Rumors about King Tut’s death anger Zahi Hawass

CAIRO – 18 April 2018: "False" information regarding King Tutankhamen’s cause of death angers famous Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass.

Researchers, relying on King Tut’s statues, golden mask and mummy, said that the pharaoh had been killed by a strike to the face.

Hawass rhetorically asked, “If King Tutankhamen was really beaten on the face, would the people have worshipped him and built statues of him with an injured face?” He said they would not have done so, adding that the cracks on the wooden sculptures are a natural result of what happens to wood over time.

Hawass clarified in remarks to Egypt Today that a scientific study was done on King Tut’s mummy with a CT scan at the highest level of quality, in which a hole was discovered in the back of the pharaoh’s head. Hawass added that the hole turned out to be an opening to insert embalming fluid and that a similar hole was also found in the mummy of Ahmose I.


Zahi Hawass supervises the removal of King Tutankhamen's mummy from his stone sarcophagus in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings Nov. 4, 2007-REUTERS/Ben Curtis

“The studies that have been carried out by almost 20 specialists in Egyptology, radiology and other related majors showed that the golden king died at the age of 19. He suffered from ‘flat foot’, the blood wasn’t reaching his toe nails, and he had malaria,” Hawass continued.

He added, “From the examination on the mummy, the scientists, whether Egyptian or foreign scientists, confirmed in 2005 that there was a hole in his foot and that this hole was due to an accident two hours before his death.”

According to Hawass, whoever calls himself a historian must have written not less than 200 scientific articles and about 40 books.

This comes after Egyptologist Bassam el Shamaa claimed that Tutankhamen was struck on the face by an axe. He linked this to a mark on the left side of the wooden statue in the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square. He added that the golden statue of Tut has the same mark.