King Tut suffered 'massive' chest injury, new research reveals

Tut's head, new research suggests that he sustained a "massive" chest injury, possibly caused by a hippo. Photo by Sandro VanniniA new study shows that Tutankhamun, Egypt’s famous “boy-king” who died around the age of 18, suffered a “massive crushing tearing injury to his chest” that likely would have killed him.
X-rays and CT scans have previously shown that the pharaoh’s heart, chest wall, the front part of his sternum and adjacent ribs, are missing. In Ancient Egypt the heart was like the brain and removing it was something that was not done.
“The heart, considered the seat of reason, emotion, memory and personality, was the only major organ intentionally left in the body,” writes Dr. Robert Ritner in the book Ancient Egypt.
The new research was done by Dr. Benson Harer, a medical doctor with an Egyptology background, who was given access to nearly 1700 CT scan images of Tut that were taken by a team of Egyptian scientists in 2005. Dr. Zahi Hawass, head of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, gave permission for the work.
“Zahi was very kind he let me get access to the entire database of all the CT scans,” said Dr. Harer.
It has been suggested that tomb robbers, operating sometime between 1925 and 1968, may have stolen the heart and chest bones. The new research shows that while robbers stole some of Tut’s jewellery they didn’t take the body parts. Instead they were lost due to a massive chest injury Tut sustained while he was still alive.
This isn’t the only medical problem Tut had. In 2005 a team of researchers reported that he had a broken leg and earlier this year an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that Tut suffered from malaria, something that may have contributed to his death.
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New Statue found on west bank,Luxor

The SCA mission working on the site known as Kom Hetan on west bank,Luxor has found the upper part of a double statue of red granite for Amenhotep III (1410-1372 B.C) in the north west of Amenhotep III temple site.

The statue represents Amenhotep III next to Re Hor Akheti in a shape of a falcon or hawk. Amehotep III left behind many statues with different Ancient Egyptian gods like Amon Re,Mut,Bastet,Sobek and Sekhmet.The German mission who is working on Amenhotep III temple behind the statues of Memnons has found nearly 80 statues of Sekhmet as she was the goddess of healing and the King was sick for a while at the end of his reign. When Dr. Zahi Hawass was checking the south east area of the temple he found a number of statues underground in an area was infringed by farmers nearby since a long time ago and Dr. Samir Farag the governor is negotiating with the farmers in the surrounded area to take the land for a compensation in order to convert it into an open display area for the found artefacts

New Discovery at Giza

An Egyptian archaeological mission directed by Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), has discovered a large mud brick wall dating to the reign of King Thuthmose IV (1400-1390 BCE). The wall was uncovered in the area located in front of King Khafre’s valley temple on the Giza plateau.Minister of Culture, Farouk Hosny added that the discovery was made during routine excavation work carried out by the SCA.

Dr. Hawass stated that the newly discovered wall consists of two parts: the first section is 75cm tall and stretches for 86m from north to south along the eastern side of Khafre’s valley temple and the Sphinx; the second part is 90cm tall and is located in the area north of Khafre’s valley temple. This section is 46m long and runs from east to west along the perimeter of the valley temple area. The two parts of the wall converge at the south-east corner of the excavation area.Hawass explained that according to initial studies carried out at the site, the newly discovered wall is a part of a larger wall found to the north of the Sphinx. This wall was constructed by King Thuthmose IV as an enclosure to protect the Sphinx from winds. According to ancient Egyptian texts the construction of this wall was the result of a dream which Thuthmose had after a long hunting trip in Wadi El-Ghezlan (Deer Valley), an area next to the Sphinx. In the king’s dream, the Sphinx asked the king to move the sand away from his body because it choked him. For this favor, the Sphinx promised to make Thutmose IV King of Egypt. To accomplish this task, Thuthmose IV removed the sand that had partially buried the Sphinx and built an enclosure wall to preserve it.

