King Tutankhamun, the famous "boy-king" who once reigned Egypt during its golden years, died of malaria and broken bone complications according to latest scientific discovery which will be published Wednesday in Journal of the American Medical Association. This discovery will surely enlighten the old speculations that the young king ( who, by the way, became pharaoh at the shocking age of 10) was murdered when he died at around 17-19 years. The hole in King Tut's skull was revealed through a CT scan last 2005 to be the result of the mummification process, ruling out the possibility of a foul play.
And being an archaeological mystery fanatic myself, I can't help but marvel towards the extraordinary ability of advanced forensic science to decipher age-old secrets like what they found out about this young pharaoh's mysterious life and death. Be it old Hollywood mysteries, secrets as old as Cleopatra, name it and I'm in to it. I don't have the skills of an expert sleuth but I do have a natural curiosity inclined towards solving mysteries . And every time a news like this spreads to the world wide web, my attention and concentration will suddenly merge. Back to the original topic, the study, which is co-authored by Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass, also constructed a firmer version of the young king's genealogy. It pinpointed that King Tut was the son of Pharaoh Akhenaten, the ruler known in history for revolutionizing Egypt's religion by introducing one god (Aten) and replacing it's old tradition of worshipping multiple gods. King Tut's mother, on the other hand, happened to be Pharaoh Akhenaten's sister which proves that incest was common during that period in history.
Sadly, the incestuous marriage didn't work for King Tut's advantage, especially to his health. Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, said some of King Tut's ailments including his bone disease likely were the result of his parents' incestuous marriage. This will prove the value that genetics has in our modern world. It reveals not only the possible outcome that parents who are closely related to each other can bring to their future offspring but also the falsifiable myths behind the sarcophagus of famous mummies like King Tut. Maybe this discovery will be enough to give a conclusion to the world's speculations surrounding King Tut's short life and early death but I think otherwise. Science is a very dynamic organism that's why theories arise every now and then, disproving each other until one rises victoriously.And that's what I find interesting about mysteries- - -it has an aspect of immortality. We never stop finding clues until all our questions are fully answered. Life is a mystery but unlike other existing mysteries, it's not meant to be solved but to be appreciated.
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