Who Killed King Tut?

A CSI InvestigationThe Case

THE ALLEGED CRIME took place more than 3,000 years ago. The victim is now a dried-up, mangled mummy. The murder weapon is lost to history, and the suspects have long since turned to dust. It would seem to be a crime unsolvable for even the most brilliant detectives.

Don’t tell that to the Crime Scene Investigators Kennedy Middle School’s 6th Grade Class. Through extensive investigation, the CSI team has come out with a new theory to prove who killed Egypt’s King Tutankhamen.

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The BackgroundThirty-three centuries ago, when Tutankhamen came to the throne, Egypt was a great power. Ruled by god-kings called pharaohs and watered by the mighty Nile River, Egypt had sprawling cities, imposing temples, and great monuments that were the envy of the world.

At the very top of that ancient civilization stood Tutankhamen, the boy-pharaoh. King Tut (as we have come to call him today) inherited the throne in 1347 B.C. at age 9. He was either the son or the son-in-law of the pharaoh Akhenaton. (Scholars disagree.)

Akhenaton (1367-1350 B.C.) had tried to push Egypt to become a monotheistic (one-god) society. He overturned the state religion, which featured several gods, most notably Amen, and replaced it with one devoted solely to the sun god, Aton. Akhenaton even built an entirely new capital city in the desert devoted to the worship of Aton. He ordered that the names of all the gods but Aton be erased from every public inscription in Egypt. In one blow, Akhenaton had taken power away from the priesthood and had forbidden the worship of gods beloved by the Egyptian people.

Akhenaton died at the age of 30. Three years after his death, Tut came to the throne. Tut's original name was Tutankhaton, but halfway through his reign, he bowed to pressure and restored the old religion and replaced the aton in his name with amen.

Because he was only a boy, Tut relied on the guidance of advisers and generals. But Tut's reign didn't last long. He died suddenly around the time of his 18th birthday.

Uncovering King TutankhamenIn 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter made, perhaps, the greatest archaeological discovery of the 20th century. Carter was excavating a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, a part of Egypt where many pharaohs were buried, when he came upon a tomb that apparently had been untouched for more than 3,000 years.

"Widening the hole a little, I inserted a candle and peered in," wrote Carter. "At first I could see nothing, the hot air escaping from the chamber causing the candle flame to flicker. But ... as my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold--everywhere the glint of gold ... I was struck dumb with amazement."

Carter had every right to be amazed. He had just become the first man in nearly 3,300 years to view the tomb of Tutankhamen. King Tut's tomb, with its priceless treasures, remains the only royal Egyptian burial place found in its original state. Most others had been destroyed or robbed shortly after burial.

Still, to Carter, something seemed odd about the tomb. For one thing, it was smaller than other pharaohs' tombs. Carter speculated that it had been built for a nonroyal and pushed into service when Tut suddenly died. In addition, it seemed that the preparation of the tomb had been rushed. The wall paintings were marred by sloppy splashes of paint that should have been cleaned up. And though the artifacts were spectacular, they seemed to have been gathered in a hurry. Carter noticed that names had been scratched off some objects and Tut's name had been added. Carter also noted that an ointment used in embalming had been dumped on the mummified king--again, an unusually sloppy job.

Was someone anxious to have the tomb sealed in a hurry to cover up evidence of a killing? A suspicious Carter arranged an autopsy of the pharaoh's remains in 1925.

The ancient Egyptians believed the dead lived on in the next world, and so their bodies had to be preserved forever. The mummification technique they developed involved removing major organs, including the brain (which was taken out through the nose). A corpse was then wrapped in layers of linen bandages and placed in a coffin--or, as with Tut, a coffin within a coffin. In Tut's case, the ointments dumped on his body during mummification left it literally glued to the coffin. So Carter had to have the body chiseled out of the box and removed limb by limb. A 1925 autopsy found no signs of foul play. But a 1968 X-ray of Tut's corpse showed a sliver of bone floating in his brain cavity and a dense mass at the base of his skull that could have been a hematoma, or massive blood clot--evidence that Tut might have suffered a fatal blow to the back of the head.

Possibility for MurderIf King Tut was murdered, some research and evidence point to a few limited servants that could have been responsible for his death. Their motives were likely centered on greed or the changing environment Akhenaten (King Tut’s father) had created upon his death.

