“Another possibility is that the leg bone was broken during the 1925 autopsy, during which the mummy was sawn in half, just below the rib cage, for no apparent medical or scientific reason. It is possible that damage to both the leg bone and the ribs was done at the same time, in an attempt by scientists to find hidden gold in the cavities of the body.”

The original X-rays also revealed fragments of bone in the skull, which led many to believe the King could have been murdered by a blow to the head. Mr Connolly, however, found that the bone had been dislodged from the top of the neck and not the skull as previously thought.

He continues: “It is possible that the vertebrae could have been broken when Egyptian priests removed the brain. We believe there was a substantial delay between death and mummification, during which time the brain would have liquefied. The priests have almost certainly drained the brain through the base of the skull rather than removing it in the traditional way via the nose.

“However, the bone was not caught in the resin that the priests used to preserve the body, suggesting that the bone was not broken during mummification. It is more likely that it was dislodged in the 1925 autopsy, as scientists searched for possible treasures hidden inside the skull.”

Mr Connolly has also conducted an analysis of Lindow Man - the body found in a peat bog in Lindow Marsh, Cheshire, in 1984, which is now on display at the British Museum.

Re: Fractured Leg Bone Not The End Of Tutankhamen Mystery Sarah90    March 14th, 2005 - 9:35 PM PRESS RELEASE TUTANKHAMUN CT SCAN 8 MARCH, 2005  8 March, 2005, Cairo. Farouk Hosni, Minister of Culture, announced today that the Egyptian team has finished their examination of a non-invasive CT scan of Tutankhamun’s mummy. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, states that there is no evidence that the young king was murdered. The scientific team, which reviewed over 17,000 images, was headed by Dr. Hawass, and consisted of radiologists, pathologists, and anatomists under the oversight of Dr. Madiha Khattab, Dean of Medicine at Cairo University. Lead radiologist Dr. Mervat Shafik and the rest of the team requested that three international experts, two from Italy and one from Switzerland, be permitted to review the images. “We need our opinion to be international, since people all over the world are waiting for the results of this important scan,” said Dr. Shafik. Dr. Hawass announced today that the scientific team confirmed that King Tut died at about the age of 19. His bones, which indicate a slight build, show that he was well-fed and healthy and suffered no major childhood malnutrition or infectious diseases. In answer to theories that Tutankhamun was murdered, the team found no evidence for a blow to the back of the head, and no other indication of foul play.   They also found it extremely unlikely that he suffered an accident in which he crushed his chest. He adds that some team members interpret a fracture in the left thighbone as evidence for the possibility that Tutankhamun broke his leg badly just before he died. However, this injury alone could not have directly caused the king’s death. The team was also able to rule out pathological causes for the bent spine and elongated skull noted in earlier examinations. The scientists believe the head shape to be a normal variation, and think the bend in the spine is due to the way the embalmers positioned the body.    The king also had a slightly cleft palette and one impacted wisdom tooth. The team also notes that extreme care seems to have been taken in preparing the body of the king for burial. Dr. Hawass also said: “The Egyptian team worked on the images for two months. The foreign team came for several days at the end to review the work of the Egypt team. The foreign consultants confirmed the results of the Egyptian team, and joined us to make this announcement internationally. All of us are proud to announce these findings, the first CT examination of a securely identified royal mummy from ancient Egypt. I believe these results will close the case of Tutankhamun, and the king will not need to be examined again. We should now leave him at rest. I am proud that this work was done, and done well, by a completely Egyptian team.” CT Scan Report On January 5, 2005, the mummy of Tutankhamun (c. 1355-1346 B.C.) was removed from its tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV 62) for the first time in almost eighty years. An all-Egyptian team, led by Zahi Hawass, lifted the fragile remains, still resting in the tray of sand in which it had been placed by Carter’s team, from their resting place inside the outermost coffin and sarcophagus of the king, and carried them to a state-of-the-art CT scan machine (housed inside a trailer) donated to the Supreme Council of Antiquities by Siemens, Ltd., and the National Geographic Society. The scan took fifteen minutes and produced over 1,700 images. These images were studied by an Egyptian team, under the auspices of Madiha Khattab, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, and then by a foreign team composed of experts from Italy and Switzerland.   Previous Examinations The mummy of the young king had been essential dismantled by Carter’s team, who were interested primarily in recovering the almost 150 jewels, amulets, and other items wrapped with the body and gaining the maximum possible scientific information from the body itself. In order to remove the objects from the body and the body from the coffin, to which it was stuck fast by the hardened embalming liquids (most likely resins) used to anoint the mummy, Carter’s team cut the body into a number of large and small pieces (for example, the trunk was cut in half, the arms and legs were detached). The head, cemented by the solidified resins to the golden mask, was severed, and removed from the mask with hot knives. Carter placed the mummy back in the tomb in 1926. The mummy has been X-rayed twice since this time, once in 1968 by a team from the University of Liverpool under R.G. Harrison, and once in 1978 by J.E. Harris of the University of Michigan.

Re: Fractured Leg Bone Not The End Of Tutankhamen Mystery craigk    June 28th, 2005 - 5:27 PM I read that it was implied infection could NOT have caused his death in such a short time... ie 1 day... what about a fat embolus from the femur... this could have accounted for such a quick demise Craigk

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