A top documentarian has solved the 3,000-year-old mystery of what killed Egyptian king Tutankhamen with the help of high-tech science.

Brando Quilici worked with top researchers, using DNA tests and CT scans, to determine King Tut's cause of death - and came to the conclusion the legendary pharoah died of complications of a broken leg and malaria.

The life and death of King Tut has puzzled scholars the world over ever since his tomb was discovered in 1922.

Quilici's King Tut Unwrapped film will also unearth other medical findings about the ancient Egyptian - like the fact he suffered from a cleft palate and had a club foot.

The filmmaker created cigarette-sized cameras to capture the precise work of the researchers as they tested the DNA on a royal Egyptian mummy for the first time.

Quilici says, "King Tut is such a famous name but so little is known about him; we just knew when he was born and when he died. So now, thanks to the DNA, (leading Egyptologist) Dr. Zahi Hawass was able to identify the father... who is an extremely well-known pharoah, called Akhenaten. It's very important because he's the first Egyptian pharoah... who started to believe in one single god."

The study featured in the documentary also unearths the fact that Tutankhamen's parents were siblings and that his stepmother was fabled queen Nefertiti.

Posted by Ian Crouch

The big story emerging from yesterday's report on a DNA study of King Tutankhamun and eleven other Egyptian mummies was that the boy pharaoh may have died from the combined effects of malaria and "avascular bone necrosis," or bone degeneration. The report probably won't put an end to fanciful speculations about King Tut's last days by those overtaken by what Egyptologists call Egyptomania. But it should.
The findings, released in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, point to all sorts of maladies that afflicted the mummified Egyptians, several of whom were identified as members of Tutankhamun's family. The Times  reports that the mummies exhibited "cleft palate, clubfeet, flat feet and bone degeneration" in addition to the malaria that may have felled their leader. There was no evidence, however, that King Tut suffered from Marfan syndrome or gynecomastia (a hormonal imbalance that manifests as excessive breast-development in men), as had been speculated. King Tut's penis, the report notes, was "well developed," though no longer attached to the mummy. (One hopes this separation occurred post-mortem.)
The two-year genetic study was led in Cairo by Zahi Hawass, whom Ian Parker profiled in "The Pharaoh," from the November 16th issue of the The New Yorker  (subscription required). Parker describes the sixty-two-year-old secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities as a charismatic and controversial figure, famous for his "brown, sweat-stained Stetson hat," and his dictatorial management of a staff of more than thirty thousand. Hawass has become an international media celebrity, Parker notes, leading President Obama on a tour of the pyramids at Giza, and starring in such programs as "King Tut Unwrapped," which will air on the Discovery Channel on Sunday and Monday. Parker writes:
He enjoys making provocative announcements in which his force of character must carry listeners past skepticism, as when he says that he is about to find the body of Cleopatra, or make a German museum return its bust of Nefertiti, or somehow copyright the shape of a pyramid.
Notably, this week's Tutankhamun revelations have been published as scholarship before being announced on television. The reverse was true in 2007, Parker writes, when Hawass identified the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut for the Discovery Channel, rather than through the usual academic channels. Yet even those who bristle at Hawass’s showmanship recognize his seemingly boundless enthusiasm, something that has undoubtably helped King Tut stay in the news more than three thousand years after his death.

ABC's Lama Hasan reports from Cairo:

What is it about Ancient Egypt that captivates people and draws in crowds wanting to catch a glimpse of the treasures that are thousands of years old? Whatever the reason may be, any new discoveries made in this country generate a lot of interest. Case in point the conference on King Tutankhamen, the boy King, which took place today.

In a packed press pen at the entrance of the museum of Cairo, amongst the steady flow of tourists and ancient antiquities, Egypt’s top Archaeologist and the country’s own version of Indiana Jones, Dr. Zahi Hawass said he never thought it would be possible to carry out DNA tests on a 3,000 year old mummy until their recent study concluded. Hawass proclaimed that he had a major announcement to make, an important discovery that relates to the ‘golden boy’s’ family and the cause of his death. Working closely with a team of doctors and forensic scientists including German doctor Carsten Pusch of the Institute of Human Genetics, Division of Molecular Genetics, University of Tübingen and Albert Zink of the institute for Mummies and the Iceman, Bolzano, Italy.