It was a known fact that Akhenaten brought about a major change in Egypt. He had pushed the idea of one god and this concept went against everything the Ancient Egyptians believed in. Though it is not known how Akhenaten transitioned Egypt into this new thinking, many believed the transition could have been hostile. Priests, who had temples, spent their whole life’s worshiping and honoring their beloved gods. When Akhenaten acquired the throne he changed their thinking and he might have forced them to shut down their temples and revert to his religion—which was unheard of at the time. As result of this radical movement, many historians believed this created an unstable environment that might have upset Akhenaten’s royal court and its citizens—the change was drastic and must have required a firm stance to change hundreds of years of thinking.

Akhenaten died when King Tut was a child and he was given the throne at a young age. If Akhenaten did create a hostile environment, his son would’ve had to deal with the new state of Egypt. To make matters worse, King Tut was a child and probably did not have the intellect to run Egypt. This would’ve meant that more experienced subjects of King Tut would have helped him—mainly Ay and Horemheb. Because these two officials had such a strong presence in King Tut’s life and had direct access to him, many stories surround them.

Just being the son of Akhenaten must have been difficult for a young boy who probably wanted to go about his business uninterrupted. This situation alone breeds hate from those who oppressed Akhenaten and his new teachings. They probably perceived King Tut’s death as a way out to restore Egypt to its old ways.

Suspects* AY was Tut's prime minister and most important adviser. He became pharaoh after Tut's death and claimed Tut's queen as his second wife.

* ANKHESENAMEN was Tut's wife. The young couple had their share of problems. They had lost two children before birth. Unable to produce an heir, did the queen seek the throne for herself?

* HOREMHEB, commander of Egypt's armed forces, might have felt the frail king lacked the stomach for military action. When the general took the throne after Ay's death, he destroyed all records of Tut's reign.

* Malaria/Health Causeswas a common illness amongst those living along the Nile River. Because of the lifestyle that Tutankhamen

was brought into, marriage was common among relatives and siblings. When there are marriages like this, and children are born, health problems are brought along. For Tutankhamen, he suffered through Klippel-Fell Syndrome, which is a disease that affects the feet and causes deformities. Perhaps King Tut could have suffered through Malaria and fell down a flight of stairs, causing a fracture to the back of his head.

* Civilian jealous/upset over Tutankhamen’s rulingTutankhamen was the heir of Akhenaton, and not many people wanted to follow the religion that Akhenaton set forth for his people. Perhaps someone who was upset with Akhenaton’s ruling could have murdered Tutankhamen out of spite.

Egypt fought no wars during Tut's reign, but the neighboring Hittites were a real threat, and some historians believe Horemheb wanted to take action against them. In addition, as the young king's military adviser, Horemheb probably taught Tut how to ride a chariot. Those lessons would have given the general a lot of time alone with the pharaoh. Perhaps Horemheb threw Tut from a chariot far from the palace. In that case, the boy's body would have started decomposing on the trip home, explaining why Tut's embalmers poured so much ointment on his body. Some are convinced that Horemheb, who controlled the empire's powerful armies, could have taken the throne when Tut died. But he didn't. Ay did.

Ankhesenamen is an unlikely suspect because she did not become Egypt's ruler after Tut's death. A document from Tut's era reports that an unnamed Egyptian queen wrote to the Hittite king, pleading to be married to one of his sons to spare her from being forced to marry a "servant." Some believe the letter was from Ankhesenamen and referred to Ay, who, even as prime minister, would have been seen as a servant by the queen.

Which leaves Ay. Egypt's senior politician moved quickly to take power after Tut's death. Paintings depict Ay performing the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony at Tut's funeral, a role traditionally taken by the new king. During Tut's youth, Ay effectively ruled Egypt. He might not have wanted to surrender power to the adult Tut.

Was Ay Tut's killer? That’s what some people believe. The theory isn't shared by all scholars who insist there's not enough evidence surviving to draw any conclusions about Tut's death. Though most investigators had access to Tut's X-rays, Egypt's government denied them access to the pharaoh's remains, which could have been tested by medical technology for clearer evidence of murder.



Scan informationhttp://www.two-views.com/X-RAY/king_tut.html

http://ambassadors.net/archives/issue23/selectedstudy3.htm

Murder: Who Killed King Tut? By the Government of Egypthttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/killtut.htm

King Tut Onehttp://www.kingtutone.com/tutankhamun/murder/

Opportunity for Murderhttp://www.unmuseum.org/tutmurder.htm

Malaria/Health:CSI Egypt: King Tut under the Microscopehttp://education.theage.com.au/cmspage.php?intid=142&intversion=48

The Death of King Tut by Jimmy Dunnhttp://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/kingtutdeath.htm