Experts claim that Tutankhamun was a battle-hardened warrior and not the sickly boy-king of legend.
It has gone down in historical folklore that Egypt’s most famous king was frail, deformed and had a club foot.
He was buried with about 130 complete and fragmented sticks of various shapes and designs, believed to be walking sticks that facilitated his mobility.
But three experts on ancient Egypt told the Cheltenham Science Festival this week such an assumption could be wrong.
Sofia Aziz, a biomedical Egyptologist, said: “Personally, when I examined Tutankhamun, I don’t think there was any evidence that he was disabled because I’ve seen mummies that appeared to have a clubfoot .”
Experts claim Tutankhamun was a warrior and not the sickly boy king of legend
Tutankhamun was buried with about 130 sticks, complete and fragmented, of various shapes and designs, which are believed to have been walking sticks, which facilitated his mobility
“We call these pseudopathological changes.” “The walking sticks were just a sign of royalty.”
The expert argues that “clubfoot” may actually have formed during the mummification process, where the application of resin and a tight bandage can distort the shape of the foot.
A notable missing middle bone in the second toe of his left foot, she says, may have disappeared after his remains were moved to a sandbox, or simply taken by someone as a souvenir.
After the lecture, the Egyptologist, who has examined more than 50 mummies in detail, said: “His legs were so well aligned – if he had actually had a deformity and a club foot, he would have had difficulty walking,” but the long bones just don’t show any Evidence of that.’
The leg bones would show signs of stress from someone limping for years.
Tutankhamun is so famous because after his death his body lay undisturbed for almost 3,000 years without the tomb being ransacked by tomb robbers like many other pharaohs.
Discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, the tomb revealed tantalizing evidence of a child born in 1336 BC. became pharaoh at the age of just nine before suddenly dying at the age of 19.
It has become part of historical legend that Egypt’s most famous king was frail, deformed and had a club foot (2005 reconstruction).
Tutankhamun is so famous because after his death his body lay undisturbed for almost 3,000 years without the tomb being ransacked by tomb robbers like many other pharaohs
The view that Tutankhamun was a weak king is disputed by a minority of experts, but the notion that he was far more warlike is supported by items found in his tomb, such as leather armor and various weapons.
dr Campbell Price, curator of Egypt at the Manchester Museum, who also spoke about Tutankhamun at the science festival, supports the idea that the notion of the sickly boy and the king is most likely a myth.
After the lecture he said: “We have this sympathy for Tutankhamun, he is not what you would expect from the golden mask.”
“And I wholeheartedly agree that nothing in pharaonic art corresponds to the looks of men, for it is the world of the gods.”
“But it’s gone the other way, where we look at him as this poor creature.”
dr Campbell Price, curator of Egypt at the Manchester Museum, supports the idea that the notion of an ailing boy king is most likely a myth
dr Price added: “You have to remember that the discovery of Tutankhamun took place immediately after World War I and people had lost young men in the trenches. So there was a collective pathos for young men who had died, perhaps in battle, which plays into this fantasy, this myth of this supposedly weak boy.”
The curator argues that Tutankhamun’s “walking sticks” are status tokens, since they are adorned with images of his enemies, such as the neighboring Nubians.
Raksha Dave, Honorary President of the Council for British Archaeology, who led the science festival’s lecture on the Boy King, described the exposure of the ailing Tutankhamun as “amazing,” adding, “It’s definitely a more rigorous, more scientific, and also refreshingly modern” point of view on one History that is 100 years old and how to actually approach it differently.’
KING TUTANKHAMUN: THE PHARAOH WHO RULED EGYPT OVER 3,000 YEARS AGO
The face of Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, reigning between 1332 BC and and 1323 B.C. Right, his famous golden mourning mask
Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, reigning between 1332 BC and and 1323 B.C. Chr.
He was the son of Akhenaten and ascended the throne at the age of nine or ten.
When he became king, he married his half-sister Ankhesenpaaten.
He died around the age of 18. The cause of death is unknown.
In 1907, Lord Carnarvon George Herbert hired the English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter to direct the excavations at the Valley of the Kings.
On November 4, 1922, Carter’s group found steps leading to Tutankhamen’s tomb.
He spent several months cataloging the antechamber before opening the burial chamber in February 1923 and discovering the sarcophagus.
When the tomb was discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter under the patronage of Lord Carnarvon in 1922, the media frenzy that followed was unprecedented.
Due to the variety of items found inside, it took Carter and his team ten years to rid the tomb of its treasure.
For many, Tut embodies the glory of ancient Egypt, for his tomb was filled with the glittering riches of the wealthy 18th Dynasty from 1569 to 1315 BC. Chr.
Egypt’s antiquities chief Zahi Hawass (3rd from left) oversees the removal of the lid of King Tutankhamen’s sarcophagus in his underground tomb in the famous Valley of the Kings in 2007.