Hawass pointed out that archaeologists previously believed that the enclosure wall only existed on the Sphinx’s northern side because a 3m tall by 12 m long section had been found there. This theory has now been disproven thanks to the discovery of the two new wall sections along the eastern and southern sides of the Sphinx.In addition to the two sections of the enclosure wall, the SCA team found a mudbrick wall on the eastern side of Khafre’s valley temple. Hawass believes that this wall could be the remains of Khafre’s pyramid settlement, which was inhabited by priests and officials who oversaw the activities of the mortuary cult of Khafre. This cult began at the king’s death and continued until the eighth dynasty (ca. 2143-2134 BCE), which was the end of the Old Kingdom.Essam Shehab, supervisor of Khafre’s valley temple excavation, said that the mission also dug a 6m deep assessment trench in the area located in front of Khafre’s valley temple to search for any activity dating to the Middle Kingdom (2030 – ca. 1660 BCE). Initial inspection did not reveal any Middle Kingdom activity in the trench as it was filled with almost 5m of sand. Such amount of sand, said Shehab, suggested that the area was abandoned during the Middle Kingdom.Excavations continue in order to reveal the rest of the Thuthmose IV enclosure wall and any other secrets still hidden within the sand.

Luxor again and again

Thebes was the capital when Ancient Egyptian civilisation reached its zenith, where grand temples were built in the name of the gods and extravagant tombs glorified the Pharaohs even in the afterlife. These monuments are one reason why one trip to Luxor is never enough; they are abundant and discoveries are ongoing.
Luxor is one of the most congested places on earth, but I'm not talking about unruly traffic; it's the number of monuments. The wealth of historical sites to visit leaves you worn out by the end of the day, especially if you are on a short visit. There is, of course, a relaxing way to enjoy the city . to read more

A painted burial chamber of the 25th Dynasty priest Karakhamun was discovered on Luxor's west bank,

"Karakhamun's tomb is one of the most beautiful tombs of the 25th Dynasty because of the preservation of the colour and the unique quality of the scenes," Pischikova said. "Now," she continued, "the team is consolidating every fragment of the decoration found in the debris. The rest of the tomb must then be cleared of debris, the decorations consolidated and cleaned while the pillared are reinforced. Our final goal is to reconstruct the tomb in situ after restoring and placing all its fragments back to its original place."

According to the ACP website, Karakhamus is described as the most enigmatic figure in the Assassif necropolis. Nothing is known of his family and even he himself did not seem to have any important administrative positions. His priestly title does not signify any particular importance. His Nubian name is one of the reasons why studies that mention Karakhamun date his presence in Thebes to the 25th Dynasty. The tomb's architectural features as far as they are known also confirm this date.

Karakhamun's serpentine ushabti is of Nubian style with facial features that suggest a pre-Taharqo date, probably Shabaqo. "It is possible to suggest that it is the largest tomb in the necropolis with two pillared halls and multiple burial chambers," the website wrote, adding that it was built for a person of no important position who must have had close connections to the royal court or the royal family itself. Further exploration of the tomb could shed more light on its date and the identity of Karakhamun himself.

The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun and Its Significance

British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovered the Gold Mask of Tutankhamun (ca. 1332-1323 B.C.) in 1925. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Harry Burton recorded the spectacular find in crisp black-and-white photographs, each carefully taken inside the Burial Chamber of the adolescent king's four-room tomb. Developed from fragile glass negatives, Burton's pictures have since etched an indelible impression of ancient Egyptian royalty into the popular imagination. He masterfully captured the mask centuries after Tutankhamun's funeral, a ceremony that occurred more than 10 years following the religiously turbulent Amarna Period of Akhenaten (r. 1353-1336 B.C.), the frail young ruler's iconoclastic father. to read more

Desert Roads Lead to Discovery in Egypt

In the practice of what they call desert-road archaeology, the Darnells found pottery and ruins where soldiers, merchants and other travelers camped in the time of the pharaohs. On a limestone cliff at a crossroads, they came upon a tableau of scenes and symbols, some of the earliest documentation of Egyptian history. Elsewhere, they discovered inscriptions considered to be one of the first examples of alphabetic writing.

The explorations of the Theban Desert Road Survey, a Yale University project co-directed by the Darnells, called attention to the previously underappreciated significance of caravan routes and oasis settlements in Egyptian antiquity. And two weeks ago, the Egyptian government announced what may be the survey’s most spectacular find.