King Tutankhamun's name is as
famous as historical titans like Julius Caesar, Genghis
Khan, and Alexander the Great. But thanks to meticulous
historical research and advances in DNA
analysis, researchers have found that the actual
person behind the name isn't as well-known as was
once commonly believed. But who was the young man we
would come to call King Tut? How did he live? How did he die? And what kind of ruler was he? To find out, today,
we're going to take a look at some weird
facts about King Tut. But before we get started,
be sure to subscribe to the Weird History channel. And let us know in the
comments below what other Egyptian topics
you'd like to hear about. Now, when he was a
young man, he never thought he'd see people stand
in line to see the Boy King. King Tut, how'd
you get so funky? Born around 1341
BCE, Tutankhamun was the son of the
powerful Pharaoh Akhenaten. After his father died
in 1334, two minor kings reigned over Egypt until Tut was
old enough to take the throne. That finally happened in 1332. And Tut ruled for roughly
the next eight or nine years. Tut's chief accomplishment
is considered to be his act of restoring
Egypt to the polytheistic world of the god Amun. His father had converted the
whole kingdom to Atenism, a monotheistic religion centered
on the cult of the god Aten. But it didn't turn out to be
a particularly popular move. Tut died in 1323, at
only 19 years old. He was buried in
a hastily built, though still ornately
decorated, tomb, which was eventually forgotten. That would've been
the end of his story. But in 1922, British
researcher Howard Carter rediscovered the tomb. The media coverage of the
treasures he found inside would make the
obscure young pharaoh one of the most famous
rulers in world history. To us, he's King Tut. But the ancient Egyptians
never called him that. Before ascending
to the throne, he was known as Tutankhaten, which
means "living image of Aten." After being crowned, he became
Tutankhamun, Amun, also known as Amun-Ra, was the chief deity
of Egyptian mythology, which means that this name
change applied a pretty significant promotion for Tut. But those names were just
the tip of the iceberg. Tut was also known by a
variety of other monikers that reflected various aspects
of the divine role he assumed as pharaoh. Some of these other
names included-- well, I'm not even going to
attempt these names. Imagine trying to order
a drink at Starbucks with one of those names. As with European ruling
families of the 19th century, incest was common
among Egyptian royalty. Keeping noble bloodlines
pure was a big priority. And to that end, it is generally
believed that Tut's parents were brother and sister. In fact, tests were performed
on Tut's mitochondrial DNA by the Institute for
Mummies and Icemen, which sounds like something
I would be streaming late night on Netflix,
but is actually a research group from Italy. Inherited from only
the mother, this DNA revealed that Tut's mom was the
genetic sister of the Pharaoh Akhenaten, who is known
to be Tut's father. However, despite
the DNA evidence, historians aren't really sure
who Tut's mother actually was. Some believe she was the
famous Queen Nefertiti, who was one of Akhenaten's wives. But without new evidence,
there's just no way to be sure. For now, in the technical
language of Egyptian studies, she is only known
as The Younger Lady, which is also something that
might be in my queue to stream. Being a product of
your family hooking up may have protected the
royal family's bloodline in a social sense, but in a
genetic sense, it was bad news. As a result of the
practice, Tut had a number of prominent
physical disfigurements. Contrary to the virile
boy immortalized in his famous death mask,
the real Tut probably had a severe overbite,
a curved spine, a severely disfigured foot,
extremely slim hips, a skewed face, and on top of
all that, epilepsy. He also likely had
pronounced breasts and lived most of his
short life in extreme pain. Maybe not so good to be king. Tut had a severe clubfoot, which
meant he needed help walking. This is backed up by the fact
that over 100 different walking sticks and canes were
found in his tomb. Along with him
were special stools used for shooting
with a bow and arrow. No one fully
understood why Tut was buried with these implements,
until a virtual autopsy was performed and the
clubfoot was revealed. Tut's reign as pharaoh was short
and, historically speaking, relatively uneventful. During his time, the
kingdom was involved in a few minor military
campaigns against their enemy the Hittites. Tut likely had no
role in these battles, but he did probably
play at least some role in reviving the worship of Amun
and moving the capital of Egypt from Amarna back to Thebes. He also restored many
places and temples that were destroyed
in previous conflicts. Tut was only nine when
he took the throne. So he needed strong advisors
to help him make decisions. Luckily, he had them. The first of his
powerful deputies was Horemheb, the Commander
in Chief of the Egyptian army. The second was Grand
Vizier Ay, an old soldier turned counselor who many
suspect was the true power behind the throne. The theory is
bolstered by the fact that Ay directly succeeded Tut
as pharaoh after his death. However, Ay only
reigned for four years before he died as well. Ay was succeeded by Horemheb,
who subsequently did everything in his power to erase
Akhenaten, Tut, and Ay from the historical record. Maybe he was angry
about being initially passed over for the promotion. Good management relies on
