Jake Nordstrom 2-14-13 6 Tut Paper One of the most amazing pharaohs in all of Egypt was King Tutankhamen.

British archeologist, Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamens tomb. Unfortunately, when he approached the tomb, almost everything was tricky to explain because there was multiple body parts missing and blood drained from the body. Tut was pharaoh until about age 19, but hardly anybody knows how he reached his death. Most of his ruling in Egypt was the undoing of his father, Akhenaten, and most people reason that he could have done even more than he did. But the vast question is how did the young pharaoh come to die? In reality, archeologists never agree on how he came to rest. Some believe that it was caused by natural causes like a broken leg. Others believe that murder had unluckily occurred. If truth is told, how did the young pharaohs life come to an end? Archeologists say that King Tut died of natural causes. Around the 1960s, archeologists took an x-ray of Tutankhamens left femur bone. They inferred that Tut had severely broken it. But why did he die from the painful break? The answer is somewhat simple. Evidence from the x-ray explains that Tut had a compound fracture in the bone. With the medicine people have today, a compound fracture is likely to cause pain and infection, but nothing more. 3000 years ago, without any type of treatment, it would be more complex to do anything about it. Frank Ruhli, a paleoanthropologist on the project at the University of Zurich's Institute of Anatomy quotes, "In my view this is a deadly fracture. It is a major bone - the injury probably involved the rupture of a major blood vessel, and it is open to outside air, meaning it was likely to become infected. It's a common injury among horse riders and, without antibiotics or surgery, he may have been dead from blood infection within a few days," (2006). This evidence clearly proves that it would have been common for him to die without any proper medicine. Sadly, without the antibiotics, a miracle would have had to occur for him to survive the leg break.

Archeologists configure that Tut had experienced foul play. X-rays show that there was a blood clot in Tuts skull. This indicates another possible way for Tut to die, since it would be highly common for anyone to die of it. Yet, it is unknown how he might have gotten the clot. For example, scientists say that he might have been murdered by an individual, and taken a nasty blow to the head. There are endless theories to what could have happened to the young pharaoh. Dr. Bob Brier (n.d) confirms that the bone fragment immaterial, but the real dark area near the neck clearly specifies murder. The observation by Brier clearly specifies the possibility of homicide. Even without an exact answer, assassination could have undoubtedly happened. Scientists have been researching King Tutkhamen for many years, and with all of the fascinating evidence they have found, it is clear that Tut was killed by natural causes. This thesis is accurate because there are numerous factors relating to Tuts death as normal reasoning. For example, Ashraf Selim, a radiologist at Kasr Eleini Teaching Hospital at Cairo University in Egypt explains that the body is in bad shape and most of the bones have been broken after he died from bad handling. This piece of evidence supports the thesis of Tuts death being related to natural causes by justifying that Tuts bones were broken after his death, not during. The information explored by Selim clearly clarify that Tut couldnt have died of murder, I this case, forcing the truth to be death by natural causes. In any case, King Tutankhamens mysterious life was called to a halt by natural causes. With the technology scientists have today, the majority of evidence leads to death of normal reasoning. Most scientists have concluded that it was certainly possible for him to die of regular causes. There have been news reports on ABC that scientists and archeologists have come to a point that they have almost too much evidence leading toward regular causes, it is almost impossible for it not to be true. But the depressing issue about King Tuts death is that he could have accomplished much, much more than he did. Since he only lived until about age 19, it was impossible for him to do anything big in the 9 years he was pharaoh. For all people know, he could have invented a new religion that most of world population would refer to today! The one thing that will always remain in Tuts footsteps, is others memories of him.

Work Sited
Brier, B. (1998). The murder of Tutankhamen: A true story. New York: Putnam. Press, A. (2010, February 17). King Tutankhamun 'died from a broken leg and malaria'The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/17/malaria-killed-king-tutankhamun