Rick Baudé Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Baloney!!! Now he "fell of the chariot" will be
> added to the post mortems. Along with the blow to
> the back of the skull, the blow to the side of his
> head.

Explain to me where it says Tutankhamun had a blow to the side of his head? According to the 2005 CT scan, he had a fracture to his left leg, which resulted from a fall or blow to the knee and lower thighbone. This led to gangrene, which was the proximate cause of death.

The CT scan of 2005 also indicated that Tutankhamun did NOT (repeat: NOT) die of any blow to the head (Williams 2005). In fact, the so-called "murder blow" made so darned popular by the likes of Bob Brier was found to be a post-mortem injury, with resin was found within the hole in the skull, indicating it was part of the mummifcation process. In short, the CT team found no skull fractures, which also confirmed previous conclusions of the 2003 radiography in

Boyer, R. S., E. A. Rodin, et al. 2003. The Skull and Cervical Spine Radiographs of Tutankhamen: A Critical Appraisal. American Journal of Neuroradiology 24(June-July 2003): 1142–1147.

>Let's look at this logically If he fell off
> his chariot at a high rate of speed when the
> chariot "tumbled out of control" he should have
> "defensive" fractures as he threw up his arms to
> break his fall thereby breaking his arms.

Try this scenario then, for I can assure you it is possible:

Imagine that you are the king out on a hunting field. You have a charioteer driving your chariot. You are shooting at game and as, say, the charioteer makes a pass-around curve, the chariot hits rock or some obstruction. You, the king have a bow in your hand - you are not anchored totally into the chariot (as you need to turn and pivot for your arrow shots), so, assuming you were in a full rear-turn at the time of impact, you have your balance thrown off*, and with padded arm bands and bow in hand, you fly out of the chariot sideways, probably the lower half of your body first, probably landing on the leg and belly-first. You have no time for "defensive" actions as your hands are full with the archery equipment.

* Hoffmeier wrote that the ancient Egyptian archer of the 18th Dynasty had a peculiar archer stance when hunting, such that "the hunter (stood) with his front foot planted firmly on the ground, while the back foot rests on the ball of the foot and toes" (Hoffmeier 1980: 196). This widened and non-planted stance would cause an archer in a chariot to be off-balance in general, and particularly so in a pivot shot.

>In addition to that he should have been damage to the
> skull as he undoubtedly would have rolled over the
> desert pavement, or been dragged along since iirc
> they put the reins around their waist while they
> fired their arrows.

Not if you have your own charioteer. No matter what the "official" representations show in Egyptian art, chariots were two-man forms of transport. In Egyptian, there were two terms for the inhabitants of a chariot in war: /kTn/ for the chariot driver, and /snny/ for the chariot warrior. This organisation was the same in hunting as well (Hoffmeier 2000: 411; Schulman 1980).

> No only that but he probably
> should have had some fractured vertebrae and a
> smashed up rib cage along with a damaged pelvis

Assuming my 'belly flop' scenario, I suppose it's worthwhile to mention there is chest damage to Tutankhamun, such that the manubrium sternum and some of the front ribs are missing.

While there's been some speculation that Derry and/or Carter created that damage, Burton's photos of the time don't show that either touched this area in the anatomical examination. See Picture 1, and Picture 2 (Chest detail).

The damage to the ribs is clean, I should add; that is, there are signs the front part of the rib tips are cut clean, which to me means the bone and cartilage were still alive (as opposed to cutting through ancient dead bone in 1925, which would show signs of splintering). It's possible ancient physicians, seeing the damage ot the king's chest (and liekly his inability to breathe from a flail chest injury, probably cut away the tips of the ribs in the centre of his chest to allow him to breathe.

Reference:

Boyer, R. S., E. A. Rodin, et al. 2003. The Skull and Cervical Spine Radiographs of Tutankhamen: A Critical Appraisal. American Journal of Neuroradiology 24(June-July 2003): 1142–1147.

Hoffmeier, J. K. 1980. Comments on an Unusual Royal Hunt Scene. JSSEA 10: 195-200.

_______________. 2000. Military: Materiel. In D. B. Redford, Ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 2: 406-412. Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Schulman, A. R. 1980. Chariots, Chariotry, and Hyksos. JSSEA 10: 105-153.

Williams, A. R. 2005. Modern Technology Reopens the Ancient Case of King Tut. National Geographic (June 2005): 2-19.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom