Slashdot Mirror
King Tut Killed by a Knee Infection?
adminsr writes to tell us the Discovery Channel is reporting that an Egyptian-led research team claims to have found compelling new evidence relating to the cause of death of King Tutankhamen From the article: "According to the Italian doctors, it was likely that King Tut suffered a violent blow, most likely by a sword. The blow would have lodged gold fragments from the decorations of the Pharaoh's armour or dress into the knee."
Never demonstrate how your subjects should bow down to you while holding a sword.
Does this mean that King Tut developed 'Gold Fever'?
Fill in your four or five-letter word of wisdom here _ _ _ _ _.
King Tut's left index finger is pointing at his wound.
Uncensored Google results requested and delivered by email
This must have set the gold armour industry back centuries.
It must have been difficult to "Walk like an Egyptian" after that.
Right, I'll get my coat.
...that King Tut was killed by the "Knights That Say 'Ni'!"?
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
I find it very interesting that Italian doctors are speculating King Tut had a knee injury. Maybe he had a few outstanding debts from gambling on some camel races?
What's interesting about this is that in king Tut's days wounds like that generally were lethal. How privileged we are living in this modern age (and having access to anti-biotics)!
Error: password can't contain reverse spelling of ancient Chinese emperor
death due to pimp accessories is pretty bad ass.
the blow would have lodged gold fragments from the decorations of the Pharaoh's armour or dress into the knee."
And the writing was litterally on the wall.
Kids dont do bling.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
Can't we get a better source for these things than the discovery channel? I rarely watch TV and yet I have STILL seen three documentaries explaining how King Tut died, all in different ways. Died from an infection due to gold dust? I guess it is possible, but it seems fairly far fetched to me. Is there a reason that they didn't publish their findings in a regular journal like Nature or Science or whatever journal Egyptologists use? The whole thing seems rather like fools gold to me.
Qxe4
Errrr... You think???? Why did anyone in their right minds find this unusual?? I can only think of the one reason and that there was 130 of everything in the tomb. Also, how hard is it to find an arrorhead in a body??
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
Armor that covered the knee? This was 1500 BC not AD.
Also, I thought Egyptians were advanced enough to have dealt with infections from wounds. Poison? Maybe an accidental and embarrasing wound that he wouldn't let someone attend?
Having to work for a living is the root of all evil.
..than 'break a leg'?
gtkaml.org
Is what he had to breakfast on the third full moon after the winter solstice. How many thousand years has this guy been dead? That's some pretty good detective work.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
It am not surprised it was Italian doctors. Thanks to the pressure of Vatican, almost any kind of medical research is now forbidden in Italy, including pre-implant diagnosis. Diagnosing the mummy must have been the only thing left allowed.
We have gold driven into a wound in the knee?
Tell me about the nature of this gold. Was it from gold armour? Was the armour pure gold? How thick was it? If the armour was pure thick gold, it isn't likely that it was driven into the knee.
How about gold leaf on leather armour? The gold goes on the outside making it unlikely to be driven into the knee.
Another explanation is that the ancients revered gold and thought that it had curative properties. I think it just as likely that the gold was intended as medication.
I didn't see a reference to a peer reviewed article in tfa. (Maybe I missed it.) My theory is just as good as theirs until someone proves me wrong. I mistrust scientists who publish in the popular press before they publish in peer reviewed journals.
Wouldn't he have been 17 or 18?
Radio on your iPod
First scientists announce they think the Ice Man, Oetzi was infertile. How could they know that? And now they are saying King Tut was killed by a knee infection. Had they not lived two thousand years apart on different continents. They could have hypothesized that King Tut kneed Oetzi in the nuts so hard it sterilized him. Oetzi in an attempt to fend off the blow was holding either an arrowhead or flint knife at just the wrong angle so that it cut King Tut's knee and cut off his testicles at the same time. But solving historical mysteries aren't that easy.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
He probably kept saying, "It's only a flesh wound!"
I quote others only in order the better to express myself. -- Michel de Montaigne
Struck on the knee, eh? That should teach King Tut to never go up against Tonya Harding in an ice skating competition!
