse or he fell off his chariot. Another story suggested that he was kicked to the head by a horse or a beast of burden. And then finally, the best story of all is that there was this nefarious plot to kill him and take over the kingdom.

CONAN: And those were later disproven when further studies indicated that hole in his head was used to extract his brain as part of the mummification process?

Dr. MARKEL: Yes. Yes, it was. The fracture of the leg though was probably incurred in real life.

CONAN: And whether that incurred from a dramatic fall from a chariot or a trip down the stairs, who knows?

Dr. MARKEL: Yeah. Well, you know - and I - this was, you know, making fun of armchair pathologists but I'll take a stab at it too. Think about it, when you hurt your own foot you walk sort of funny, and you always injure something else once you injure one part of your body. So he could've been walking in a very difficult way, using canes, and then he could've fallen from, you know, a great height or some steps and broken that thigh bone.

CONAN: Finally, Howard Markel, as you suggest that we answer these questions, these ethical questions about the historical value and degree of disturbance before we go in to answer some of these forensic questions about history, who would decide that?

Dr. MARKEL: That's a good question because this is such a new field when you think about it, you know? Historians have long enjoyed reading other people's mail but we have not looked at people's bodies all that frequently. But I think there are ways of mirroring institutional review boards that are at every hospital and medical center today as well as museums or museums of antiquities...

CONAN: Okay.

Dr. MARKEL: ...to develop a team of historians, ethicists and so on, experts to decide this issue.

CONAN: Howard Markel, thanks very much for your time.

Dr. MARKEL: Thank you.

CONAN: Howard Markel, professor and director of the Center for the Study of Medicine at the University of Michigan. And as we mentioned, he wrote an editorial on the study that questions the ethical implications of the search of dead bodies for evidence of historical interest. He joined us from WUOM in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

And this is TALK OF THE NATION from NPR News.

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King Tut Felled By Injury And Malaria, Not Murder

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A study from the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Tut died from complications from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria. Howard Markel of the University of Michigan is concerned about the potential ethical implications of similar studies in the future.

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King Tut had a club foot below a broken leg when he died.

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THE TRAGIC final months of King Tutankhamun's life have been explored in a new documentary.

The "Boy King" who ruled Egypt 3,000 years ago suffered from bouts of malaria and a broken leg before his untimely death at the age of just 19.

It is also believed that the famous pharaoh was limping in the years leading up to his death with a debilitating foot condition that left him disabled.

British historian and broadcaster Bettany Hughes hosted a new program, Tutankhamun: Waking the Dead, about Tut's life on Friday.

The documentary combined previous research with new evidence to examine the circumstances surrounding Tut's untimely demise.

Tutankhamun, a pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt, ruled Egypt from 1332 to 1323 BC

He is best known for his age - experts believe the boy was nine years old when he assumed rule of the world's most powerful empire.

His death 10 years later has puzzled experts for decades. Some believe he died from a broken leg or some other accident, while others suspect he was murdered.

Bettany traveled to Cario's Egyptian Museum to speak with researchers working with some of the country's famous royal mummies.

Professor Sahar Saleem, an X-ray technician and mummy expert, was part of a top team that scanned and examined Tut's remains last year.

They revealed that the pharaoh may have spoken with a lisp, thanks to an overbite and a slight cleft palate.

"Since communication and public profile are essential for any ruler, the Boy King may have faced a major challenge right away," Bettany said.

DOES MUMMY

And that's not the only difficulty the young man had to deal with - he also had family problems.

In 2010, Egyptologists extracted DNA from the mummified bodies of Tut and a number of other royal mummies.

They were able to confirm a long-standing theory that an unidentified woman found in the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings was in fact Tutankhamun's mother.

CT scans of the mummy, known only as "The Younger Woman," revealed his family's dark secrets.

The girl, who was found naked hiding next to two other bodies in a secret side chamber, is believed to have been married to her brother.

She died a violent death after a blunt object hit her face and ripped out a large portion of the skull around her jaw area.

Prof Saleem said: "She was quite young when she died. Her wisdom teeth hadn't erupted yet, so she was maybe around 25 years old."

The injury was determined to have happened before she was mummified and is likely what killed her.

Scans showed no signs of healing around the trauma before she died. It is believed to have been pierced by a blunt object such as a B. a club with a stone head, was brutally inflicted.

"It looks like an attack," said Prof. Saleem. "The injury could have killed her because she choked on her own blood.

"Broken bones could have gotten into their airways. That could have been fatal."

Clearly, when Tutankhamun was growing up, there were serious problems in his household.

THE YOUNG KING'S HEALTH HELL

When Tut took control of an empire at the height of his power, one of the biggest obstacles he faced was his health.

CT scans show he had an unusually elongated skull that may have been the result of inbreeding.

More than 130 walking sticks found in the ruler's tomb are believed to have been needed due to a crippling foot condition.

