King Tut's mummy was CT scanned in 2005, over 80 years after its discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. The scan revealed that Tut's breastbone and ribs were missing, indicating he did not die of natural causes but from a broken leg that was exacerbated by malaria. DNA testing and further scans of Tut and other royal mummies helped establish Tut's family tree and identified health issues like a cleft palate and clubfoot. While some deaths after Tut's tomb's discovery were attributed to a curse, advances in science have provided new insights into Tut's life, death, and lineage.
4. The modern world has turn impossibilities to
possibilities. William’s report gives an insight
into a mummy scanned after a thousand years
that has opened new avenues regarding a
cause of it’s’ death. The mummy referred to
here is that of King Tut or Tutankhamen,
meaning the living image of Amun. The earlier
ruler, Amenhotep-IV has shocked the country
by attacking Amun, a major God, smashing his
images and closing all his temples. His family
had ruled for centuries before the boy king,
Tut took over. However, Tut ruled for nine
years and then died both mysteriously and
unexpectedly.
5. “Funerary treasures”
• The mummy was in a very bad state, according to Zahi
Hawass, Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of
Antiquities. King Tut’s tomb was first discovered in 1922 by
Howard Carter, a British archaeologist. Tut was found buried
with numerous “funerary treasures” in a coffin made of pure
gold. The treasures found included precious collars, inlaid
necklaces and bracelets, rings, amulets, a ceremonial apron,
sandals and sheaths for his fingers and toes. These treasures
are till date the richest royal collections ever found. Some
everyday items considered to be needed in the afterlife, like
board games, bronze razor, linen undergarments, cases of
food and wine were also found. This revealed that the
ancient Egyptians believed in the idea of resurrection and
hoped to take their riches with them.
6. Discovery Of Tut’s
Tomb
The discovery of tut’s
tomb by Howard Carter in 1922 is
considered the most important
archaeological find of the century. On
January 5, 2005, King Tut’s mummy
glided head first into a CT scanner to
probe the medical mysteries
surrounding him. An angry wind
stirred up ghostly dust devils. Dark
clouds moved into the sky all day.
These were thought to be the
indications of the pharaoh’s curse.
Death or misfortune would fall upon
those who disturbed him.
Valley of Kings
(above)
Howard Carter
(left)
7. Tut’s Life
• Reign : Given his age, the king probably had very powerful advisers, presumably
including GeneralHoremheb and the VizierAy.Horemheb records that the king
appointed him"lord of the land"as hereditary prince to maintain law. He
also noted his ability to calmthe young king when his temperflared.
• Domestic policy:In his third regnal year, Tutankhamun reversed several changes
made during his father's reign. He ended the worship of the god Aten and restored
the god Amun to supremacy. The ban on the cult of Amun was lifted and
traditional privileges were restored to its priesthood. The capital was moved back
to Thebes and the city of Akhetaten abandoned.
• This is when he changed his name to Tutankhamun, "Living image of Amun",
reinforcing the restoration of Amun.
• As part of his restoration, the king initiated building projects, in particularat
Thebes and Karnak where he dedicated a temple to Amun.
• Many monuments were erected, and an inscription on his tomb doordeclares the
king had "spent his life in fashioning the images of the gods". The traditional
festivals were now celebrated again, including those related to
the Apis Bull Horemakhet, and Opet .His restoration stela says:
“The temples of the gods and goddesses ... were in ruins. Theirshrines were
deserted and overgrown. Theirsanctuaries were as non-existent and their
courts were used as roads ... the gods turned theirbacks upon this land
... If anyone made a prayerto a god foradvice he would neverrespond.”
8. • King Tut’s mummy was CT scanned on January
5, 2005 after Howard Carter had discovered it
in 1922. Tourists all over the world went into
the rock- cut tomb some 26 feet underground
to pay their respects to King Tut. They gazed
at the murals on the walls of the burial
chamber. They also peered at Tut’s gilded
face. Some tourists stood silently to see if the
pharaoh’s curse-death or misfortune would
fall upon those who disturbed him-would be
really true.
9. A natural death ?
• The scanning of Tut’s mummy also gave an insight as to how
mummies were buried. Howard Carter, who scanned the body
found it difficult to extract the mummy. The ritual resins had
hardened there by cementing Tut to the bottom of his solid gold
coffin. Carter finally had to chisel the mummy away having no other
option. Every major point was severed. Tut was buried with gold
which was meant to guarantee the resurrection and was also
buried with every day things he would need in his after-life. Tut also
had things to take on his journey to the great beyond-glittering
goods, precious collars, necklaces and sandals, all of pure gold. The
computed Tomography scan couldn’t solve the mysterious death of
Tut but gave us clues for sure. The X-rays and C.T. scan reveal a
startling fact-the breast bone and the Pont ribs of Tut were missing.
Such a revelation would not have been possible without
technological precision. This fact gives us a clue that Tut, in all
likelihood did not die a natural death.
10. Carter’s investigations and the
problems faced
• Carter investigated the three nested coffins. In the first, a
shroud adorned with garlands of willow and olive leaves,
wild celery, lotus petals and cornflowers were found. This
gave vague evidence that the death might have taken place
in the month of March or April.
Carter faced difficulty in extracting the mummy of the king
out of the coffin. The ritual resins had hardened resulting in
cementing of Tut to the bottom of the solid gold coffin.
Though Carter unsuccessfully tried to use sun to loosen the
resins, there was no other way left to separate the mummy
from the adornments than to chisel it away. Its head had to
be removed and the major joints had to be detached.
