Leg fracture and brain malaria cause King Tut's death?

This is the most ridiculous assertion as to the death of king Tut. Tell me how was that possible when in fact the Kemits were the most proficient practitioners of medicine even before there was a civilized Europe. It just do not wash.

Today we are even a bit more advanced (I'm not going to judge our level of civilisation), yet people still die. Either this is nothing science can do, the diseases are diagnosed to late, the means for treatment are kown, but not available, etc... . If King Tut had an already weakened immune system, it is not hard to imagine a leg fracture gone bad and malaria are the final blows to the head.

You still vote murder then?

Infectious diseases have always been difficult to diagnose and treat. First you have to know it is an infection at naked eye inspection, then you have to take a sample of the infected tissue and analyse it under a microscope (not possible in ancient Egypt).

After that you might try to apply a treatment if you know what to treat...

I agree whole-heartedly with Ann and Paula. It is very true that the ancient Egyptians were perhaps the most proficient, revolutionary, progressive, and innovative in the practice of medicine and the study of anatomy at the time. Some of their methods, namely their combinations of natural ingredients for certain treatments of ailments, have been proven as useful, helpful, and curative now as they had been back then.

However, this is the same civilization that used prayer in addition to these natural medicines as a form of healing (and of other things). The natural ingredients used for medicine were only as useful as the words spoken along with them (if the priest-doctor administering the ointment did not say the accompanying spells and incantations in the exact manner they were meant, then forget the treatment ever working). Same can be said of mummification. This is also the same civilization that considered the heart as the seat of all knowledge and emotion and that the brain was a vestigial object. Furthermore, their theory of vessels (which is what we call veins and arteries) describes that they carried water, air, and (human) waste.

I can forgive them of their silly notions about those things. They are still an advanced people in my book.

So for me, the results, although not very surprising when you consider the above-mentioned, are very compelling, sufficient, and satisfying. Now, that isn't to say that murder, if it wasn't all those diseases and ailments that did him in, could not have been the cause of his death. I am no medical examiner, but poison and strangulation could have been means for his murder (what with thousands of years having passed since his death and the terrible condition in which Tutankhamun's mummy is - two factors that make it extremely difficult to debunk murder, as any evidence thereof has been long since deteriorated or mangled away by those who have improperly handled his mummy).

Sorry. I posted my novel-like entry twice :(

No problem, Jenny, I've deleted the duplicate! And you're right that murder can never be 100% excluded, but the majority of the evidence points in the other direction. To be honest, I don't know of many pharoahs murdered in general, but maybe that wasn't worth being noted down / put in stone. Dead is dead, right? ;)

That picture is freaky!

DNA testing is just amazing, excellent article!

looks nice, great story