"The right foot and left foot seem to look quite different," said Dr. Carolyn Rando, archaeologist at University College London, on Bettany.

"We can see that his left foot has a fairly high and pronounced arch, while his right foot is almost completely flat.

"He probably put more weight on his right foot and less weight on his left foot for some reason."

X-rays show signs of necrosis, or tissue death, on his right foot, likely the result of a painful bone infection that left him disabled.

DEATH ON THE NILE

Archaeologists have argued for decades that Tut was assassinated as a result of a power struggle at the top of the Egyptian regime.

Based on a dark smudge visible in early imaging efforts believed to be a pool of blood, experts had argued the boy was killed by a blow to the head. However, this is not backed up by later CT scans.

dr Rando said the skull is intact with no obvious signs of trauma, suggesting no fatal head injury occurred.

The dark spot seen in earlier images was actually resin that had accumulated there during the mummification process.

Other theories are that the boy suffered a horrific leg fracture in a chariot accident and later died of sepsis.

Scans show signs of a fracture on his left femur.

"This could indicate that he had some kind of side impact that hit the top of his left knee," said Dr. Rando.

"It could have dislocated it and caused this large, potential fracture."

She added: "It's hard to tell how close this happened to his death. There's no cure, so he didn't survive long after that."

If the skin was broken, the wound was likely infected and could easily have become septic, said Dr. Rando.

This could have resulted in death very quickly, although it is impossible to know if it was actually sepsis that killed Tut.

"We know he died from it, but not what he died from," added Dr. Rando added.

But there's another - and far more gruesome - theory as to what killed the young ruler of the planet's greatest empire.

DNA samples collected from the pharaoh contained genes from the parasite that causes malaria.

Evidence suggests that Tutankhamun suffered from bouts of the disease several times during his short life.

It is believed that the disease, which is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites, may have weakened the king.

A viral infection could then have ended the job while it was in a vulnerable state. However, archaeologists don't know for sure - and may never find out.

Tut's tomb was excavated in 1922 in the East Valley of the Kings near Cario by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

The find was unusual in that the site had never been visited by looters and the lavish treasures inside had remained undisturbed for 3,300 years.

It remains one of the most famous archaeological discoveries of all time.
Tutankhamun: Waking the Dead aired on Channel 5 on Friday.

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https://www.the-sun.com/tech/4981897/inside-mystery-king-tuts-death-gruesome-diseases/ Insights into King Tut's horrible final months - from the horrible fracture of his leg to the fight against malaria

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Insights into King Tut's horrible final months - from the horrible fracture of his leg to the fight against malaria - DailyNationToday

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THE TRAGIC final months of King Tutankhamun's life have been explored in a new documentary. The "Boy King" who ruled Egypt 3,000 years ago suffered from bouts of malaria and a broken leg before his untimely death at the age of just 19.

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https://www.history.com/news/king-tut-death-mystery
Malaria and infections are rumored to be the cause of King Tut's death.

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When British archaeologist Howard Carter opened a sarcophagus in Egypt's Valley of the Kings for the first time on February 16, 1923, he stoked intrigue and mystery over an ancient Egyptian boy king. Who was King Tutankhamun, the occupant of the burial chamber who ruled 3,300 years ago, and how did he die at the age of 19?

Carter didn't have an answer back then, but modern forensic and medical technologies have uncovered details that provide clues as to what may have plagued King Tut before his death. DNA tests and computerized tomography (CT) exams showed he suffered from malaria, a fractured lower leg and congenital deformities associated with inbreeding that was common among Egyptian royalty.

Swiss mummy expert Frank Rühli noted in 2014 that in the years since the discovery of King Tut's tomb, many researchers, academics and amateur Egyptologists have come up with theories about what ultimately killed the boy king. In each case, however, the evidence was interesting but not compelling.

The CT scans of Tutankhamun found a cleft palate and fairly long head, as well as a curved spine and fusion of the upper vertebrae, which are conditions associated with Marfan's syndrome. But DNA tests in 2010 proved negative for that diagnosis.

The Chariot Crash Theory

In 2014, producers of a BBC television documentary postulated that Tut died in chariot crash that broke his legs and pelvis, and resulted in an infection and perhaps death by blood poisoning. Supporters of this theory note that Tut was depicted riding on chariots and also suffered from a deformed left foot, making it possible that he fell and broke his leg.

While that theory sounded like a good story, there were no records that such an incident occurred. In fact, one of the Egyptologists involved in that British television program still has doubts about what happened.

"We cannot at present know how Tutankhamun died," says Christopher Naunton, an Egyptologist and former head of the Egypt Exploration Society. Naunton says the BBC documentary started from the premise that the mummy showed evidence of the king having suffered severe trauma to his left torso and side. The filmmakers commissioned research that showed that this kind of injury could have been caused by the impact of a chariot wheel, but not by a fall from a chariot.

