When King Tutankhamen, the famous Egyptian boy pharaoh from antiquity (who became pharaoh at the age of 9) died at 18, in 1324 B.C., the real culprit in the regicide would have to wait till our time, nearly 3, 400 years after the act, for positive identification.

Scientists have now determined that he died as a result of a severe bout of malaria made worse by a degenerative bone condition. They found no evidence of foul play, as had been suspected by some historians and popular writers familiar with palace intrigues in ancient Egypt.

King Tut

The researchers said, to the best of their knowledge, “this is the oldest genetic proof of malaria...” Several other mummies studied in the Valley of the Kings (a gorge on the western bank of the Nile River in the south of Egypt, a burial site of pharaohs), showed abundant DNA evidence of the presence of the malaria parasite plasmodium falciparum--not out of place in the Nile Valley, also home to the second most important public health disease after malaria: bilharzias.

Previous examinations of King Tut's mummified remains had revealed a leg fracture said to have happened just before his death, possibly from a fall. This has been interpreted by researchers to have contributed to a life-threatening condition in an immune system already weakened by malaria and other disorders.
The two-year investigation, completed in October 2009, is described in a recent edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was directed by Zahi Hawass, an Egyptologist who leads the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo. It brought together medical scientists and anthropologists from Egypt, and Italy, including Carsten M. Pusch of the Institute of Human Genetics at the University of Tübingen, in Germany, the report's corresponding author.

King Tut, as he's been nicknamed, though not one of the great rulers of ancient Egypt, is well known today because his tomb, containing fabulous treasures, was found virtually intact in 1922 by British archaeologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon.

The young king's fascinating facade and premature death in the ninth year of his reign inspired fanciful speculation of various whodunits. The golden and bejeweled artifacts from his tomb--funerary mask and other morbid accoutrements accompanying him on his impromptu journey to the underworld--still leave crowds awed at touring museum exhibitions around the world.

King Tut's tomb consisted of a passageway and four connected chambers that were decorated with wall paintings and filled with a rich array of objects, roughly 5, 000 objects ranging from gold-covered chariots, chairs, beds, lamps, and jewelry to wearing apparel, writing equipment, and even a lock of Tutankhamen's grandmother's hair.

In the burial chamber itself, placed inside three coffins, laid the mummy of Tutankhamen, the face covered by a gold mask and coloured glass. The discovery of the tomb gave the world a peep into the grandeur of ancient Egypt's royal life.

One clear conclusion from this latest research is that the royal family's power and wealth did not spare them from ill health and bodily injury. It is a sobering evidence of how long malaria, which is no respecter of persons, has held sway over Africa. Malaria continues its ravage as it burrows its way into the future of the continent where King Tut reigned. At present, the menace snuffs out the life of a child somewhere in Africa every 30 seconds.