Revelations show King Tut was weak, sickly, but experts say it won’t tarnish boy-king’s image
By Lindsey Tanner, APWednesday, February 17, 2010
Tut’s ills won’t kill fascination, historians say
CHICAGO — It turns out Egypt’s beloved boy-king wasn’t so golden after all. He wasn’t much of a wild and crazy guy, either.
But will research showing King Tut was actually a hobbled, weak teen with a cleft palate and club foot kill enthusiasm for a mummy that has fascinated the world for nearly a century?
Historians say not likely. But the revelations hardly fit the popular culture depiction of a handsome young pharaoh or a dancing “how’d-you-get-so-funky” phenom a la comedian Steve Martin.
Research that appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association shows that Tut had a genetic bone disease and malaria. He died about 3,300 years ago at age 19.
Historians say the new evidence will likely only intensify public interest the boy king.
On the Net:
JAMA: jama.ama-assn.org
