The Real King Tut Was Sick, Crippled, and Ugly

Behind the beautiful and iconic golden death mask he was buried in, ancient Egypt's "boy king" Tutankhamun was an ugly and ailing human being, according to new 3-D modeling based on his remains.

The new modeling suggests that the pharaoh commonly known as King Tut had a pronounced overbite, a skewed hip, and a club foot - not exactly the traits of a self-proclaimed god-king.

This was determined after a team of experts conducted a "virtual autopsy" of the king's remains. He had been 19 at the time of his death, and it had initially been suspected that the state of the mummy - club foot and malshaped jaw included - were evidence that Tut had been in a fatal chariot crash.

However, lbert Zink, head of the Institute for Mummies and Icemen in Italy, recently told The Independent that he is now confident that the chariot crash theory is wrong.

"It was important to look at his ability to ride on a chariot and we concluded it would not be possible for him, especially with his partially clubbed foot, as he was unable to stand unaided," Zink explained. (Scroll to read on...)

The autopsy and 3-D model were based on more than 2,000 computer scans of Tutankhamun's remains, and were conducted as part of the upcoming BBC documentary, "Tutankhamun: the Truth Uncovered." The scans showed that one of the "injuries" thought to have been sustained during a chariot crash, a fractured skull, occured after the boy was already dead.

More stunning still, the pharaoh, whose name ironically translates to "Living Image of Amun" - Amun being the Egyptian God of Wind and King of the Gods - was also likely the product of incest.

Zink says that the scans were carried out alongside a genetic analysis of King Tut's family, finding strong evidence that his parents were brother and sister. And a history of inbreeding in Tut's bloodline could explain for his many defects, which could have contributed to his death.

"On the other hand he suffered from malaria so it is difficult to say whether that may have been a serious factor in the cause of death," Zink added, referring to a study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association back in 2010.

The researcher is quick to point out that while these findings and more will be presented in the BBC special next Sunday, they aren't the end of the investigation. As always, there are few certainties in archaeology.