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Tutankhamun’s Chariot on its Way to New York City

The Chariot - found in the Antechambre - is unique, in that it does not look like the other chariots found, and does not appear in wall paintings. - Image courtesy of the Egyptian MuseumNews that King Tut’s chariot will leave Egyptto join the final leg of the ‘Tuankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs’ exhibition in New York its first trip abroad has been confirmed by an SCA press release. In the same release Dr Hawass and his team say they continue to stand behind the findings published in JAMA earlier;King Tut died of complications from malaria and Kohlers disease.

Mr. Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, confirmed that one of King Tuts chariotsis travelingto New York City, the first time that a chariot from Tutankhamun’stomb will be allowed out of Egypt. The chariot will arrive in New York City on Wednesday and will be accompanied by a conservator and the Director of the Luxor Musuem, where the chariot is currently displayed.

Maybe it was King Tut’s hunting chariot, or just a fun, nimble knock-around – the 18th dynasty’s equivalent of a privileged young man’s sports car

The Odd One Out

This chariot that is on its way to the Discovery Times Square Exposition(Dr Hawass would have preferred the MET) stands outfrom the other five chariots found among Tutankhamun’s burial treasures. Compared to the ceremonial chariots(see the slideshow here), it lacks decoration and has a very light, open sided construction. Its tires are extremely worn, suggestingthechariot was used frequently in hunting expeditions, possibly by the young king. Howard Carter – who found the chariot in the south-east corner of the Antechamber along with three other chariots, described the chariot as, of more open, lighter construction probably for hunting or exercising purposes.

Maybe it was King Tut’s hunting chariot, or just a fun, nimble knock-around – the 18th dynasty’s equivalent of a privileged young man’s sports car, Helen appropriately proposes in our earlier announcement.

Earlier CT-scans (theirdataused to ‘3D print’ an exact clone of King Tut’s mummy for the Discovery Square exhibition) have shown that King Tutankhamun suffered a fracture to his left leg, which is often attributed to as apparently, there were no stairs to tumble down from in Ancient Egypt a ‘hunting accident’. Dr Hawass says the Boy King’s broken bone makes the inclusion of Tutankhamuns chariot to the New York exhibit even more interesting; the young king may have fallen from this very chariot. He adds, As we discover more about Tutankhamuns death, we may find that this very chariot is an important piece of the puzzle that weve been working for decades to solve.

Sandro Vannini - King Tut Hunting Box

Team stands behind ‘Malaria and Kohler’s Disease’

The second part of the statement concerns the medical report detailing the testing done on Tutankhamun and members of his family that was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The article, Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamuns Family (and accompanying TVdocumentary ‘King Tut Unwrapped’)describes how Dr. Hawass and his team uncovered part of the King Tut family tree, as well as a probable cause of death.

Click To Watch Video
The Death of King Tut: Murder or Accident? (feat. Dr. Zahi Hawass)
Some of the most asked questions about King Tutankhamun have centred around his death, and whether he was murdered. Dr Zahi Hawass enlightens us in this video on how the latest technology has been used to find the answer this question.

CLICK TO WATCH

Besides the usual responses – debate about racial genetics (King Tut is Scottish?) and left-out Pharaohs (Smenkhare) – scientists from Hamburgs Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine replied to research in a letter send to JAMA. In the letter, they dispute the claims that King Tut died of malaria, and suggest sickle-cell disease as an alternative cause of death. The SCA’s statement reads that while some of the symptoms between malaria and sickle-cell disease are similar, Dr. Hawass and his team, stand behind their findings and reaffirm that Tutankhamun died of complications from malaria and Kohlers disease, an ailment that effects blood supply to the bones.

King Tut Scottish? How far can DNA theories stretch?

Mockup of King Tut in Tartan slash Scottish Dress. Yeah right!When the latest Tutankhamun study was published in Jama, there were quite a few outcries that although the study looked into the direct ancestry of King Tut, it fully ignored the pointers to the pharoah’s racial ancestry, possibly hidden in the pharaoh’s DNA. As usual, Dr Zahi was accused of many things, most notable charges of ‘hiding that King Tut was black/white/purple.’ Now a retired physicist took the time to write down some of the DNA test results exposed in the Discovery Channel programme that featured the study’s results and concluded the data shown in the docu reveals Tut’s haplogroup as R1b, one of the most common Y-chromosome haplogroups in Europe, especially the United Kingdom. So, err… was Tutankhamun Scottish, rather than black or white?

From the data exposed in the documentary ‘King Tut Unwrapped’ (start watching at about 1:50 in this video), Whit Athey concluded from the DNA data shown on the documentary that Tutankhamun must have the haplogroup R1b,associated with the male Y chromosome, and common in Ireland, Scotland, western England, France, Iberia and Scandinavia, according to Athey, European through and through. Really?

The exposure of this data was flagged before, with many speculating it was not Tutankhamun’s DNA, but rather test sequences run for the benefit of the documentary. Kate Phizackerley, KV64.info blogger(and a must read if you’re interested in all things Tut), believes the data is genuine, but that Mr Athey’s interpretation might be (way) to quick.

