X-ray attempt to find out why Tutankhamen died

[Dover]

Sunday, November 14, 2004 Posted: 4:20 PM EST (2120 GMT)

Tutankhamen's mummy was damaged when archaeologists removed the gold mask.


CAIRO, Egypt (Reuters) -- Egypt plans to X-ray the mummy of Tutankhamen to find out what killed the king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago and died while only a teenager.

Archaeologists will move Tutankhamen's body from its tomb, which was discovered packed with treasure in 1922, to Cairo for tests which should resolve the mystery over whether he died naturally or was murdered.

"We will know about any diseases he had, any kind of injuries and his real age," Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told Reuters. "We will know the answer to whether he died normally or was he killed."

The mummy would be moved by the end of November and the CAT scan, which will produce a three-dimensional X-ray of his remains, completed by the end of the year, he said.

Tutankhamen's treasures, including a stunning gold mask which covered the head of his mummy, were removed from the tomb in Luxor's Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter. They are usually on show in the Cairo Museum.

But his mummified remains were left in the tomb in a stone coffin. Archaeologists last opened the coffin in 1968, when an X-ray revealed a chip of bone in his skull....cont'd

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/11/13/egypt.tutankhamen.reut/index.html

[djeseru]

1. The mummy was heavily damaged

by Howard Carter when trying to remove it from the inner coffin - the funerary unguents were so thick that the mummy was dismembered...some bits were lost even. I admire Carter's perseverance toward the tomb and items in the tomb, but not his dismissal of the human remains.

Edited for embarrassing spelling error.

[GATOR MONROE]

2. DO you think the ...

coffee cocaine maze and other western hemisphere goodies were found in tut land???

[NamVetsWeeLass]

3. While I agree with the fact that It was good to find the

remains of King Tutankhamen, I disagree with the way in which Carter and his team treated the fallen boy King. If the mask is glued on, You dolt, don't try to PRY the thing off! The body prior to this was in more than likely EXCELLENT condition, and as a result of Greed and Curiosity combined the King's remains were virtually destroyed. Very sad, I wish they had the Reverence that some of us have for this period of time, let alone the Boy King.