King Tuts Life

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King Tutankhamun was just 18 years old when he died. This was a very premature death for a privileged, well fed, and fiercely guarded Egyptian Pharaoh. Historians have speculated and argued over King Tut’s possible cause of death ever since his tomb was discovered in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings by British archeologist Howard Carter in 1922. There are many theories about the death of King Tutankhamun. Researchers like Bob Brier of Long Island University, believe that he was murdered by one of his close advisors who despised the boy king and his growing power. Others such as, Doctor Zahi Mawass, former Minister of Antiquities for Egypt, have contended that it was from an infection due to a broken leg the pharaoh had suffered days before his death. Some historians have ventured even further and speculated the King was thrown from his chariot during a hunt which caused his eventual death. The theory of murder investigated by Egyptologist Bob Brier seems to be the most likely cause of King Tut’s untimely death. Dr. Gerald Irwin, head of the radiology department at Winthrop University Hospital, examined the X-ray of King Tut and came to the conclusion that the image showed what looked to be a hematoma at the lower base of the skull, probably caused by a blow to the back of the head. Brier was told that a trauma to the back of the head (just where the neck joins the skull) is very unusual because that location is so well protected. This supported the belief that the King was attacked while he slept on his side. Brier found supporting evidence for the theory of murder in a letter from King Tut’s widow Ankhesenpaaten, to the rival nation the Hittites. In this letter the queen asks to marry one of the Hittite King’s sons. She stated that she would not marry one of her “servants” and make him her husband. She also declares in the letter, “I am afraid.” This
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