Death, Curse and Flowers
Scientists claim to have finally solved the 3,000 year old mystery behind the sudden death of Egypt’s golden boy. Until now, historians assumed that Tutankhamen was a rather fragile child. Recent analysis of the chariots and weapons found in the tombs of the Pharaoh indicate that they were not merely ceremonial, but showed signs of wear and tear.
Last year, a CT scan revealed he died at age 19 as a result of infection from a broken leg just above his knee, which possibly led to lethal blood poisoning. This fracture was most probably due to a fall from a fast moving chariot while hunting game in the desert.
A final piece of evidence has come from a garland of flowers placed around the neck of the mummy. Botanists found it included cornflowers and mayweed that were fresh at the time the decoration was made. Since the flowers could have been collected only between the middle of March and the end of April, and as the complex process of mummification lasted 70 days, it meant Tutankhamun probably died in December or January, a timing perfectly coinciding with the middle of the winter hunting season.
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Only a handful of experts have ever seen true likeness of King Tutankhamun. To coincide with the opening of the exhibition of the treasures of King Tutankhamun in London, Egyptian archaeologists are putting his mummified body on display. Zahi Hawass said archaeologists would remove the mummy from its original golden sarcophagus, which lies in a stone sarcophagus and place it in a climate-controlled plexiglass case in the antechamber of the tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
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Nearly 85 years after Lord George Herbert Carnarvon made history with the discovery of the 3000-year-old tomb of King Tutankhamun in Egypt’s Valley of Kings at Luxor, his great-grandson is retracing the footsteps of his illustrious ancestor. Now, his heir, the current Lord Carnarvon, has become the first member of his family to step inside the tomb.
Five months after entering King Tutankhamun’s tomb, Lord Herbert Carnarvon died of blood poisoning from a mosquito bite infected with the bacterial infection erysipelas. But rumors quickly spread that he became a victim of the mummy’s curse for disturbing the 19- year-old King’s resting place, and the family has lived under the shadow of the curse ever since.
Lord George Carnarvon is philosophical about the effect of the curse on his family.
“So much has been said about the curse that I don’t know what to believe. There was talk at the time of inscriptions above the doorway warning that those who entered would be struck down, but that has since been proven to be nonsense. On balance I don’t believe it was a curse that killed my great-grandfather. But now, having been inside the tomb he discovered, I just better hope that I’m right,” he said.
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