King Tutankhamen was an Egyptian Pharaoh who ruled over Egypt for less than a decade. King Tut’s mummy was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter and George Herbert. How he died was completely baffling since there are no records about it. Various people have come up with hypotheses on how his death might have occurred. His mummy was found to have a missing heart, fractured ribs and leg and his whole body was burnt. He also had malaria when he died.
Hutan Ashrafian, a British surgeon claims that the king might have had a form of epilepsy which targets the temporal lobe. He suggests this based on the king’s feminine features and his depictions which have breasts and wide hips. He also believes the fractured leg might be cause of a fall during a seizure [1]. Another theory by a Californian Egyptology professor, Dr. Benson Harer, is that King Tutankhamen might have been killed by a hippo. The king was buried without his heart which was unlike normal mummification and he also had cracked ribs which lead the professor to believe that his heart was damaged beyond repair. Hippopotamuses can cause that kind of injury and hippo hunting was a favorite sport of the Pharaohs [2].
A more plausible theory is that the king might have been killed in a chariot crash. A team of car crash investigators simulated a chariot crash and concluded that a chariot would have smashed into the king when he was on his knees. He would have been the first of racers, hit a bump and fallen down and might have been run over by another chariot. This theory explains his shattered ribs, pelvis, leg and injured heart. The injuries sustained are also similar to getting kicked at by a horse. His botched mummification, which is the cause for the burnt mummy, might be because of the hurry with which the servants had to prepare everything because of the king’s sudden death [3].
Works Cited
[1] Bindley, Katherine.” King Tut Death: Epilepsy Killed Boy King Tutankhamun. New Theory Suggests”. huffingtonpost.com. 17th Sep 2012. Accessed: 14th Feb 2014. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/king-tuts-death-new-theory_n_1877713.html/.
[2] Cohen, Jennie,” Did a Hippo Kill King Tut?”. history.com. 2nd Nov 2010. Accessed: 14th Feb 2014. http://www.history.com/news/did-a-hippo-kill-king-tut.
[3] Owen, Jonathan. “Solved: The mystery of King Tutankhamun's death”. independent.co.uk. 3rd Nov 2013. Accessed: 14th Feb 2014. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/solved-the-mystery-of-king-tutankhamuns-death-8919262.html