What remains unclear, Naunton says, is whether the skeletal damage occurred during the king's life or long after his death, as a result of the handling of the mummy after the discovery of the tomb by Howard Carter.

"It's quite possible what ultimately killed him has left no trace," Naunton says.

The Post-Mortem Factor

One obstacle to reconstructing Tut's life is the condition of his mummy after its discovery in 1923. Carter first examined the remains in 1926 and then returned the mummy to the outer burial chamber where it remained until 2007. During that time, some of the necklaces and jewels buried with Tut were removed, perhaps fracturing the fragile remains.

"Those of us who have anything to do with mummies know the degree that post mortem changes with the effects of mummification itself and along with what may have happened are really difficult to factor in and create a believable narrative," says Betsy M. Bryan, professor of near Eastern studies at Johns Hopkins University, who has worked for decades researching ancient Egypt. Bryan says she believes that new forensic technologies will ultimately improve enough to determine what happened. "I have great faith in science," she says.

Rühli, the Swiss mummy expert at the University of Zurich, argues what's needed is not more science, but perhaps another inspection of Tut's remains. "New technology is not necessary," he says. "However, what would be most helpful is a profound eye-only (with a magnifying glass) investigation of the suggested trauma sites (feet, knee, face) on the mummy itself."

King Tut's Erased History

Not only is King Tut's death a mystery, there are also gaps in the story of his life. Tutankhamun was the son of a controversial Egyptian king, Akhenaten, who decreed that Egypt would worship a single god, Aten, instead of many, and moved its capital from Thebes to Amarna. Politically, Egypt grew weak during Akhenaten's 13-year reign, according to David P. Silverman, professor of Egyptology at the University of Pennsylvania, who was curator of the first King Tut exhibit in 1978 at the Field Museum of Chicago.

Silverman says that Tut restored the old gods and their temples, erasing the changes brought by his heretical father and returning the kingdom to stability. The rulers who followed erased written representations of both father and son from Egypt's important list of kings, he explains, and both tombs were considered lost until their discovery in the early 20 century.

"They specifically tried to take memory of the entire family away by not including them in later lists of kings. It's as if these people didn't exist," Silverman says.

While records of his life were erased, in death, King Tut became ancient Egypt's most famous pharaoh. Carter hinted at that future fascination when he first entered the pharaoh's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Asked by a colleague on the outside if he saw anything, Carter replied, "Yes, wonderful things."

HISTORY Vault: Engineering an Empire: Egypt

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Decades of research and high-tech forensics have offered multiple theories about the boy kind who died at 19.

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King Tut was 19 year old when he passes, and he only ruled for less than a decade before he passed.  King Tut had multiple disorders, and had a weakening syndrome that affected his body. He was so weak that it was rumored that King Tut needed a cane to walk, and may have fallen, causing one of his legs to break. The leg later on getting infected by Malaria.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-tut/tests-show-king-tut-died-from-malaria-study-says-idUSTRE61F50020100217

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - King Tutankhamen, the teen-aged pharaoh whose Egyptian tomb yielded dazzling treasures, limped around on tender bones and a club foot and probably died from malaria, researchers said on Tuesday.

There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt's Valley of Kings.

Tests performed on 16 royal mummies found four, including Tut, had contracted a severe form of malaria that likely cut short Tut's reign -- ruling out murder or some other sickness.

Scientists from Egypt, Germany and elsewhere, including Zahi Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, compiled results from genetic and radiological testing performed on the mummies between 2007 and 2009. The results clarify details about the 155-year-long 18th Dynasty that included Tutankhamen, who inherited the throne at age 11.

The scientists speculated Tut was weakened by a broken leg possibly from a fall. That and a malaria infection led to his death, they believe.

Tut was afflicted with a cleft palate, mild clubfoot in his left foot and other bone ailments. He and some family members had a form of Kohler disease, which can cause foot bones to collapse from lack of blood but would not have been fatal.

"Tutankhamen had multiple disorders, and some of them might have reached the cumulative character of an inflammatory, immune-suppressive -- and thus weakening -- syndrome. He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk," Hawass wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Besides the priceless gold artifacts found in Tut's tomb, he was also equipped for the afterlife with some 130 canes and staves -- some with signs of wear -- and a veritable pharmacy.

The scientists were also fairly certain they identified the mummies belonging to Tut's father, Akhenaten, and his grandmother, Tiye, based on shared blood groups.

They shot down speculation that Tut and his forebears had severe abnormalities, ruling out Marfan syndrome and another condition that could have led to enlarged breasts.

"It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique. It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion," Hawass wrote.

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Tests show King Tut died from malaria, study says

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CHICAGO (Reuters) - King Tutankhamen, the teen-aged pharaoh whose Egyptian tomb yielded dazzling treasures, limped around on tender bones and a club foot and probably died from malaria, researchers said on Tuesday. There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt's Valley of Kings.

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How did King Tut died?