Latest Investigation on Tut’s Mummy On Show In Dorcester

The results of a ten month scientific investigation of Tutankhamun's mummy by the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt were presented recently at a conference of the Radiological Society of North America held in Chicago.

The results of the investigation are the subject a special display on the death of the pharaoh at The Tutankhamun Exhibition in Dorchester.

Egyptian radiologists who performed the first-ever computed tomography (CT) evaluation of King Tutankhamun's mummy believe they have solved the mystery of how the ancient pharaoh died.

Ashraf Selim a radiologist at Cairo University in Egypt part of an international team of scientists that studied the 3,300-year-old mummy of Tututankhamun announced that he believed that the pharaoh had not died as a result of a head injury but of a leg injury that had turned septic. He also announced that the CT scans had showed no evidence of a fracture to the skull which previous investigators had suggested.

Using a mobile multi-detector CT scanner, the researchers performed a full-body scan on the king's remains, obtaining approximately 1,900 digital cross-sectional images.

Michael Ridley, Director of the Tutankhamun Exhibition in Dorchester, said that although it is now clear that earlier investigations on the mummy have produced misleading evidence, the full truth of how and why Tutankhamun died may still have to be decided. He said:

"It is clear from the results of the examination of the mummy have put a different perspective on Tutankhamun's death. It is evident from Dr Selims work that Tutankhamun's leg suffered a fracture but what we cannot be sure of is when that fracture, occurred. What is being suggested is that he fractured his leg and the wound turned septic and killed him. However, there is no evidence to show that the wound turned septic only that the leg had been fractured. It is possible that the fracture may have been post-mortem incurred in the handling of the body by the ancient Egyptian embalmers – we j ust don't know, So the mystery of Tutankhamun's early death still remains".

The results of the CT Examination together with images and scans can be seen at the Tutankhamun Exhibition, in Dorchester which is open every day including Sundays, from 9.30 am to 5 pm.