After years of painstaking research including DNA and CT scans conducted in two different laboratories, the mystery and rumors surrounding King Tut’s death were laid to rest and confirmed by the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA). Dr. Hawass breathlessly said that the famous pharaoh was not murdered but died of a severe form of the disease malaria and complications to his leg. The results showed that he had a fracture in his left leg and that one of his toes had only two joints instead of three.

This he said was probably why he was forced to limp and needed the aid of a cane to walk. Hawass also claims that archaeology supports this theory because they found one hundred and thirty canes found in his tomb. Detailed information about his family tree was also unraveled. Tutankhamen’s father was the “heretic” king, Akhenaten, whose mummy was found in the Valley of the Kings. His mother however cannot yet be identified by name.

Two stillborn fetuses were found mummified and hidden away in a chamber of Tutankhamen’s tomb. Preliminary DNA analysis indicates that one of them was King Tut’s daughter, tests on the second mummy are ongoing.

Even though, historically, Tut was a minor king and was not on the throne for very long, it was the goodies and relics that were found in his tomb ninety years ago including his solid gold death mask that brought him publicity. As one historian suggests, he’s far more famous for what he owned and what he wore rather than what he actually did. Something tells me that that this won’t be the last time we hear of the boy king.

King Tut died of malaria and family bone disease, not murder, suggests a comprehensive new genetic and medical study of royal mummies

By Dan Vergano

The Journal of the American Medical Association analysis, out Tuesday, was led by Egypt 's Supreme Council of Antiquities head Zahi Hawass and looks at five generations of pharaohs. The 11 mummies, including King Tutankhamun , date from ancient Egypt's 18th dynasty, from 1410 B.C. to 1324 B.C.

The boy king of Egypt, King Tut reigned for nine years, dying at age 19. Writers have seen foul play at work in his early death. But the new analysis found traces of malaria genes and showed a family plagued by bone necrosis.

"They were human. They suffered illness even if they were royal," says study team geneticist Carsten Pusch of Germany 's University of Tubingen. "The DNA analysis puts names on some of these mummies and in a way brings them to life again."

From 2007 to 2009, the royal mummies underwent extensive examination, including X-rays and gene analysis. The results confirm that Pharaoh Akhenaten , who died in 1331 B.C. after attempting to turn Egyptian religion to monotheism, indeed fathered King Tut after marrying his sister. And they confirm a family line from Tut's great-grandfather, Yuya, through two fetuses buried in Tut's tomb that he fathered.

"You have to know that these mummies were hidden away at night by later priests, and they made some mistakes," switching names among mummies, Hawass says by e-mail. "So it is fascinating for us to try to use science to trace the truth."

One theory suggested the family suffered from Marfan's syndrome, based on the feminized appearance of the era's depiction of rulers. But the new study disproves that, showing the Pharoahs possessed standard male features and genes. Tut had a club foot and other bone loss, revealed by X-rays, and likely died of a broken leg added to the ravages of a malaria infection, the study concludes.

"A lot of Egyptologists are interested in these detective stories," says the University of Pennsylvania 's David Silverman , curator of the Penn Museum's Egyptian section. "They can tell us a lot about the lives of these long-gone people."

The study relied on a $5 million genetic analysis lab built under the Cairo museum housing many of King Tut's artifacts, with funding from cable television's Discovery Channel . Several of the mummies, including Tut, were sampled from their tombs inside Egypt's storied Valley of the Kings.

Silverman, who is the curator of a King Tut exhibit at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, says the findings will allow him to remove the word "probable" from descriptions of King Tut's lineage, when the exhibit moves to New York in April. "We know they are real, not just probable, now."

