Tutankhamun was murdered by a blow to the head
The old claim turned out to be wrong and was rejected by evidence.
TaughtX-rays of the boy king's mummy revealed a bone fragment inside the skull, proving he was assassinated, most likely struck from behind by a rival for the throne.
NowCT scanning in 2005 found no skull fracture and no sign of a blow. The loose bone fragments were caused after death, by Howard Carter's team removing the mummy from its coffin. He most likely died of complications from a broken leg, compounded by malaria and congenital frailty.
What actually happened
The murder theory grew out of a 1968 X-ray at the University of Liverpool showing debris inside the cranium, and it became the standard exciting version of the story: a teenage pharaoh killed in a palace conspiracy. It was never a strong inference, but it made a much better documentary than "unclear."
In 2005 a team led by Zahi Hawass ran the mummy through a portable CT scanner and produced roughly 1,700 images. There was no fracture at the base of the skull, and no healing or swelling that would indicate a pre-death head injury. The loose fragments were unattached and consistent with damage during the violent 1920s extraction of a body that had been glued into its coffin by resin.
The scan did find a fresh fracture just above the left knee, with no healing, and possible embalming fluid inside it, suggesting an open leg break shortly before death. The 2010 JAMA study by Hawass and colleagues added DNA evidence of Plasmodium falciparum malaria and identified a bone disorder and clubfoot, consistent with the walking sticks buried with him. The picture is a frail young man whose injury turned fatal, not a whodunit.
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Sources
- JAMA: Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun's Familyjamanetwork.com
- National Geographic: King Tut's Family Secretsnationalgeographic.com
Who was taught this
Still standard through 2005, so anyone who finished school between 1950 and 2005 learned the earlier version.