Tutankhamun burial mask, Cairo’s Egyptian Museum, photo courtesy Bjorn Christian Torissen.
Tutankhamun was an Egyptian pharaoh of the who ruled around 1332 BC-1323 BC. He is normally known as King Tut, his name means “Living Image of Amun”.
The 1922 discovery of King Tut’s tomb by Howard Carter and George Herbert received worldwide press coverage and it started a revival in the interest people had for Ancient Egypt. The Tutankhamun’s burial mask (shown in todays photo) is still the most popular symbol of King Tut. Exhibits of artefacts from his tomb have been across the world in many different museums.
There are no surviving records of Tutankhamun’s death. What caused the pharaoh’s death has been the subject of a long-lasting debate. Leading studies have been conducted in an effort to establish the cause of death. Although some people think that Tutankhamun was murdered, the agreement is that his death was accidental. A CT scan that was taken in 2005 shows that he had badly broken his leg not long before his death, and that his leg had become infected. A DNA investigation conducted in 2010 showed the presence of malaria in his body. It is believed that this led to his death.