But isn't gold germicidal?
due to the ancient Egyptians use of honey as an antibiotic. It is some great forensic work, none the less. I didn't think the head injury was the cause of death, but just looked like an effect of the embalming process. You have to wonder if his mummy had been around to kiss the boo boo and make it better, would he have lived a full life?
I lost my sig...
I've seen on the same channel a show on Imhotep (they did it to feed off of the publicity of the Mummy movies). They mentioned on the showed that he discovered the use of honey as an antiseptic. So if that's true then the Egyptians had antiseptics, what is the likelihood of Tut dying from an infection like that? Maybe the ancient medicine wasn't powerful enough for a wound like that. If the researchers can see that the gold fragment were decorations of birds, then it must have been noticable. Why did the Egyptian doctors not remove it?
EvilCON - Made Famous by
I thought he was born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia? (Buried with donkey, funky Tut!)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Must've sustained the injury during his move from Arizona to Babylonia
I can't help but feel disappointed that for every new discovery surrounding Tut, his accomplishments and wealth were insignificant compared to the majority of Egyptian rulers. We'll barely know a fraction of what we could if their tombs were similarly intact.
Just think of all the history that is gone forever - the Alexandrian library containing most of the world's knowledge up to that point, the slaughter of the Druids, who thanks to not having a system of writing took their people's knowledge rites and history with them to the grave, the Indus civilization which 5,300 years ago developed cities that were more sophisticated than many that Pakistan's and India's people currently live in, where the hell the Basque people came from and why their culture is so distinct from the rest of Europe, the origins of the Sphynx, and heck a lot more. All gone forever.
Don't Hate, Gestate
Did you see the Tut exhibit in LA? That bling headdress must weigh pounds and with all those edges could definitely be used to beat some unsuspecting Hebrew pyramid-building slave into a bloody pulp.
So Tut went out from a gold overdose? Looks like his whole funerary display is a 3D hieroglyphic epitaph of just that demise.
--
make install -not war
Since when is gold toxic?
Or are they saying King Tut was a Cyberman?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Without a PSP or Gamecube to wile away the hours, it probably felt like a lifetime!
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
...First we had Achilles heels, and now Tut knees. What's next, Moses' burning bush?
There's many things we don't know, starting with the origin of hommo sapiens. I personally consider historical non-determinism to make the subject much more interesting.
The Raven
The article claims that, "After Akhenaten's death, a mysterious ruler named Smenkhkare appeared briefly and exited with hardly a trace." However, everything I've ever read on the subject says that Smenkhare was Tutankhamun's older brother, and was co-ruler briefly during their father's reign, but died young. I've never heard of a claim that Smenkhare ruled on his own at any time. I'm not saying that this discredits the report, but that it makes me wonder just how accurate the rest of the historical parts are.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Had his "mummy" put bactine on it quickly, maybe he wouldn't of had an infection! Ok....you can shoot me now for the reference to "mummy"
That I wondered also.
I mean it's true that medicine at average wasn't really advanced.
But let's however look what was the best level one could get. The level pharaosh and kings had.
Egyptians mummified their dead, and propably had knowledge of many illnesses. After all they did build pyramids and had allkinds of knowledge of astronomy, so it's not far fetched to think they could known the problems Tutankhamon had with his knee. Certainly he couldn't have been first Eqyptian to be harmed by sword and suffering from a severe knee injury?
Reading books of history(I do it a lot), kings and rulers of past times did many times have good experts on medicine and seemed to know things many things we know now. Things that never ended to common use in their era. The diffrence between common folk and their rulers in that respect was far bigger than it is today I think.
Did Tutankhamon refuse to be treated?
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen, nobody knows has the trouble seen me, even I sometimes wonder why I write these line
King Tut ran an early version of linux on his computer.
Getting an infection in a joint like the knee is a Bad Thing, even in today's antibiotic infested world. The nasty little bacteria that were hanging around on the sword suddenly got stuck in a rich, tasty nutrient soup (blood and bone) and started to multiply like gangbusters. Unless the Egyptians knew to open the wound up and clean it out thorougly, the topical "antiseptics" that they had would be of little use. Just like putting an antibiotic cream on a deep wound.
