How did King Tut die? Cause of Death Established
He’s the most famous figure in ancient Egyptian history, but there’s still plenty of mystery surrounding King Tut. Who better to clear up a few of them for us than Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities?
In part one of King Tut Revealed – a four part video interview exclusive by Sandro Vannini – Dr Hawass broaches the tricky and controversial subject of how the Boy King, whose tomb KV62 was famously discovered in the Valley of the Kings by Howard Carter in 1922, met his premature end in 1323 BC at just 19 years of age.
The Mummy’s Mummy
Dr Hawass begins by discussing King Tut’s parentage, which is a matter of intense debate. Initially, as he explains, it had been thought that Tutankhamun – a minor Egyptian king and a generally shadowy figure in the grand scheme of Egyptian history – was the brother of Akhenaten and the son of Amenhotep III. Recent evidence, however, has indicated that he was in fact born in Tell el-Amarna – the short-lived 18th Dynasty capital of Egypt – and was most likely the son of Akhenaten.
“That’s why we believe that his mother is Kiya,” says Dr Hawass, referring to Akhenaten’s wife, a minor wife (the Royal wife was Queen Nefertiti of controversial Neues Museum bust fame).
“Now we have evidence that [Kiya] was an Egyptian and she died when she was delivering him as a child.” In another recent video interview with Heritage Key, Hawass told us that he believes KV63 – the tomb discovered in 2005 near KV62 in the Valley of the Kings – to have been the tomb of Kiya, before it was looted.
DNA tests on Tutankhamen's mummy should soon offer more information on this issue.
The Mysterious Hole in the Head
The idea that Tutankhamun was murdered is one that has gained significant traction, with most homicide theorists pointing to a suspicious puncture in the back of Tut’s head as proof he was bludgeoned to death. Yet, results of a CT scan on Tut’s mummy carried out by a team led by Dr Hawass in 2005 has proven as conclusively as possible that the cause of his death was very likely another wound, one inflicted accidentally.
“It was a hole that they opened in Dynasty 18 when they do mummification,” Hawass explains of the skull fracture, as we’re shown fascinatingly detailed images of Tut’s mummy captured by the CT scanner. Mummification was a complex business, that involved all kinds of strange and gruesome ritual treatment of the corpse, in particular when it came to the brain. It’s definitely possible that the hole in Tut’s leg was a deliberate post-mortem perforation.
On His Last Leg
A fracture in Tut’s left leg is the most likely cause of the young pharaoh’s demise. His mummy was haphazardly handled by Howard Carter and his team, and ended up broken into 18 separate bits by the time his iconic golden death mask was removed.
“Many people think that this [leg] fracture could happen because of that damage that Howard Carter did,” says Hawass. But the CT scan again proved otherwise, by shedding new light on the injury. “Radiologists found that this is not true,” Hawass adds, “and that this fracture happened to Tutankhamun one day before he died.” Probably Tut contracted a deadly infection through the wound, and it quickly killed him.
A Tragic Accident?
The injury that may well have precipitated King Tut’s death has been identified beyond reasonable doubt, then. But how did he come to suffer such a nasty wound? Hawass outlines two theories. “Tutankhamun used the desert of Memphis for hunting,” he says. “He could number one have died when he was hunting in the desert. Or the second thing – maybe in a war. Many he was participating in a war and he died?”
There is no scientific way of testing such speculation, and we’ll most likely never know how Tutankhamun suffered the fracture that killed him. “But at least we can know now the cause of his death for the first time,” Hawass concludes. Keep a look out for more installments of the King Tut Revealed interview on Heritage Key, including Dr Hawass’s thoughts on the legendary curse of Tutankhamun.
HD Video: King Tut Revealed (Part 1/4) – How He Died Featuring Dr. Zahi Hawass
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To me, the question is still wide open. Even if the wound was received the day before his death, that doesn't mean that it wasn't murder. Until we know how that wound came about, case open.
More than one king died in a hunting accident. Some were even accidental!
Slightly inefficient way to murder someone though isn't it, chopping them in the left leg? An old-fashioned bash over the head you could safely say was a straight effort to bump the guy off. But a leg wound sounds far more like an accidental injury. Unless it was the consequence of a botched assault. Well, not that botched - Tut did die from the wound - but you know what I mean.
Tut was fond of hunting ostriches. My theory? Angry ostrich. They have mean beaks.
king tut was not murder, he give the GODS back to the of Egypt form he,s Father Akhenaten, king tut name went form king Tutankhten to king tutankhamun , so he died form a hunter,s accident my theory good or what
The disappearance of Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, father and mother of King Tutankhamen and then King Smenkhare his full brother as well as his half brother Akhenaten would lead one to believe that foul play was involved in the Amarna Family. When King Tutankhamen emerged as the Patriarch of Moses, the child that Ankhesenamen found, Moses had joined the Jewish family of King Tutankhamen and this proved to be his downfall as Horemheb realized that the power of a Moses/King Tutankhamen relationship had brought Egypt as a Unified Country back together, that is why King Tutankhamen wore the double Uraeus Crown of the Vulture and Cobra, he was the Unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt. Once Egypt was Unified through peaceful means and King Tutankhamen was murdered, the Exodus began and the Jewish people were forced to leave Egypt. After the death of Ramses I, Egypt for Jews would never again be their homeland even though they held the Crown many times.
Hmmm, i have to do this 4 a school project but im confused....
um im doing a school project on king tut too. and i cant get his facts right.how did he really die?????
Jenna - we can't be any more certain about exactly how King Tut died than we can say for sure what his favourite breakfast cereal was :) But this much we do know for definite, thanks to hi-tech scans of his mummy: just a day before Tut died, he suffered a serious fracture in his left leg.
Because medicine wasn't very advanced in ancient times, an injury like this could easily have been fatal - probably an infection set into the wound, and Tut got a very high fever which quickly killed him. We'll never know for sure how he got the wound - as Dr Hawass explains, it may have been a hunting accident, or a battle injury - but the fact that it was large, and occured just a day before his death, is reason enough to lead us to conclude that it was directly related to his death.
I hope this clears things up a bit! Good luck with your project.
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