She points out the uncertainty of determining ancestry using the Y chromosome, and that even if R1b is Tut’s haplogroup, that does not necessarily mean he’s European.Some sub-branches of the R1b haplogroup today are mainly found in Sub-Sahara Africa: This branch of R1b is very strongly represented in the Chadric population of Western Sub-Saharan Africa with more than 95% of Cameroonian Ouldemes having an R1b? haplogroup. What is even more striking is that 28% of male the Berbers from Siwa in Egypt still have an R1b? Haplogroup. There is another concentration of R1b in central Aurasia. Phizackerley believes that, if R1b Is indeed Tut’s haplogroup, migrations when the Sahara changed from fertile savannah to desert might account for this.

It is far harder to claim moral ownership of Nefertiti’s bust if most modern Egyptians are themselves genetic incomers rather than direct descendants – at least down the male line.

She calls for the mitochondrial DNA, passed down the maternal line, results to be released (pretty please, Dr Zahi?),as mtDNA is far less likely to mutate than the Y-DNA. The mtDNA would offer a clearer picture of Tutankhamun’s racial ancestry.

But won’t Dr Hawass try to postpone releasing this data as long as possible? For if people keep speculating (Black/White/UK), these ‘ancestry theories’ keep the King Tut hype alive, creating a whole lot of extra, free publicity for Egyptology (and the Egyptology tsar’s books and TV docussuch as Chasing Mummies).Also, as Kate Phizackerley points out, the data is likely to prove that most modern Egyptians are not closely related to the Amarna Royal family, something that could become a major argument in the whole repatriation debate: It is far harder to claim moral ownership of Nefertiti’s bust if most modern Egyptians are themselves genetic incomers rather than direct descendants – at least down the male line.

Personally, I believe King Tut being Scottish as likely as Jesus having visited Cornwall and Somerset. I do want tothink that the Amesbury Archer was born in the French Alps and crossed the Channel to settle at Stonehenge about 4000 years ago. But then again,I also like to believe that he put down a better time for the crossing than those of us who travelled by Eurostar last week.

King Tut Died of Sickle Cell Disease, not Malaria

king Tut's Death Mask - Did he suffer from the genetic blood disorder Sickle Cell Disease?King Tut died from sickle-cell disease, not malaria, say experts. German researchers at Hamburg’s Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) have rejected a theory put forward by Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass, claiming sickle-cell disease (SCD) caused King Tut‘s early demise. A team led by Dr Hawass had said a combination of Khler disease and malaria was the primary cause of Tutankhamun’s death. Yet the German team are calling for more tests on the boy-king’s DNA, which they say will easily confirm or deny their claim.

The BNI team have cast doubt on Hawass’ conclusions, after studying DNA tests and CT-scans used in the article, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (and accompanied by a host of television documentaries) in February this year.

Hawass’ team claimed DNA tests showed segments of the malaria parasite Plamodium Falciparum. A CT-scan (data of which was also used for this awesome reconstruction of King Tut’s mummy) then showed evidence of Kohler II disease, a bone disorder prohibiting blood flow, in Tutankhamun’s left foot. The team concluded that the king, weakened by the bone disorder, succumbed to malaria.

Yet a letter from BNI‘s Dr Christian Timmann and Prof Christian Meyer to JAMA says Hawass may be mistaken. Malaria in combination with Khler’s disease causing Tutankhamun’s early death seems unlikely to us, they say. The BNI team feels the hereditary SCD would have been a far more probable cause of death.

Sickle-cell disease is an important differential diagnosis: one that existing DNA material can probably confirm or rule out

Timmann and Meyer also note that bone abnormalities shown on the mummy’s CT-scans can be interpreted differently. They claim the defects, though consistent with Khler’s disease, are also compatible with osteopathologic lesions seen in SCD.

Sickle-cell disease – a genetic blood disorder characterised by red blood cells assuming a sickle shape – occurs frequently in malarial regions, and can result in complications like the bone disfigurements discovered on King Tut.

The genetic predisposition for (sickle-cell disease) can be found in regions where malaria frequently occurs, including ancient and modern Egypt. Meyer explains. The disease can only manifest itself when sickle cell trait is inherited from both parents, it is a so-called recessive inheritance. The haematological disorder occurs in 9 to 22 per cent of people living in Egyptian oases. Having just one of the two alleles of SCD gives a better chance of survival in malaria-endemic areas, when infestation is halted by the sickling of the cells it infests.

It is known to those who study tropical diseases, writes Timmann, that in areas where malaria occurs deaths due to malaria occur most frequently during childhood. Tutankhamun died aged 19, making a malaria-related death improbable. However SCD, while inherited at birth, is most likely to result in fatal complications between childhood and early adulthood.

A family tree of King Tut, suggested by Hawass himself, appears to further the German team’s case. The relatively old age of Tutankhamun’s parents and relatives up to 50 years means they could very well have carried the sickle-cell trait, and could therefore have been highly resistant to malaria. The high likelihood that King Tut’s parents were in fact siblings means he could have inherited the gene from both and suffered from SCD.

Sickle-cell disease is an important differential diagnosis: one that existing DNA material can probably confirm or rule out, conclude Timmann and Meyer. They suggest that further testing of ancient Egyptian royal mummies should bear their conclusions in mind.

King Tut’s young demise has long been a source of speculation. As well as malaria, recent decades have seen scholars argue that he was murdered, and that he died from infection caused by a broken leg.