By Michael D. Lemonick

Carsten Pusch, a medical geneticist with a special interest in ancient diseases, never imagined he'd be called in to help autopsy one of history's oldest and most internationally celebrated corpses. But that's just what happened when Zahi Hawass, the legendary director of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, rang him up at his offices in the University of Tübingen in Germany.
Would Pusch be interested, asked Hawass, in doing a DNA analysis on several mummies from the 18th Dynasty — including a king who died before he reached the age of 20, and who went by the name of Tutankhamen? (See pictures of disputed antiquities.) After swallowing hard — "I never worked with royal mummies before," he says — Pusch agreed. Now, 2½ years later, the results of the inquiries are in, in the form of a paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association, published on Tuesday.
Among the results: King Tut was probably not murdered, despite some popular theories to the contrary. And he probably didn't suffer from a long list of diseases that experts have speculated about, including, as the report lists them (deep breath), "Marfan syndrome, Wilson-Turner X-linked mental retardation syndrome, Fröhlich syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, androgen insensitivity syndrome, aromatase excess syndrome in conjunction with sagittal craniosynostosis syndrome, or Antley-Bixler syndrome or a variant form." (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2009.)
What probably did Tut in, says Pusch, was an immune system badly compromised by a particularly virulent strain of malaria combined with a degenerative bone disease that had already left him weak. "This is confirmed by images that show him sitting while shooting an arrow, which normally would have been done standing up," says Hawass. "He cannot stand." Indeed, more than 100 canes were found in the tomb when Tut's mummy was found in 1922, some of them showing signs of wear. "Death [the authors] assert, was not attributable to foul play; rather a sudden fracture of the leg (perhaps resulting from a fall) progressed to a life-threatening condition because of his malarial infection," wrote Howard Markel of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, in an editorial accompanying the study.
The DNA also showed that feminized artistic depictions of both Tutankhamen and Akhenaten, Tut's father and predecessor, with breasts were only that: there was no evidence of hormonal imbalances that could have resulted in the real thing. The relevant areas of both mummies are missing, which has hitherto made it impossible to settle the question. (Tut's penis, however, which is present though not attached to the body, is "well developed," according to the paper, casting further doubt on the theory of hormone problems).
But that's only the beginning of what Pusch and his colleagues found, working in a state-of-the-art lab funded by The Discovery Channel, which will be presenting a two-part special based on the research starting Sunday.
Researchers' X-rays revealed, for instance, that several chronic disorders evidently plagued Tut and many of his relatives, including clubfoot, cleft palate and curvature of the spine.
Even more important is the fact that the DNA analyses put a name to several of the unidentified mummies in the ancient Egyptian collection. By looking at overlaps in the subjects' genomes, the scientists were able to put together a plausible family tree. For example, they were able to identify a mummy known only as KV55 as probably being Akhenaten, the controversial pharaoh who radically reinvented Egyptian society. "It's really incredible," says Pusch, "that we've given a name to what was an anonymous mummy."
Another mummy, known as KV35YL, was identified as both the sister of Akhenaten and the mother of Tutankhamun, meaning that Tut was the product of a brother-sister coupling. "She cannot be Nefertiti," says Hawass, citing another popular speculation that Nefertiti, Akhenaten's chief consort, was Tut's mother, "but she can be any of the five daughters of Amenhotep [Akhenaten's father]."
There's plenty more, but even though the new study fills 10 journal pages, it barely scratches the surface of what's possible. "The Egyptians have a trove of unidentified royal mummies," says Pusch. "With enough resources, we could work on members of 50 different dynasties." The embalming protocol has preserved DNA beautifully, he says. "The ancient priests had no idea they were being so helpful."

February 16, 2010

New tests on famed mummy show King Tut died of broken leg, malaria Research trumps old tales of intrigue in the death of the boy king. Examination shows he had a cleft palate, a club foot and degenerative bone disease -- but he probably didn't look like a woman.

By Thomas H. Maugh II

Archaeologists have weaved intricate tales of intrigue and deceit about the death at age 19 of Egypt's fabled boy-king Tutankhamen, with theories that include poisoning by his minister Aye and a blow to the head by thugs hired by Aye, but new research indicates his cause of death was probably more mundane -- complications from a broken leg and malaria.

Using a new approach (for mummies) they call molecular Egyptology, an international team of researchers found DNA traces of malaria parasites in the boy-king's brain, suggesting an infection was a major factor in his death.

Examination of Tut's body and his genes showed he also suffered from a cleft palate, a club foot that would have necessitated walking with canes and a degenerative bone condition called Kohler disease II. He did not, however, suffer from Marfan syndrome or any other disease that would have feminized his appearance, as many researchers have speculated from observing busts from the period.

It now appears that the busts were simply a distinct artistic style chosen by the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty of Egypt's New Kingdom, who ruled from 1550 BC to 1295 BC.

By matching DNA samples from other mummies, the team reported Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., they were able to identify one previously known only as KV55 as the pharaoh Akhenaten, father of Tut; another as Tiye, Akhenaten's mother and Tut's grandmother; and a third as a sister of Akhenaten who was probably Tut's mother.