The only ground for Carter to defend himself for chiselling
Tut was that thieves would have ripped the body apart to
rob the gold, if he had not chiselled it.
11. Burial treasures of
Tut
• The treasures of Tutankhamun
have been marveled at since
theirdiscovery by Howard
Carteron November4, 1922.
• Tutankhamun’s second
innermost coffin, also referred
to as the intermediate coffin
is made of gilded, laminated
wood with inlays of
polychrome glass pastes.
• Tutankhamun's third coffin is
made of solid, hammered gold
and weighs about 450 pounds.
The royal mummy of
Tutankhamun was found
inside this coffin
12. • Tutankhamun's famous gold funerary mask rested
directly on the pharaoh's mummy inside the third
coffin. The pharaoh wears the classic nam e s
headdress striped with transversal bands of glass
paste imitating lapis lazuli and is adorned with a
wide collar composed of streaks of semiprecious
stones and colored glasses. The eyes are made
of quartz and obsidian. As on the coffins, the
lapis-lazuli outline of the eyes reproduces the
distinctive ko hleye make-up originally applied to
protect against the sun's glare but increasingly
employed for its beautifying effect.
• The foremost and furthermost gilded wood
statuettes portray Tutankhamun hunting
hippopotamus with a harpoon from a boat made
of papyrus.
• One of the two calcite lamps found in
Tutankhamun's burial chamber. The cup takes
the form of an open lotus flower and is flanked on
both sides by rich, openwork decoration in which
the god Heh is depicted kneeling on a number of
papyrus plants with his arms raised.
• Three models of luxury ships (left) were found in
Tutankhamun's tomb. The baldachins at the bow
13. • A cobra killed Howard Carter's pet canary after the
discovery of King Tut's tomb.
• Lord Carnarvon, the person who funded the dig of
King Tut’s Tomb, died shortly after the discovery,
due to a mosquito bite which turned into an
infection. At that exact moment the lights in Cairo
mysteriously went out.
• Lord Carnarvon's dog howled and dropped dead at
two in the morning when Carnarvon died.
• What is interesting is that Howard Carter lived a
decade after this major discovery.
14. • In 1923, another man involved in the opening of the
tomb, George Jay Gould, died as a result of a fever
followed by Carnarvon's half-brother Aubrey Herbert in
1923; Egyptologist H.E. Evelyn-White; radiologist Sir
Archibad Douglas-Reid; Howard Carter's assistant
Richard Bethel; his father Lord Westbury; Egyptologist
A.C. Mace; Egyptologist James Breasted in 1935; and
finally Howard Carter in March of 1939.
• Although some believe that the deaths may just be
coincidental, many believe that the deaths were a result
of the mummy's curse.
• It is believed several of the deaths could be linked to a
released mold that had been trapped in the tomb and
released.
• New findings are showing that bacteria on the wall
of the tomb might have been the cause of the curse.
The bacteria would release spores into the air
allowing it to be breathed. This in turn caused
people who came into contact with these spores to
15. • Here he lives with his great wife, the beautiful Nefertiti, and together
they serve as the high priests of the Aten, assisted in their duties by
their six cherished daughters. All power and wealth is stripped from the
Amun priesthood, and the Aten reigns supreme. The end of
Akhenaten's reign is cloaked in confusion—a scene acted out behind
closed curtains. One or possibly two kings rule for short periods of time,
either alongside Akhenaten, after his death, or both.
• When Amenhotep III dies, he is succeeded by his second son,
Amenhotep IV—a bizarre visionary who turns away from Amun and the
other gods of the state pantheon and worships instead a single deity
known as the Aten, the disk of the sun. In the fifth year of his reign, he
changes his name to Akhenaten—"he who is beneficial to the Aten." He
elevates himself to the status of a living god and abandons the
traditional religious capital at Thebes, building a great ceremonial city
180 miles to the north, at a place now called Amarna.
• the first of these "kings" is actually Nefertiti. The second is a mysterious
figure called Smenkhkare, the throne is occupied by a young boy: the
nine-year-old Tutankhaten ("the living image of the Aten"). Within the
first two years of his tenure on the throne, he and his wife,
Ankhesenpaaten abandon Amarna and return to Thebes, reopening the
temples and restoring their wealth and glory. They change their names
to Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun, proclaiming their rejection of
Akhenaten's heresy and their renewed dedication to the cult of Amun.
16. The role of Science & Technology
in the discovery of Tut
• Egypt’s famed King Tutankhamun suffered from a cleft palate and club
foot, likely forcing him to walk with a cane, and died from complications
from a broken leg exacerbated by malaria, according to the most extensive
study ever of his mummy.
• The findings were from two years of DNA testing and CT scans on 16
mummies, including those of Tutankhamun and his family, the team that
carried out the study said in an article to be published Wednesday in the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
• It also established the clearest yet family tree for Tut. The study said his
father was most likely Akhenaten, the pharaoh who tried to revolutionize
ancient Egyptian religion to worship one god — while his mother was a still
unidentified sister of Akhenaten.
• Tut, who became pharaoh at the age of 10 in 1333 B.C., ruled for just nine
years at a pivotal time in Egypt’s history. While a comparatively minor king,
the 1922 discovery of his tomb filled with stunning artifacts, including the
famed golden funeral mask, made him known the world over.
• Speculation had long swirled over why the boy king died at such a young
age. A hole in his skull long fueled speculation he was murdered, until an
X-ray scan in 2005 ruled that out, finding that the hole was likely from the