Tutankhamun curse haunts late British discoverer
 

BY RYAD Abu Awad

CAIRO, (AFP) - Experts may have recently established that Tutankhamun was not assassinated after all but his death remains a mystery and his "curse" continues to hang over the head of late British archeologist Howard Carter who discovered the legendary pharaoh's sarcophagus.

"The one and true curse of the Pharaohs was Carter's greed and covetousness," the head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities charged last week.

Sabri Abdelaziz accused Carter, who first uncovered the boy king's sepulcher in 1922, of having damaged the 3,300-year-old mummy.

After spending 10 years emptying Tutankhamun's burial chamber of its fabulous treasure in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Carter died a mysterious death without ever managing to publish the complete list of his trove.

The legend has it that he was struck by "the curse of the Pharaohs" which also allegedly afflicted all those who dared open their burial vaults.

Abdelaziz also charged that Carter "pillaged" Tutankhamun's sepulcher, used white-hot metal bars to tear out his famous gold mortuary mask, now on display in Cairo Museum, and mishandled the mummy which, as a result, was fractured in several places.

A scan of the mummy, whose findings were revealed Tuesday, dispelled previous theories that King Tut, who died at the age 19, had been murdered.

"The team of scientists found no evidence that he had been struck in the head and no other indication he was killed, as has been said before," a statement by Egypt's chief archeologist Zahi Hawass said Tuesday.

The research team, which included Egyptian and European scientists, said a fracture in the king's left leg could not have caused his death, even by infection, and established that the crushed bones in his chest had been broken after his death.

The sarcophagus of the legendary pharaoh, who is thought to have been the 12th ruler of the 18th dynasty and died some 3,300 years ago, has only been opened four times since its discovery by Carter.

The most recent examination, using computed tomography (CT), produced digital pictures of the boy king's face, giving the most accurate depiction of his features ever, according to Abdelaziz.

The 17,000 pictures "show that Tutankhamun was not assassinated and that the fractures on the mummy were first and foremost caused by Carter and then by embalmers," according to the team's report.

It said that the fractures on the lower end of Tutankhamun's thighbone, attributed to the morticians' mishandling of the corpse, "could not have caused his death considering the fact that he was young and vigorous, had doctors regularly checking on him and did not suffer from chronic diseases or malnutrition."

The widespread belief that the king pharaoh was poisoned stems from the fact that he was the last ruler of his dynasty.

The high priest Aye succeeded Tutankhamun for four years. General and Great Commander Horemhab went on to rule for 26 years before stepping down to let his vizier Ramses assume power and found the 19th dynasty.