Egypt’s King Tut died of malaria and broken leg

The findings were from two years of DNA testing and CT scans on 16 mummies, including those of Tutankhamun and his family, the team that carried out the study said in an article to be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

It also established the clearest yet family tree for Tut, indicating for the first time that he was the child of a brother-sister union.

The study said his father was most likely Akhenaten, the pharaoh who tried to revolutionize ancient Egyptian religion and force his people to worship one god. The mummy shown by DNA to be that of Tut’s mother turned out to be a sister of Akhenaten, though she has not been identified.

Tut, who became pharaoh at age 10 in 1333 B.C., ruled for nine years at a pivotal time in Egypt’s history. While a comparatively minor king, the 1922 discovery of his tomb filled with stunning artifacts, including the famed golden funeral mask, made him known the world over.

Speculation had long swirled over why the boy king died at such a young age. A hole in his skull long fueled speculation he was murdered, until a 2005 CAT scan ruled that out, finding the hole was probably from the mummification process. The scan also uncovered the broken leg.

In contrast to the golden splendor he was buried with, the newest CAT scans and DNA tests revealed a sickly teen pharaoh, weakened by congenital illnesses finally done in by complications from the broken leg aggravated by severe brain malaria.

The team said it isolated DNA of the malaria parasite in several of the family’s mummies, including Tut’s - the oldest such discovery.

“A sudden leg fracture possibly introduced by a fall might have resulted in a life threatening condition when a malaria infection occurred,’’ concluded the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Tutankhamun had multiple disorders. . . . He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk.’’

Like his father, Tutankhamun had a cleft palate. He also had a club foot and Kohler’s disease, in which lack of blood flow was slowly destroying the bones of his left foot - an often painful condition, the study said. It noted that 130 walking sticks and canes were discovered in Tut’s tomb.

The new study also answered longstanding questions over Tutankhamun’s family. His grandfather was the Pharaoh Amenhotep III, and his father was mostly likely the famous Akhenaten, who attempted to change millennia of Egypt’s religious tradition by forcing the country to worship the sun god Aten, instead of usual multiplicity of deities.

Some archeologists have speculated that Tut’s father was a little-known figure, Smenkhkare, thought to have ruled as a pharaoh or co-regent.