If Mr. Tut had wandered into a modern ER after some serious sword play he would have had the wound irrigated thoroughly, perhaps in the operating room where it could be opened up and inspected. He then would have been given IV antibiotics. And a large bill.
So it's not too surprising that a little bit of honey or whatever didn't work out too well for him.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Most likely, he ran Windows on his kneetop, which became a cause for massive viral, worm, and trojan infections.
They're still trying to figure what the Trojans were doing there, and it is speculated that they were simply lost.
Well, perhaps he was just too rich to eat mouldy bread. Perhaps a peasent stone-mason would have survived the same wound.
-------- -------- Support Wesley Clark for president!!!
At least in my area on the Basic of the basic cable were you don't get Discovery channel there is national geographic channel which told about this many months ago. I guess Discovery channel just didn't have the time explaining the link between Quantum Physics and Psychics.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
"King Tut's left index finger is pointing at his wound."
Is that sort of like "Throckmorton's Sign"?
Freedom: "I won't!"
This week on CSI Egypt, Grishom and the team discover a dead King at a Cairo Museum. At first they believed he was killed by a blow to the back of the head, but further investigation lead them to believe it was a sword to the knee cap.
Who could have knee capped this young King and will Grishom catch the culprit?
Sure enough, the cow costume was hanging up next to the superhero outfit and sailors uniform. (S,Spud)
Yes, Tut was a minor figure in Egyptian history, despite his modern fame.
...etc.).
...
...)
This fame is due largely to the discovery of his tomb in the early 20th century by Howard Carter. What was unique is that it was about the only tomb of a pharoah to be found intact, i.e. unplundered.
Tut's era was the New Kingdom last 4 centuries of the second millenium BC), one of three "peaks" in Egypt's ancient history. This same era saw more famous kings such as Ahmose (uniter of Egypt, expelling the foreign Hyksos), Hatshepsut (the female pharoah, who sent ships in the Red Sea and beyond, recording the discoveries on her temple), Thutmosis (the ancient Napoleon, who conquered as far as Mesopotamia, hunting elephants on the Euphrates), Amenhotep (great builder and diplomat), Akhnaten (the Heretic monotheist pharoah), Thutmosis IV (dream stele by the sphinx), Ramses II (2nd longest reign in Egyptian history), Merenptah (his son), and Seti.
This was the golden age of Egypt, more than a millenium after the pyramids were build. Egypt expanded as never before.
This was followed by an age of decline when the priests took over, and could not keep the invaders out (Libyans, Nubians,
During this age, the priests plundered the tombs of previous pharoahs, "confiscating" the tomb wealth to use for current pharoahs and priests. Most of the mummies of royals from the New Kingdom were re-wrapped, and moved to central "caches". Those caches were discovered in the Kings Valley (KV) near Luxor, and the pharoahs identified, unwrapped, and moved to museums. All the treasures in the tombs was long gone (circa 1000 BC).
This is why a relatively insignificant pharoah like Tut shot to fame. It seems that the priests lost track of where his tomb was, but some robbers have managed to cause minor damage to the external chamber in antiquity. Then Howard Carter came along and discovered the real treasure, and the rest is history.
One could imagine how the likes of Ramses or Amenhotep were buried
Read more here:
- New Kingdom on wikipedia
(Oh, yes, I am Egyptian, that is why
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
leave the poor archeology geeks alone. let them dig. they like it.. no need to interrupt their servers. into the pile he goes....
Dont Judge The situation by the Misfortunate. Goga.
However bad the knee injury seems to be on the CT scans seen on the Discovery Channel article, by itself is not a likely cause of death, and an infectious arthritis of the knee is not by itself a guarantee of 100% mortality, even if it has a 100% certainty of leaving a disabling lesion of the knee. The presumed course of events would be a wound of some kind that introduces a foreign body into the joint space, with a corresponding infectious arthritis, and secondary bacterial spread by invasion of the bloodstream. That is very logical, except for the fact that even untreated wounds do not run this course of events in 3 days, average duration of illness would be in the vicinity of 7-10 days in the absence of antibiotic treatment.
