King Tut suffered from cleft palate, club foot, malaria - and he wasn't murdered: new DNA report
BY Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERTuesday, February 16th 2010, 3:22 PM
Nabil/APThe golden mask of Egypt's famous King Tutankhamun is displayed at the Egyptian museum in Cairo, Egypt. A new DNA analysis found the teenage ruler suffered from a rare bone disorder.Related News
King Tut was a frail teen with a cleft palate who walked with a cane and died of malaria - not murder, according to scientists who studied the famous Pharaoh's DNA.
The Egyptian boy king who died at age 19 in 1324 B.C., the 10th year of his reign, had a rare bone disorder in one foot, a club foot in the other and was infected with the mosquito-born parasite.
"This finding constitutes the oldest genetic proof of malaria in precisely dated mummies," the scientists wrote in Tuesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Since Tutankhamun's mummy and his perfectly preserved, gold-filled tomb were discovered in 1922, the ethereal young king has captured the world's imagination. Conspiracy theories have posited that he was murdered, variously by poison or bludgeoning.
A ground-breaking study of the mummy in 2005 - including the first CT scan of the body by a team of radiologists - concluded he died of gangrene after breaking his leg.
But now a team of genetists say Tut's DNA reveals he had malaria and likely died of complications of the disease brought on by the broken limb.
The team looked at 16 royal mummies, tracing Tut's lineage back five generations and linking him for the first time to several older mummies, including one that appears to be his grandmother and another that is likely his father, Akhenaten.
They found a host of congenital diseases - unsurprising in a line that encouraged siblings to marry.
"An accumulation of malformations in Tutankhamun's family was evident," the researchers wrote. "None alone would have caused death."
But he was so weakened by disorders and disease - including malaria - that an accidental fracture could have done him in, they speculate.
"He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk because of the bone-necrotic and sometimes painful Koehler disease II, plus oligodactyly (hypophalangism) in the right foot and clubfoot on the left," the authors said.
There were staffs in Tut's tomb that could be walking sticks and what the scientists called "an afterlife pharmacy."
The study took pains to put to rest some other theories about Tut's physiognamy, including that he had various medical syndromes that made him look female, as he is often depicted in ancient art.
"It is unlikely that either Tutankhamun or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique," the study said.
Indeed, the scientists noted that "the penis of Tutankhamen, which is no longer attached to the body, is well developed."
The science team, led by the flamboyant archeologist Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, will unveil their findings in a Discovery Channel special called King Tut Unwrapped starting Sunday night.
Too bad they didn't have a Chiropodist in 1324 BC!
Posted via email from Northumberland Physiotherapy and Foot Care Centre's posterous
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