Cairo: The pharaoh Tutankhamun was not
effeminate despite the appearance of the famed boy king on his
golden bust, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said
on Wednesday.
"People said he was deviant and effeminate (but) he was a
sound man like all of us," Hawass said.
Hawass announced the results of the most extensive DNA
tests and computerised tomography (CT) scans on Tutankhamun's
mummy at a packed media conference in the Egyptian Museum.
The study showed that the pharaoh and his forebears were
unlikely to have had the feminine physiques they are depicted
as having in 3,000-year-old artefacts.
It also revealed that the boy king died of malaria after
a fall, used a cane and was the son of the monotheistic
pharaoh Akhenaten.
"We found evidence from DNA that proves he had very
severe malaria," Hawass said.
"He was ill, weak, walked on a cane. When he was 19, and
got malaria, he fell, how we don't know, maybe he fell in the
bathroom," he said.
"When he fell, and was weak from malaria, he died."
Researchers from Egypt used DNA testing to draw a family
tree for Tutankhamun, and their results were reviewed by
German scientists.
The researchers, led by Hawass, analysed DNA taken from
11 mummies, including the boy king himself. They scanned all
but one of the mummies to determine if they were related,
looked for evidence of genetic disorders and infectious
diseases and determine what killed Tutankhamun at 19.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, February 18, 2010, 00:20