Pages - Menu

▼

Tutankhamun's Death

For about one hundred years the secret of King Tutankhamun's death has been a who-done-it in the classic feel, with a number of suspects and various motifs, an uncertainty about the way of death and whether it was actually murder. Although he died about 1325 BC the wonders arising from the circumstances surrounding his death were buried with his mummy and its great treasure until Howard Carter excavated them in 1922. Tutankhamun attained the throne, when he was at nine years old, upon the mysterious death of the previous pharaoh, called Akhenatun the Heretic. This heretical king had reversed the religious structure of the Egyptian society upside down during his rule and set the stage for the possible character assassination of Tutankhamun. The first of the four most probably suspects in the possible murder of the boy king was a foreigner called Tutu, or Dudu, a member of the court of King Amenhotep III, and he extended as an official with the following Pharaoh Akhenatun. At this time someone was tapping messages requesting aid from the army and as a result there were a number of doomed defeats. Suspicion fell upon the foreign Tutu and Akhenatun trusted to investigate and find the treasonist. Before anything could be concluded the king died under suspect conditions. The new Pharaoh Tutankhamun, was young and unpracticed when he inherited this offensive character who was rumored to encourage discord amongst the members of the court. Some think that he had a hand in the feasible murder of the new king as well as the previous one. Whether for his own profit or at the command of another party stays to be seen. At the early age of nine, Tutankhamun was unprepared to reign a kingdom but he had two experienced and serious men to make decisions in his mention. Aye was a superior priest with some royal blood that decreed as Vizier and as a regent of forms. Horemhab was the general in command of the regular army of Egypt and had a appreciation for power although without the royal bloodlines that would make him ready to be king. These two men, the general and the priest, are the people, whether singly or in concert, that had the strongest needs for eliminating the young pharaoh. For the full ten years Tutankhamun occupied the throne of Egypt, Horemhab and the older Aye reigned in his name and became habituated to having the reins of power in their hands. By the time Tutankhamun had arrived at his late teens it is likely they saw the possible action of their power diminishing. Just one other someone was in a position elevated sufficient to assassinate the young pharaoh and that would be his personal wife, Queen Ankhsenamun. Consequences after the kings death show that she was the least probably to have done the deed. When she found herself only on the throne she directed a message to the king of Hatti (nowadays Turkey), an foe of Egypt, demanding for one of his sons as a husband for herself. She composed to the Hittite king," Never shall I select a servant of mine and make him my husband. I am scared." Was this servant she mentioned to the priest Aye? Suppiluliumas (The Hittite king) was supposed at first but finally sent his son Zannanza to wed the Egyptian queen and get for them an entire kingdom without fight. The young prince never made it to his marriage, he was assassinated on the way and queen Ankhsenamun was pushed to marry her servant the higher priest Aye. She had good cause to be afraid for she disappeared shortly after, from all view and record.  
 
Previous Posts: