CSI Cairo: How science will solve the mystery of Tutankhamun

[Truthed]

His golden funeral mask with its striped headdress has become the symbol of Egypt's ancient grandeur. Yet for all the fame that surrounds the boy King Tutankhamun, no one really knows who he was.
Now, the mystery of King Tut's lineage has finally been solved. It will be revealed to the world on Wednesday, more than 30 centuries after the pharaoh was sealed in a gold coffin.


Dr Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, will reveal the results of extensive DNA testing carried out over the past 18 months on the pharaoh's mummy as well as two mummified foetuses found in his burial chamber.


The findings, Dr Hawass says, are the most exciting since the discovery of the tomb by the British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922. They are also the latest in a stream of breakthroughs in our knowledge about art and the [COLOR=blue ! important][COLOR=blue ! important]ancient [COLOR=blue ! important]world[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] that have been made possible by new technology.
Among the outstanding riddles, for example, is whether Tutankhamun's mother was Queen Nefertiti – whose mummy has yet to be discovered – and whether the two foetuses found with him were his children.
"We don't know how King Tut died," Dr Hawass said yesterday. "We have begun DNA testing and we have made some wonderful discoveries. The results have been confirmed by the Journal of the American Medical Association and they will be publishing all the findings. It is very exciting. We will know who King Tut was."

Master of the scrolls
When Vesuvius erupted in AD79 it covered a villa in Herculaneum in feet of ash and carbon. In the 1750s tunnellers found the villa along with carbonised papyrus scrolls which disintegrated if they were opened. Now X-rays and CT (Computerised Tomography) scans of the scrolls reveal they are predominantly the work of the Epicurean philosopher and poet Philodemus of Gadara.

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[BURNING MAN]

They say that he died from malaria.