No sign Tutankhamun murdered, but mystery unsolved
CAIRO, Tuesday (Reuters) A three-dimensional X-ray scan
of Tutankhamun's mummy found no evidence to support theories he was
murdered but failed to solve the 3,000-year-old mystery of how the young
Egyptian pharaoh died. Some members of the investigative team say he may
have died from an infected thigh wound, but others doubt this, saying
that injury may have been inflicted later by archaeologists, according
to the team's five-page report released on Tuesday.
Either way, the team's chairman says the case should now
be closed and the tomb of the king who died in 1352 BC, aged about 19,
should not be disturbed again. Some historians have speculated the ruler
was murdered, based on his young age and the turbulent political and
religious circumstances during that period of Egyptian history.
"We don't know how the king died, but we are now sure
that it was not murder. Maybe he died on his own," said Zahi Hawas,
chairman of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. "The case is closed.
We should not disturb the king any more," he told Reuters after the
report came out.
"There is no evidence that the young king was murdered,"
said a press release attached to the report.
The report said some but not all of the eight team
members suggested he may have died after a serious accident in which he
broke his thigh, leaving an open wound which became infected. "Although
the break itself would not have been life-threatening, infection might
have set in," the report said, citing those members of the team. The
others disagreed.
Tutankhamun came to the throne shortly after the death
of Akhenaten, the maverick pharaoh who abandoned most of Egypt's old
gods and tried to imposed a monotheistic religion based on worship of
the Aten, the disc of the sun. During Tutankhamun's reign, which lasted
about 10 years, advocates of the old religion were regaining control of
the country, turning their back on Akhenaten's innovations. |