The results represent a sort of proof of concept showing that DNA analysis of mummies can provide valuable insights into their lives and set the stage for a much more thorough examination of mummies from other eras, said archaeologist Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities and leader of the research team.

Tutankhamen became pharaoh in 1333 BC at age 10 and ruled for only nine years, a period during which most of the governing was probably performed by his regent, the commoner Aye (pronounced "I"). Tut was considered a minor king and very little was known about him until archaeologist Howard Carter discovered his riches-filled tomb in 1922, at which point Tut became an international celebrity.

Gold and other artifacts from the tomb have been touring museums around the world to standing-room-only crowds.

The find also triggered much speculation. Busts showed a long, feminized face and gynecomastia, feminized breasts. But study of his family's DNA, performed over a two-year period at a specialized ancient-DNA laboratory at the University of Tübingen in Germany, showed no evidence of any genetic condition that would lead to such characteristics. "It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique," the authors wrote. "It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealized fashion."

The first examinations of Tut's skull many years ago showed a fracture, and historians wove elaborate tales about it. Archaeologist Bob Brier of Long Island University published "The Murder of Tutankhamen," speculating that the murder was carried out by Aye's henchmen so that he could continue to rule.

But CT scans performed in 2005 showed that the fracture actually occurred long after death, most likely during the embalming process. The CT also showed a cleft palette and a fracture in his left femur, or thighbone, that most likely occurred a few days before his death.

But the new testing showed the presence of several genes from the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum in Tut and three other mummies, suggesting the disease was a fairly common problem among the Egyptian royalty. That infection, combined with necrosis, or death of bones, caused by Kohler disease could have weakened him severely, the authors speculated.

The broken leg, possibly from a fall, could then have been the final event that led to his death.

Two one-hour documentaries about the researchers' studies will be presented on the Discovery Channel on Sunday and Monday.

February 16, 2010

Malaria Most Likely Killed King Tut, Scientists Say

By John Noble Wilford

King Tutankhamun, the boy pharaoh, was frail, crippled and suffered "multiple disorders" when he died at age 19 in about 1324 B.C., but scientists have now determined the most likely agents of death: a severe bout of malaria combined with a degenerative bone condition.

The researchers said that to their knowledge "this is the oldest genetic proof of malaria in precisely dated mummies." Several other mummies in the study also showed DNA evidence for the presence of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, perhaps not surprising in a place like the Nile Valley.

The application of advanced radiological and genetic techniques to royal Egyptian mummies marks a new step in the ever deepening reach of historical inquiry through science.

The study, reported Tuesday, turned up no evidence of foul play, as had been suspected by some historians and popular writers familiar with palace intrigues in ancient Egypt. Previous examinations of the Tut mummy had revealed a recent leg fracture, possibly from a fall. This might have contributed to a life-threatening condition in an immune system already weakened by malaria and other disorders, the researchers said.

In addition, genetic "fingerprinting" of the 11 mummies in the study established family connections over five generations of Tut's lineage. The identities were previously certain for only three of the mummies. Now, scientists said the tests identified the ones of Tut's father, mother and grandmother and other probable relatives.

The two-year investigation, completed last October, is described in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was directed by Zahi Hawass, an Egyptologist who heads the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, and included medical scientists and anthropologists from Egypt, Germany and Italy. Carsten M. Pusch of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, was the report’s corresponding author.

In an accompanying editorial in the journal, Dr. Howard Markel of the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, who was not involved in the study, praised the thoroughness of the new research "based on unfettered access to the actual mummies."

Recalling the myriad postmortem claims that have surrounded the young king, Dr. Markel suggested that now "the legion of Tutankhamun admirers might be well advised to reconsider several existing theories."

A two-part program, "King Tut Unwrapped," will be shown on the Discovery Channel on Sunday and Monday. Dr. Hawass and others will discuss the new findings.

Though not one of the great rulers of ancient Egypt, King Tut is easily the best known in public lore. He was the son and successor of Akhenaten, the controversial reform pharaoh who ruled from about 1351 to 1334 B.C.

The British archaeologist Howard Carter’s discovery in 1922 of Tut's opulent tomb in the Valley of the Kings was a sensation. The young king’s visage and premature death in the ninth year of his reign inspired fanciful speculation, and the golden and bejeweled artifacts from his tomb still dazzle crowds at touring museum exhibitions.