To add to this, the skull X-rays in the same article show an extensive fracture of the (left) occipital bone, which suggest a serious blunt head trauma, more than enough to be the cause of death, as well as a small loose bone fragment that appears to come from the base of the skull (that is consistent with the documented practice of extracting the brain through an opening in the base of the skull via the nose).
Would be interesting to see the head CT scans....
Awesome. How I got through the 80s without having seen that, I don't know, but thanks!
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
If TUT is missing its' Pee-Pee it probably was regacide. Lucky TUT had mortal wound or TUT would still be alive today. Signed:PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART VON DRASHEK M.D.
WINDOWS XP Service Pack -X- 396 mb. http://www.geocities.com/tsvondrashekmd/WASHINGTO
Great skit, though.
Well, that explains how then--I should have checked the date!
I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
I thought there was a famous King Tut and a famous child leader with loads of gold found around his burial chamber called Tutankhamun? Not the same person.
Too bad he tried to fix it by kicking it.
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
He even had a condo made of stone-a! Here's more about that...
.) .
You know, one of the greatest art exhibits ever to tour the United
States is the treasures of Tutankamen or King Tut!
(King Tut) (King Tut)
Now when he was a young man,
He'd never thought he'd see,
(King Tut)
People stand in line,
To see the boy king.
(King Tut)
How'd you get so funky?
(Funky Tut)
They said you do the monkey.
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut)
(King Tut)
Now if I'd known,
They'd line up just to see him,
(King Tut)
I'd've taken all my money,
And bought me a museum.
(King Tut)
Buried with a donkey,
(Funky Tut) He's my favorite honkey.
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut)
Dancing by the Nile,
(Disco dancing)
The ladies love his style.
(Fox Tut)
Rockin' for a mile,
(Rockin' Tut)
He ate a crocodile.
He gave his life for tourism.
(King Tut)
(Tut, tut. Tut, tut . .
Golden idols!
He's an Egyptian!
They're selling you.
(King Tut)
Now when I die,
Now don't think I'm a nut.
(King Tut)
Don't want no fancy funeral,
Just one like old King Tut.
(King Tut)
He could'a won a Grammy,
(King Tut)
Buried in his 'jamies.
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, he was born in Arizona)
He's got a condo made of stone-a. .
(King Tut)
How ya like dat?
No. The hands were crossed over his chest. Clearly he was pointing at the W and the S on the compass dial... so obviously, Waylon Smithers did it. On the other hand, the way that the Egyptians orient a sarcophagus would mean that, from the Tut's point of view, the "W" would've appeared as an "M", so then it must've been Maggie Simpson ;)
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
Ok, maybe not gold fever, but had 007 been involved, maybe he would have developed Goldfinger?
...making Tut the first Darwin Award winner.
--piaqt
Note that the doctors saying it was a wound to the knee were Italian. Ba-da-bing!
:D
I mean, who else would be experts in the field of knee trauma?
(I'm Italian, btw, and proud of it)
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Therefore everything took one year longer in the BC. Two events that were a day apart at the time now appear to be one year and one day apart. For example, babies used to gestate for 21 months.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Oh BTW, TUT was real oinker, TUT was queer. (or BI- something)? Why does that seem so long ago? Signed:PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART VON DRASHEK M.D.
WINDOWS XP Service Pack -X- 396 mb. http://www.geocities.com/tsvondrashekmd/WASHINGTO
Oh, yeah. That King TUT. Now I remember. TUT was injured all right, was stuck in knee cap, instead of being captured, TUT requested head smashed in, It took few days to negoiate return of body (fight into & retrieve), so infection had set into knee, as that wound was bit older than brain smash, way enemy left it when overpowered.Signed:HRM PHYSICIAN THOMAS STEWART VON DRASHEK M.D.
WINDOWS XP Service Pack -X- 396 mb. http://www.geocities.com/tsvondrashekmd/WASHINGTO
And where was Tanya Harding during all of this?
What's a Nubian?
I'm proud of my Northern Tibetian Heritage