'An Ailing": Experts Claim King Tutankhamun Was a Resilient Warrior, Not An Ailing Boy-King as Previously Believed

Tutankhamun was a battle-hardened warrior, not the sickly boy-king of legend, claim experts.

It has become part of historical folklore that Egypt's most famous king was frail and deformed, with a club foot.

He was buried with approximately 130 complete and fragmented sticks of various shapes and designs, which have been suggested to be walking sticks used to assist with his mobility.

However, three experts on ancient Egypt have stated at the Cheltenham Science Festival this week that such an assumption could be incorrect.

Sofia Aziz, a biomedical Egyptologist, said, "When I studied Tutankhamun, I personally don't think there was any evidence that he was disabled because I have seen mummies where it appears there is a club foot. We refer to these as pseudo-pathological changes. The walking sticks were simply a symbol of royalty."

The expert argues that the 'club foot' may, in fact, have been caused during the mummification process, where the application of resin and tight bandaging can distort the shape of the foot.

Regarding the much-discussed missing middle bone in the second toe of his left foot, she suggests it could have been lost after his remains were transferred into a sand box or simply taken by someone as a souvenir.

Speaking after the talk, the Egyptologist, who has conducted in-depth studies on over 50 mummies, said, "His legs were so well aligned—if he did have a deformity and a club foot, he would have had difficulty walking, but the long bones do not show any evidence of that."

The leg bones would exhibit signs of stress if someone had spent years walking with a limp.

Tutankhamun gained fame because his body remained undisturbed for nearly 3,000 years after his death, with the tomb remaining unlooted by grave-robbers, unlike many other pharaohs.

Discovered by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, the tomb revealed tantalizing clues about a child who ascended to the throne at just nine years old in 1336 BCE before dying suddenly at 19.

The perception of Tutankhamun as a feeble king has been challenged by a minority of experts, but the notion that he was more warrior-like is supported by items found in his tomb, such as leather armor and various weapons.

Dr. Campbell Price, curator of Egypt at Manchester Museum, who also spoke about Tutankhamun at the science festival, supports the idea that the image of the sickly boy-king is most likely a myth.

After the talk, he stated, "We sympathize with Tutankhamun because he's not what you would expect from the golden mask. And I fully agree that representations in Pharaonic art do not depict how people actually looked, as it represents the realm of the gods. But it has swung the other way where we see him as this pitiful creature."

Dr. Price added, "You must remember that when Tutankhamun was discovered, it was shortly after the First World War, and people had lost young men in the trenches. So, there was a collective sympathy for young men who had died, perhaps in battle, which contributed to this fantasy, this myth of a supposedly feeble boy."

The curator argues that Tutankhamun's 'walking sticks' were symbols of status, as they were adorned with depictions of his enemies, such as the neighboring Nubians.

Raksha Dave, honorary president of the Council for British Archaeology, who chaired the science festival talk on the boy-king, described the debunking of a sickly Tutankhamun as 'amazing.' She added, "It's definitely a more rigorous, scientific, and refreshingly modern perspective on a story