good communication, everybody. It's timeless advice. Tut was married shortly after
ascending to the throne. As was the family
tradition, his bride was a relative, his own
half sister, Ankhesenamun. She is believed to have been
a few years older than Tut. But in truth, little
is known about her. Like Tut, she was a
child of Akhenaten and may have even
been married to him. Her mother was likely Queen
Nefertiti, who, if you recall, also might have been Tut's mom. For those of you keeping
score, Tut's wife was definitely his half sister,
possibly his blood sister, and maybe his step mom. But hey, family stuff,
it's complicated. Among the other
artifacts, Tut's tomb contained two small
coffins, which hold the mummified remains
of two babies, daughters, who were likely twins. DNA analysis confirms they were
the children of Tutankhamen and Ankhesenamun. Possibly due to inbreeding,
one of the girls was found to have a
severe spinal defect and neither appear to
have been born alive. Theories as to why Tut died
so young are a dime a dozen and include everything
from genetic abnormalities and diseases to outright murder. But a 2010 study found
that the Boy King probably perished from a
malarial infection after he broke his leg. Elements of his
genetics probably also had something to do
with it, as they likely weakened his immune system,
making him especially vulnerable to such conditions. Tut's brittle bones have
led a number of experts to believe that he had
been crushed, possibly in a chariot accident. However, a virtual
autopsy conducted in 2014 found that most of the breaks
occurred after the king was already in the afterlife. Possibilities include
that the bones were broken during the embalming
process, or even in the stages of excavating his tomb. Researchers also point out
that such severe physical deformities made it
unlikely he would have been able to get into a chariot. After Tut was gone, Ay
continued the reforms that the Boy King had initiated. The country returned
to its worship of Amun. And the cult of
Aten was discarded. However, no good
deed goes unpunished. When Ay's successor
Horemheb took power, he took it all a step
further and began to outright purge all references
to Aten, Akhenaten, Tut, and Ay from Egyptian history
and architecture. Temples and monuments
that referenced Aten or any of the kings
in his line were destroyed. The capital was moved
from Thebes to Memphis. Tut was forgotten. And his burial site
was built over. Horemheb's purge
might have erased Tut from the memories
of the ancients, but it also had an
unintended consequence. Because the Boy King was almost
entirely forgotten by history and considered
fairly insignificant, his tomb had been largely
overlooked by looters. Other tombs had been discovered
by other foreign expeditions, but none were nearly as
well preserved as Tut's. This isn't to say that tomb
was entirely untouched. The outer seal had been
broken and evidence showed it had been robbed at
least twice in ancient times. Nonetheless, the sheer volume
of artifacts was so massive, it took eight years to empty
the tomb and catalog it all. The idea that a person who
disturbs an Egyptian tomb will suffer a curse didn't
start with King Tut's tomb. Similar superstitions
about other tombs date back at least
to the 19th century. The massive publicity
surrounding Howard Carter's 1922 discovery, however,
made Tut's curse the most famous, especially
when a number of Carter's team members died within a few
years of finding the tomb. Skeptics point out
that a dozen years after the tomb and
sarcophagus were open, 50 out of 58 of the people
present were still alive. Moreover, most of those
who died were either older or in high risk professions. Of course, 100% of those
people are dead today. So we can't rule out the
possibility the curse just takes a long time. The discovery of Tut's
tomb and the implied story of a young boy
ascending to become the most powerful
ruler of his time had a great allure
in pop culture. As early as 1922, the same
year the tomb was opened, imaginations already
ran wild with Tut Fever, as the artifacts
toured the world. But the strangest
manifestation of the fad may be the buffoonish villain
King Tut from the 1966 Batman series starring Adam West. Played by actor Victor
Buono, this version of Tut was an adult egyptologist
who got hit on the head and became convinced he was
the ancient Egyptian ruler. He tried taking over Gotham
City, which brought him into conflict with
Batman, who foiled the villain with some biffs,
bams, and, of course, pows, maybe even a few cup pows. No rundown of important
facts about King Tut would be complete without a
mention of the novelty song "King Tut" by legendary
funny man Steve Martin. As the touring Treasures of
Tutankhamen Exhibit captured the world's imagination, Martin
released his song as a single and later included it on his
album Wild and Crazy Guy. After performing the number
on Saturday Night Live, the single, which
contains lyrics like, "dancing by the Nile, the
ladies love his style," sold over a million copies
and actually reached number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. On the song, Martin
was backed by members of The Nitty Gritty
Band, who were credited as The Toot Uncommons. Get it? Toot Uncommons,
Tutankhamen, Toot Uncommons? That's some good stuff. So what do you think? What new fact did you
learn about King Tut? Let us know in the
comments below. And while you're at it, check
out some of these other videos from our Weird History.
