King Tutankhamen Died from Malaria Infection Studies Confirm

Written by Jason Keyser Wednesday, 17 February 2010 20:31

CHICAGO (REUTERS).- King Tutankhamen, the teen-aged pharaoh whose Egyptian tomb yielded dazzling treasures, limped around on tender bones and a club foot and probably died from malaria, researchers said on Tuesday. There has been speculation about the fate of the boy king, who died sometime around 1324 BC probably at age 19, since the 1922 discovery of his intact tomb in Egypt's Valley of Kings.

It turns out Egypt’s beloved boy-king wasn’t so golden after all. But will research showing King Tut was actually a hobbled, weak teen with a cleft palate and club foot kill enthusiasm for a mummy that has fascinated the world for nearly a century? Not likely, historians say, even though the revelations hardly fit the popular culture depiction of a robust, exotically handsome young pharaoh.

Tests performed on 16 royal mummies found four, including Tut, had contracted a severe form of malaria that likely cut short Tut's reign -- ruling out murder or some other sickness. The results appear in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. They further dispel the more romantic and popular theories about what did him in, like being murdered by a sneaky palace foe.

Scientists from Egypt, Germany and elsewhere, including Zahi Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, compiled results from genetic and radiological testing performed on the mummies between 2007 and 2009. The results clarify details about the 155-year-long 18th Dynasty that included Tutankhamen, who inherited the throne at age 11.

The scientists speculated Tut was weakened by a broken leg possibly from a fall. That and a malaria infection led to his death, they believe. Tut was afflicted with a cleft palate, mild clubfoot in his left foot and other bone ailments. He and some family members had a form of Kohler disease, which can cause foot bones to collapse from lack of blood but would not have been fatal.

The more realistic picture, fleshed out by testing Tut’s mummy and those of his family, has its own mystique. Beneath the golden splendor in which they lived, ancient Egypt’s royals were as vulnerable as the lowliest peasant: Three other mummies besides Tut’s showed repeated malaria infections. Moreover, their tradition of incestuous marriages only worsened their maladies.

"Tutankhamen had multiple disorders, and some of them might have reached the cumulative character of an inflammatory, immune-suppressive -- and thus weakening -- syndrome. He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk," Hawass wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

That would explain some of Tut’s ailments, including the bone disease that runs in families and is more likely to be passed down if two first-degree relatives marry and have children.

In ancient Egypt, it wasn’t really considered incest. Pharaohs were thought of as deities, so it makes sense that the only prospective mates who’d pass muster would be other deities.

Besides the priceless gold artifacts found in Tut's tomb, he was also equipped for the afterlife with some 130 canes and staves -- some with signs of wear -- and a veritable medical pharmacy.

The scientists were also fairly certain they identified the mummies belonging to Tut's father, Akhenaten, and his grandmother, Tiye, based on shared blood groups. They shot down speculation that Tut and his forebears had severe abnormalities, ruling out Marfan syndrome and another condition that could have led to enlarged breasts.

"It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique. It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion," Hawass wrote.

Tut has long been big business. A 1970s Tut exhibit drew millions of visitors to U.S. museums, and a popular revival including artifacts from his tomb and others’ has been travelling around the United States for the past several years and is currently at San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum.

Egypt’s economy depends a great deal on tourism, which brings in around $10 billion a year in revenues. The King Tut exhibit at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is one of the crown jewels of the country’s ancient past and features a stunning array of treasures including Tut’s most iconic relic — the golden funeral mask.

Another tourist destination is Tut’s tomb tucked in the Valley of the Kings amid Luxor’s desert hills. In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered it and the trove of fabulous gold and precious stones inside, propelling the once-forgotten pharaoh into global stardom. Hundreds of tourists come daily to the tomb to see Tut’s mummy, which has been on display there since 2007.

Though historically Tut was a minor king, the grander image “is embedded in our psyche” and the new revelations won’t change that, said James Phillips, a curator at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History.

“Reality is reality, but it’s not going to change his place in the folk heroism of popular culture,” Phillips said. “The way he was found, what was found in his grave — even though he was a minor king, it has excited the imagination of people since 1922.”

Even if the research dents the myth, it won’t change the most tangible part of Tut’s image — being all the intact relics that were found in his tomb.

“He’s far more famous for what he owned and what he wore than what he actually did,” Markel said

Associated Press Writers Paul Schemm and Jason Keyser in Cairo contributed to this report. ( Reporting by Andrew Stern; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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