New Clues Revealed in King Tut’s CT scan

When Egyptian scientists performed the first CT scan of the mummy of Tutankhamun, they turned up a key clue: Bone fragments from the pharaoh’s first vertebra, near the skull, were not coated with embalming fluid. This indicates the break occurred after the king was dead and is unrelated to his demise after all.

Also, a second clue was found by examining a major fracture in Tut’s left thigh bone. The femur had a thin coating of embalming resin around the break, indicating that Tut had broken his leg just before he died and that his death may have resulted from an infection or other complications. Another possibility is a fat embolism that could have acted like a clot to cause a heart attack.

Read the Seattle Times for all the (not so) gory details.