King Tutankhamun may have died following a drunk driving accident with a chariot. Previously, Egyptologists had proposed that he was killed in a chariot race. Now, biomedical Egyptologist Sofia Aziz has synthesized other pieces of evidence—including the boy king's passion for wine—suggesting he was possibly hammered at the time.
From BBC Science Focus:
How sceptical should you be? Well, it is true that a major 2010 study concluded the pharaoh likely died from an open wound (combined with a weakened immune response due to malaria). However, the same research also suggested Tutankhamun had a clubbed foot that left him struggling to walk, let alone ride a chariot.
However, Aziz suggests that scientists have been wrong to profile the king as an invalid.
[Aziz argues that during a chariot race] the 19-year-old's leg would have hit the 'dashboard' of the chariot during the crash, causing the fracture described in autopsy reports and an open wound[…]
Tutankhamun's internal organs have also never been examined.
"Because of the way that the autopsy was conducted in 1925, sadly, a lot of vital information has been lost," Aziz said. "So even though we have conducted CT and we know some new things, there's a lot of things that we can't answer."
