Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries by Brian Haughton (beginner reading books for adults txt) 📕

probably murdered by an Egyptian faction who did not want a foreign king occupying the throne of Egypt. This murder ultimately led to war between the Egyptians and the Hittites, and ended in defeat for Egypt at Amqa, near Kadesh in western Syria. Some have suggested that this incredible letter was not written by Ankhesenamun at all, but by her mother Nefertiti, but this is unlikely as Nefertiti's husband Akhenaten had a successor, thus there would be no need for a letter to a foreign king.

So what possible reason could Ankhesenamun have had for instigating this treasonous correspondence, which effectively amounts to her begging an enemy king to take over her country? Tutankhamun's death (without leaving an heir) may have been at the heart of the problem. One theory is that the letters were written be

cause the Egyptians were wary of the threat posed by the advancing Hittite Empire, and believed that an alliance with the Hittites by marriage would preserve Egypt from conquest. The queen may have planned to rule with a Hittite king supported by the military might of the Hittite Empire, but her plan was thwarted with the murder of Prince Zannanza. This brings us to the fate of Tutankhamun himself.

Ever since Tutankhamun's body was first unwrapped and examined by Howard Carter's team in the 1920s, there has been intense speculation as to how and why the king died. X-ray examinations of the skull, first in 1968 by a team from the University of Liverpool, then in 1978 by researchers from the University of Michigan, revealed a shard of bone in the skull and evidence of hemorrhage at the back of the head, possibly caused by a deliberate blow to the skull. The evidence from the x-rays, taken together with the suspicious circumstances surrounding King Tut's death, have prompted many to conclude that the boy pharaoh must have been murdered. But by whom?

The person most frequently put forward as being behind Tutankhamun's possible murder is the man who had most to gain by his death, the elderly royal servant Ay. Ay reigned for a little more than four years as pharaoh after the demise of Tutankhamun, and would seem to have had motive for murder, though there is at present no evidence that he had anything to do with the death of the king. Other researchers believe a much younger man, Horemheb, who succeeded Ay around 1321 B.C., to become the last pharaoh of ancient Egypt's 18th Dynasty, was responsible. Horemheb reigned for 27 years as pharaoh, during which time he brought about a major reorganization of the country, resulting in a much stronger and more stable Egypt than had been seen for many years. He was also determined to completely return Egypt to its traditional religious beliefs, and he therefore set about obliterating all traces of the Aten cult. It is thought that one reason why Tutankhamun was omitted from the classical king lists of Egypt is that Horemheb usurped most of the boy pharaoh's work, including monuments at Karnak and Luxor. Could either of these two shadowy figures, or perhaps both, have plotted the death of the boy pharaoh?

In January 2005, the first CAT scans (a CAT scan is an x-ray technique that produces a film representing a detailed cross section of tissue structure) ever performed on an Egyptian mummy were carried out on the 3,300 old skeleton of Tutankhamun. Surprisingly, the team of Egyptian researchers found no evidence at all of a blow to the back of the boy's head, and no other evidence of violence on the body. The report stated that the fragment of bone identified from previous skull x-rays had probably become dislodged during the embalming process. When Tutankhamun was being mummified his brain was removed and the skull filled with large amounts of resin, which has hardened over time. If the sliver of bone had been the result of an injury before death, it would not still be loose in the skull. The dark area shown at the back of the skull on earlier x-rays, thought by many to indicate some kind of trauma, was explained by the scientists as the result of the body being dismembered for

photographing after its initial discovery by Howard Carter. During this process a rod had been inserted into the back of the skull to prop it up. The general conclusion of the researchers was that Tutankhamun had been a slightly built, but relatively healthy young man standing roughly 5-feet 6inches tall. Using high-resolution photos of the CAT scans, three teams of forensic artists from France, Egypt, and the United States constructed separate but similar models of the king's face. The result not only bears a striking resemblance to the famous gold mask which covered the mummified face of Tutankhamun, but also to a well-known image of the pharaoh as a child where he was depicted as the Sun God rising at dawn from a lotus blossom. But how did the king die?

When examining Tutankhamun's body the team found a fracture in the thighbone of his left leg, previously assumed by Howard Carter to have been sustained during the embalming process or as a result of damage to the body after mummification. On reexamination, the scientists found that this badly broken leg had occurred only days before the death of Tutankhamun and had probably led to an attack of gangrene, which swiftly brought about the king's death. At present then, the evidence does not support a murderous conspiracy by Tutankhamun's close advisors Ay and Horemheb, but more likely a broken leg, perhaps sustained during a hunting accident, and not treated quickly enough to prevent infection. The question of whether Ay or Horemheb could have actively prevented the death of the boy pharaoh from this injury is another matter.

the Real Robin Hood

Photograph by M. Rees.

Statue of Robin Hood, Nottingham.

In the popular imagination, Robin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero. His legend, so familiar to people all over the world, has