Doctor Philippe Collombert is the head of the French mission which is currently working at Saqqara, a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital of Memphis. The team has recently uncovered the burial chamber of Queen Behenu whilst they were working within the necropolis of Pepi I.
Collombert attained his diploma in museology from the Ecole du Louvre in Paris in 1991 and was a graduate of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris in 1994. He was also formerly a scientific member of the French Archaeological Institute in Cairo from 2000-2003.
When the lid of King Tut's third coffin was raised it was immediately clear that the royal mummy, although intact, was in very poor condition. This was due to humidity and the protective 'libation' in which the mummy had been covered, with the result that the outer wrappings were blackened and parts of the accessories had disintegrated.
Cleft palate, equinovarus foot deformity (a mild case of clubfoot, left), Kohler disease II and bone necrosis, mild kyphoscoliosis (abnormal curvature of the spine), hypophalangism (absence of one or more phalanges of a digit, his toe), flatfoot (right foot), a fractured leg (not healed at time of death) and malaria tropica.
The opening in his skull was sustained during the mummification process. Tutankhamun's already weakened constitution in combination with malaria is now assumed to be the cause of death.
The King Tut results are in and right now everyone is going gaga over the fact that malaria appears to have played a role in the boy king's death. While this is an interesting find, there is another discovery - King Tut looked fairly normal, or at least he did not have a significantly bizarre or feminine physique - which also carries major implications for Ancient Egyptian research.
Alwyn Burridge holds a MA in Egyptology from the University of Toronto and is currently completing her PhD there. Her research focuses on Ancient Egyptian medicine and the medical conditions that famous Egyptians may have had.
She is currently working with Dr. Gonzalo Sanchez, a medical doctor, on a new translation of the Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus. The document dates back about 3,500 years and is one of the oldest medical documents in the world. It focuses mainly on trauma wounds and Burridge believes that it was written by a medic, training to assist an army.
About a decade back she proposed a theory that the pharaoh Akhenaten suffered from Marfan Syndrome. This is based in part on the art that was created during the pharaoh’s rule. It shows figures with long thin fingers, cone shaped heads and distorted bodies - physical characteristics that show some resemblance to those affected by this syndrome.
Burridge emphasizes that this condition does not affect intelligence. Abraham Lincoln had this condition and is widely considered to be one of the best presidents in American history.
Submitted by veigapaula on Wed, 02/17/2010 - 00:21
We are just learning fresh news about research on King Tut's mummy, in advance of tomorrow's publication in the American Medical Journal of the results of the most recent DNA and other tests. Over the years, there have been many different theories, but now we can scientifically prove what killed the Boy King, his parentage, and other health conditions affecting him at the time of his death.
Early Research
KV62 - Tut's tomb - was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. Multiple attempts at proving kinship between various royal mummies have been made since then, including tests by Connolly (1976), Flaherty (1984) and Harrison (1969). In the case of Tutankhamun and Smenkhare, these tests have included estimates of both mummies' blood groups in order to compare them.
Both mummies share the same rare blood type (group A2, and both with the serum antigen MN), suggesting close consanguinity.
The article - to be published tomorrow in the Journal of the American Medical Association alongside the press conference - contains results of over two years of research in two different dedicated 'mummy labs'.
This Wednesday the long awaited results of the DNA research on King Tut's mummy - and some of his possible family members - will be announced at a press conference with Egyptian Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosni and Dr. Zahi Hawass. They will announce new discoveries surrounding the family of Tutankhamun and the cause of the young king's death.
The study on the family of Tutankhamun (keep an eye on all things Tut on our dedicated page) was conducted through the Egyptian Mummy Project (EMP) headed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, and a team composed of Egyptian scientists from the National Research Center, members from the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University, and two German DNA specialists.
There are some excellent ancient history titles on the market this year, and you can get your hands on some of them for free by entering Heritage Key's Ancient World in London bloggers' challenge. It's part of our three-month-long celebration of Ancient London, an interactive online and offline event featuring HD video, virtual worlds, competitions and live events.
Thames & Hudson has up for grabs five books from its latest catalogue for whoever can best answer our first bloggers' challenge question: 'Which invaders have had the biggest impact on London?' The winner will also receive 50 bonus HK points to boost their online tally.
Thames & Hudson is one of the biggest names in publishing, with history among its specialist subjects. Its mission includes the challenge to "create a museum without walls" and to make academic research available to the mass market at affordable prices.
There will never be another archaeologist like Amice Mary Calverley. She was a plane-flying, war-filming, desert-living Egyptologist, who created stunning drawings of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos.
With the onset of World War II she found herself fighting in a propaganda war against the Axis. However, one of the people who edited her Seti work, Egyptologist Hermann Junker, was aiding the Nazis. He did this even as he was still editing Calverley's work!
Born in Chelsea, London, UK in 1896, her drawings, financed by John Rockefeller Jr., were published in four oversized colour volumes. Her drawings were so good that her editors could find hieroglyphic errors made by the ancient Egyptians, but scarcely one made by her.
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They recognized that she had the rare ability to draw an ancient feature without taking any artistic license – she could make an exact copy
The 
We are just learning 
Ahead of 
There are some excellent ancient history titles on the market this year, and you can get your hands on some of them for free by entering Heritage Key's 
There will never be another archaeologist like 
