It turns out Egypt's beloved boy-king wasn't so golden after all

[SoCalDem]

Tut's ills won't kill fascination, historians say
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gnwhIM-DHEsZFC9sK0189m06tj0QD9DTR2O84

By LINDSEY TANNER (AP) – 1 hour ago

CHICAGO — It turns out Egypt's beloved boy-king wasn't so golden after all — or much of a wild and crazy guy, for that matter.

But will research showing King Tut was actually a hobbled, weak teen with a cleft palate and club foot kill enthusiasm for a mummy that has fascinated the world for nearly a century?

Not likely, historians say, even though the revelations hardly fit the popular culture depiction of a robust, exotically handsome young pharaoh, or a dancing "how'd-you-get-so-funky" phenom a la Steve Martin. The comedian parodied Tut on "Saturday Night Live" during a blockbuster King Tut traveling exhibit in the late 1970s, which packed U.S. museums and spawned a mini-industry in Tut tchotchkes. "This is one sick kid," Egyptologist Emily Teeter, assistant curator at the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, said after learning of the research. It shows that, based on DNA tests and CT scans, Tut had a genetic bone disease and malaria, which combined with a severe broken leg could have been what killed him about 3,300 years ago at age 19. The results appear in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. They cast doubt on popular theories about what did him in, even though falling off a chariot or being murdered by a sneaky palace foe fit the royal image better than a raging infection. The findings stem from the most rigorous research yet on a mummy that has fascinated the world ever since his largely intact, treasure-filled tomb was found nearly 90 years ago.
snip

"It makes him all the more human and all the more fascinating," said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan.

Tut has long been big business. The 1970s Tut exhibit drew millions of visitors to U.S. museums, and a popular revival including artifacts from his tomb and others' has been traveling around the United States for the past several years and is currently at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum. Egypt's economy depends a great deal on tourism, which brings in around $10 billion a year in revenues. The King Tut exhibit at Cairo's Egyptian Museum is one of the crown jewels of the country's ancient past and features a stunning array of treasures including Tut's most iconic relic — the golden funeral mask. Another tourist destination is Tut's tomb tucked into the desert hills of Luxor's Valley of the Kings. In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered it and the trove of fabulous gold and precious stones inside, propelling the once-forgotten pharaoh into global stardom. Hundreds of tourists come daily to the tomb to see Tut's mummy, which has been on display there since 2007.

snip

The new research led by Egypt's top archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, bolsters previous theories that Tut's father was likely the Pharaoh Akhenaten, and that Tut's mother was Akhenaten's sister. That incestuous lineage would explain some of his ailments, including the bone disease that runs in families and is more likely to be passed down if two first-degree relatives marry and have children. But it also only bolsters the intrigue. In ancient Egypt, it wasn't really considered incest.

snip

[liberal N proud]

1. "It makes him all the more human and all the more fascinating,"

Something everyone should realize about all celebrities and leaders. Something celebrities and leaders should all know about themselves and be humbled if they are fortunate enough to not suffer from illness or handicap.

We are human!

[Betty Karlson]

2. True.

The Cult of Perfection must go.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cbdo2007]

4. Its funny how they consider Steve Martin's parody of a dancing, funky King Tut....

to be one of the leading popular culture depictions of him.

I guess "pop culture" true...but I think most of us see him as some teen age kid who was king and then was buried with all this gold stuff, not as some old time Justin Timberlake.

The amazing thing about King Tut isn't his depiction of what he looked like alive, its all that amazing stuff they found in his tomb. The solid gold mask and untouched relics from ancient Egypt.

[SoCalDem]

6. Yep...just a rich kid & all his toys..even back then people loved their stuff n/t

[freddie mertz]

5. Akhenaten's mummy does not survive.

They may have identified some previously nameless ones from the Royal cache with this study, but I think the verdict that Akhenaten was his dad will have to remain speculative, since the body seems to be long gone.

The one candidate, the anonymous skeleton from Tomb no 55, could be him, but there are other candidates, and uncertainty rules.

[LibertyLover]

7. I just read the abstract of the JAMA article

In it the authors state that Tutankhamon's father was the KV 55 mummy and his mother the KV35YL mummy, the so-called "Younger Lady" mummy from KV 35. If that is true, than the mummy from KV 55 is almost certainly Akhenaten, or what's left of him, which is a just a skeleton. Apparently as part of this exercise, Hawass et al re-examined the KV 55 remains and found that the individual they belonged to could have been as old as 60 based on the degeneration of the spinal column. While that is too old for Akhenaten, that is just a possible "as old as" date. An earlier examination had put the age of the KV 55 bones much lower - an upper age of young 20s IIRC, which would have been way too young for Akhenaten, which is why it was speculated they were the remains of Smenkhare. With this newer and older upper age, the remains could easily be those of Akhenaten. And since KV 35EL or "Elder Lady" mummy is Tiye, Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III, and Tutankhamon's mother was a daughter of Amenhotep III, it makes sense that the mummy, KV 35 YL, was buried with her mother. Interesting times.

[freddie mertz]

10. That would be cool, if true. Did they get some DNA from the KV55 skeleton?

That KV55 mummy had been so badly treated by the reburial team, by time, and by the excavators, I has presumed it was likely too far gone.

I hope it is true, though, and can't wait to read the article.

[SoCalDem]

11. They must have, or they could not have figured out the lineage

It is very interesting, indeed:)

[freddie mertz]

12. I SO want that to be Akhenaten.

I guess they can figure he's the father anyway.

