Tutankhamun mystery solved

Tutankhamun is probably the most famous of all pharaohs though he ruled only for nine years and died at an young age of 19. What caused his untimely death remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in history.

A team of Egyptologists and European geneticists have now gathered evidences showing that King Tut had two bouts of severe malarial attack caused by Plasmodium falciparum parasite that may have led to his death.

And to make the matter worse he fractured his leg due to poor blood circulation to the bone and had only limited mobility before his death.  Reconstructing the events leading to Tutankhamun’s death, the scientists said the king had a sudden leg fracture, possibly from a fall, which might have resulted in a life-threatening condition. There are evidence that Tut’s physical impairment remained quite some time.

The bone fracture was serious but not life-threatening. The criticality came with malaria.  The findings have been reported on the February 17 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association.  The researchers have also identified five generations of Tutankhamun family as well as two foetuses which could be the boy-king’s daughter.

The family tree established through genetic analysis include Tut’s great grand-parents Yuya and Thuya; grand-parents Amenhotep-III and Tiye and sibling-parents Akhenaten and a mummy identified as KV35YL, who possibly was Tutankhamun’s mother.

Though there are evidence suggesting KV21A as the mother of these two foetuses, the evidence is not statistically significant to show the mummy belonged to Ankhenseamun, King Tut’s wife.

The team looked into the DNA of 16 royal mummies to establish the family tree and how Tut died. DNA was extracted between from September 2007 to October 2009 when royal mummies underwent detailed anthropological, radiological, and genetic studies.

The 18th dynasty (circa 1550-1295 B.C.) of the New Kingdom was one of the most powerful royal houses of ancient Egypt that included the reign of Tutankhamun. Little was known of Tutankhamun and his ancestry prior to Howard Carter's discovery of his intact tomb (KV62) in the Valley of the Kings in 1922.

But his mummy and the priceless treasures buried with him, along with other important archeological discoveries of the 20th century, provided significant information about the boy Pharaoh's life and family.

Diseases that were suggested to explain his death include a form of gynecomastia (excessive development of breasts in males) and Marfan syndrome (a genetic disorder of connective tissues). But no signs of gynecomastia or Marfan syndrome were found in DNA analysis.

“However, most of the disease diagnoses are hypotheses derived by observing and interpreting artifacts and not by evaluating the mummified remains of royal individuals apart from these artifacts,” the team headed by Zahi Hawass from the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, reported in the journal.  The new findings are in conformity with Hawass's 2005 CT scan study in which he showed that the pharaoh broken his left thighbone before his death.