Episode 21 The Murder of Tutankhamen
The History of Ancient Egypt
Professor Robert Brier
Film Review
The only intact pharaoh’s mummy found in an Egyptian tomb, Tutankamen’s remains had to be sawed in half and chiseled out of the coffin. They were x-rayed for the first time in the 1960. The lack of wisdom teeth and open epiphyseal plates* in the long bones suggest he was 18 when he died. In addition the skull shows evidence he suffered a head injury prior to death. Also found in his tomb were his internal organs preserved in little jars.
Only eight when his father Ankenaten died, he had to marry his nine year-old half sister Ankhesenamun (daughter of Ankenaten’s chief wife) to become pharaoh. Under the guidance of Ankenaten’s vizier (prime minister) Ay, Tutankaten signaled the end to Egypt’s monotheistic heresy by packing up the city of Akhet Aten (see Egypt’s Ankenaten: The World’s Firt Montheistic Ruler) and moving Egypt’s religious capital back to Thebes.
Brier believes Tutankaten may have been murdered, as did Akasanamen his widow. There’s a letter in the Hittite archives she wrote the Hittite king (in modern day Turkey), even though the Hittites were Egypt’s traditional enemies. She asked him to send her a son she could marry and make king of Egypt. She also mentioned being fearful of her impending forced marriage to a commoner (Ay, now Tutankaten’s vizier). The Hittite king subsequently sent an envoy to Egypt who was murdered.
After marrying Akasanamen, Ay made himself pharaoh. Although there are no images of her in his tomb, two rings have been discovered showing Aye’s and Ankasanamun’s name linked in a single cartouche.
When this lecture was filmed in 1999, Brier believed his suspicions would be confirmed with a CAT scan and DNA studies. An autopsy subsequently performed in 2010 suggests Tutankaten most likely died of malaria and a skull fracture related to congenital bone disease.
*The calcification of rapidly dividing epiphyseal cells in the long bones at the end of puberty make further skeletal growth impossible.
Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy/
https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/1492791/1492841
The Most Revolutionary Act 