[LibertyLover]

14. Well, I got the library where I work to get me the JAMA article and I

read it on the Metro going home. According to the data tables, there are microsatellite allele markers for the KV 55 mummy, so I would say yes, they were able to get some samples. The bones themselves are stored in the Cairo Museum. They are in poor condition, but usable DNA was obtained. There is, sadly, an on-line appendix with much more information on how they identified the KV 55 mummy as Akhenaten which I am not able to access. I suspect that there will be a book out soon.

[ChickMagic]

26. Not THE Amenhotep!

Sorry - Mummy movie fan.

I love the story of Akhenaten. I hope that skeleton is his.

[Sultana]

8. Already knew he was a sickly boy

But he's still golden in my eyes :D

[cherokeeprogressive]

9. Sure he was golden! A cleft palate and club foot would have made him a perfect candidate

to have an episode of Family Guy devoted to him!

[CatWoman]

15. makes me think of Claudius

............

[Diclotican]

18. CatWoman

CatWoman

Poor Claudius.. yes he was maybe not the most stylish Emperor ever to sit on the roman throne.. But dam he was proberly the smartest one.. And as more I got to know Claudius, the more I sympathy with the man, he was a far smarter man than, Augustus, Tiberius Calligulia was before him.. Calligulia was also a deadly snake compared to the two others and defently more dangrous than poor kind gentle Claudius who more or less wanted to be in peace with everyone.. But by birth, and by accidence he was all the way up to the Emperors, a office he by the way served good, decent and let little Nero with a lot of money, by having a senseible economical policy.. And he even introduced a new letter to the Latin alphabet.. And he was a great student of History, and when he was out of Italy and Rome he tend to travel to antic battlefronts, and walk where old romans had died for the Repbulic at some time. He Even invaded Britannia, and had with him 4 african Elephants who made some stir from the native population Historians says they was pretty impresive that they had that big animals with them.. THe poor elephans died a couple of year later, becouse they was not traveling back to the continent,. And he wisited maybe more britanic city's than most emperors was doing in a span of 500 year... If he was that dumb... He also rebuild/started the emperors own "anales" where the official history, and the familiy history was put into a new sort of order. Mostly becouse himself was and educated historian, and wanted to make the emperors familiy tree a more up to date.. If he had been that dumb, he might not have been able to do that?


Diclotican

[BreweryYardRat]

19. Have you ever read Robert Graves' novels about Claudius?

You sound like you have, but in case you haven't, the titles are: "I, Claudius" and "Claudius the God."

[Diclotican]

23. BreweryYardRat

BreweryYardRat

No I havent read Robert Graves novels about Claudius, but I have read a lot about the roman emperors over the years, and it was one intersting gang of peopole who once ruled a big part of the world from Rome..

And I have the I claudius movie set, from the 1970s where old Claudius is one of the big stars so to say:P

But anyway, old Claudius was an smart man compared to many of the others who was on the roman throne. Just little silly when it came to shoosing his friends and allied.. And maybe little naive too.. And the roman politic was a brutal show..

Even after his death, the poor Claudius was up to ridacule and was something of a outcast for most of the emperors, who for the most just tok him out as a silly willy, even tho he migt did do more for romans than his peer ever wanted to give him credit for.

Diclotican

[REP]

13. The golden mask was probably Akhnaten's, as much of the other furnishings

The back of the mask clearly shows the face had been removed at on time.

It is a shame that so much of Akhetaten was destroyed; the artists who worked there were some of the finest who ever lived. Everyone knows the famous bust of Nefer-Neferu-Nefertiti at the Berlin gallery, but there are other busts of her in her later years that are breathtaking works of portraiture and sculpture. Who knows what else was lost.

[arcadian]

16. A lot of inbreeding going on with the Egyptian pharoahs.

Like brothers marrying sisters etc.

[SoCalDem]

17. They thought that it would protect the family line and ensure loyalty

history proves otherwise though..

[newspeak]

27. actually, I thought that wealth was inherited by the matriarchal line

so, in order to keep the wealth--brothers married sisters, fathers married daughters, etc.

[David Zephyr]

20. In spite of all of this new evidence, I still believe he was murdered.

It's not impossible to embrace the new evidence of malaria and still believe he was murdered.

Sigmund Freud's classic 'Moses & Monotheism' delves into some of this. The Boy King was not popular with the pantheistic "clergy" of his time, to say the least.

I'm in a very tiny minority, but I believe it was just too good for too many people that he died when he did.

[SoCalDem]

21. Palace intrigue & royal murders are not limited to the Egyptians

So much for familial pleasantries:)

[David Zephyr]

22. No kidding.

Anyone who's had the joy of watching "I Claudius" would agree.

[cbdo2007]

24. For those interested....here is a fascinating link....

http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/gri/4tut.html

That takes you to a site with the original photographs taken while excavating the tomb, them removing the mask(s), seeing the body for the first time, etc. Great way to waste a work day ;)

[TexasObserver]

25. I studied Tut in History several years before Tut's exhibit toured the USA.

We were taught then that he was a frail, thin, pear shaped boy of a king, a sickly king who died young and that Tut was not significant, like Akhenaten, his father. We were also taught that Akhenaten was married to his sister, Nefertiti. Akhenaten was the name his father adopted. His given name was Amenhotep IV.

Akhenaten's claim to fame was his insistence on one god - Aten - and that his name meant "son of Aten." This was apparently the first instance of monotheism in Egypt, and was soon abandoned, as it was not popular even when Akhenaten imposed it.

I've never heard anything serious suggesting Tut was anything but a completely insignificant pharoah whose only claim to fame was his fairly intact tomb.