One overall impression from the new research is that the royal family's power and wealth did not spare them from ill health and physical impairment. Several mummies revealed instances of cleft palate, clubfeet, flat feet and bone degeneration. Four of the 11 mummies, including Tut's, contained genetic traces of malaria tropica, the most severe form of the infection.

The researchers said that several other pathologies were diagnosed in the Tut mummy, including a bone disorder known as Kohler disease II, which alone would not have caused death. But he was also afflicted with avascular bone necrosis, a condition in which diminished blood supply to the bone leads to serious weakening or destruction of tissue. The finding led to the team's conclusion that it and malaria were the most probable causes of death.

The effects of this bone disease, notably the "definitely altered structure" of the left foot, probably explained the presence of walking canes in the Tut tomb, the researchers said.

Speculation had also centered on the fact that Tutankhamun left no heirs and the stylized reliefs and other sculptures of him and family members showed them having a somewhat feminized or androgynous appearance. This suggested certain inherited syndromes, including gynecomastia, which is the excessive development of breasts in men, usually the result of a hormonal imbalance.

The breasts of Akhenaten and Tutankhamun were not preserved. But Tut's penis, no longer attached to the body, "is well developed," the researchers reported.

"Most of the disease diagnoses," the scientists concluded, "are hypotheses derived by observing and interpreting artifacts and not by evaluating the mummified remains of royal individuals apart from these artifacts."

Dr. Markel, the medical historian, commented that use of 21st century radiological and genetic techniques in studies of human history raised ethical questions that need to be addressed.

Writing in the journal, he asked: "What will the rules be for exhuming bodies to solve vexing pathological puzzles? Are major historical figures entitled to the same privacy rules that private citizens enjoy even after death? Most pragmatically, what is actually gained from such studies? Will they change current thinking about and prevent threatening diseases such as influenza? Will they change the understanding of the past, such as the Jefferson study's powerful elucidation of intimacy during the era of slavery and the Tutankhamun study's window on the conduct of the royal family of Egypt?"

February 16, 2010

Begley: King Tut's DNA Reveals a More Manly Pharaoh

By Sharon Begley

A study being published this afternoon trumpets an analysis supposedly revealing how the boy pharaoh, King Tutankhamen, died, but for my money the study's conclusion about how he looked is more intriguing.

Both results emerge from what the researchers call "molecular Egyptology," in this case an analysis of DNA extracted from the bones of 11 royal mummies of the New Kingdom. The scientists took two to four DNA samples from each mummy, including Tut, who died at age 19 in about 1324 B.C., the 10th year of his reign. Comparing the genetic fingerprints allowed them to identify one previously unknown mummy as Queen Tiye, mother of the pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamen, another as Akhenaten (Tut’s father) himself, and a third as Tutankhamen's mother, the researchers are reporting in tomorrow's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

The DNA analysis also turned up genes specific to Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite, in Tut and three other mummies. The scientists, led by the colorful and controversial Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, infer that Tut suffered from avascular bone necrosis, a condition in which poor blood supply weakens or destroys an area of bone, plus malaria—a fatal combination. Tut's tomb contained canes and what the scientists call "an afterlife pharmacy," supporting the idea that he suffered from a condition that hobbled him.

Hawass has made headlines before for his theories of how Tut died, including (in 2006) a thigh fracture that became fatally infected, so the cause-of-death part of this research gives me a sense of déjà vu. (If you want more on this front, however, the Discovery Channel will air King Tut Unwrapped this coming Sunday, Feb. 21, and Monday, Feb. 22. I haven’t seen it, but be forewarned that some of Hawass’s previous TV productions have been more showmanship than scholarship.)

More interesting are the conclusions about the mummies' appearance in life. Depictions of Tut and other royalty from this period show them as somewhat feminized, or at least androgynous. That led to speculation that the royal family tree was riddled with a hormonal disease that caused gynecomastia (excessive breast development in men), or Marfan syndrome, which causes patients to be tall and thin, with slender, graceful, tapering fingers—like several of the royals. But CT scans showed no signs of either. (Further evidence against a feminizing disorder—and here let me simply quote the paper— is that "the penis of Tutankhamen, which is no longer attached to the body, is well developed.")

The feminized depictions are therefore likely to be what the researchers call "a royally decreed style most probably related to the religious reforms of Akhenaten. It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique." In other words, the faces and forms so familiar to museumgoers and amateur Egyptologists may be no more than artistic license.