Poor King Tut

By Alex in History on Feb 16, 2010 at 6:36 pm

King Tut may have brought the image of splendor and wealth to your mind, but the reality was far grimmer for the Egyptian boy king:

The report is the first DNA study ever conducted with ancient Egyptian royal mummies. It apparently solves several mysteries surrounding King Tut, including how he died and who his parents were.

"He was not a very strong pharaoh. He was not riding the chariots," said study team member Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at Germany’s University of Tübingen. "Picture instead a frail, weak boy who had a bit of a club foot and who needed a cane to walk."

Regarding the revelation that King Tut’s mother and father were brother and sister, Pusch said, "Inbreeding is not an advantage for biological or genetic fitness. Normally the health and immune system are reduced and malformations increase," he said.

Oh, and he’s got malaria too: Link (Photo: Kenneth Garrett/National Geographic) – via Boing Boing


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  1. Cola
    Feb 16th, 2010 at 7:03 pm

    We’ve known for a long time that king tut’s father was Akhenaten, my personal favourite among the pharaohs. Akhenaten himself was deformed, so it doesn’t surprise me at all that Tutankhamun suffered as well.

    And wasn’t Tut married off to one of HIS half sisters?

    The Amarna period is so fascinating.

  2. Cola
    Feb 16th, 2010 at 7:06 pm

    “Another speculation apparently laid to rest by the new study is that Akhenaten had a genetic disorder that caused him to develop the feminine features seen in his statutes, including wide hips, a potbelly, and the female-like breasts associated with the condition gynecomastia. (See “Men With Breasts: Benign Condition Creates Emotional Scars.”)

    When the team analyzed Akhenaten’s body using medical scanners, no evidence of such abnormalities were found. Hawass and his team concluded that the feminized features found in the statues of Akenhaten created during his reign were done for religious and political reasons.”

    Hmm…

  3. KingTutHadAButt
    Feb 16th, 2010 at 10:28 pm

    What I want to know is if the DNA told the answer to the following childhood rhyme:
    King Tut had a butt.
    What color was it?

    Anything in the story about that?

  4. Gauldar
    Feb 17th, 2010 at 1:43 am

    @Cola

    Those are also traits of someone who drank a lot of beer, and pharaohs did just that.

  5. ted
    Feb 17th, 2010 at 7:30 am

    So inbreeding ISN’T an advantage?

    What earth-shattering news. So, we were wrong all along?

    (guess I’m feeling sarcastic today- sorry)

  6. Gauldar
    Feb 17th, 2010 at 9:48 am

    @ted

    Don’t worry, your snarky comment is appreciated.

  7. hedwig
    Feb 17th, 2010 at 10:24 am

    King Tut had a butt…
    giggle
    I missed that one in my childhood! But I just went and looked up Steve Martin’s King Tut song again… my favorite honkey. I loved that as a kid!

  8. Minnesotastan
    Feb 17th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

    In a curious and coincidental juxtaposition, this month’s issue of Archaeology magazine has a feature article entitled “Warrior Tut” with the subtitle “Sculptures from Luxor prove the “Boy King” was the scourge of Egypt’s foes.”

    Fulltext and images online:
    http://www.archaeology.org/1003/etc/tut.html


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