91 years after tomb discovery, documentary unveils possible cause of King Tut’s death

Ever since Howard Carter uncovered the entrance to the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun on November 4, 1922, experts have been trying to confirm what caused the untimely death of the Egyptian boy king and the appearance of his burnt mummy. Now, 91 years later, a new documentary claims that they have the full story — thanks to a single piece of flesh and some computer simulations.
The documentary reports that egyptologist Chris Nauton and a team of crash investigators ran several simulations to test an accepted theory of Tutankhamun’s death by chariot accident. The results, the team claims, seem to verify that the injuries adorning one side of King Tut’s body are consistent with a high-speed collision.

The more intriguing finding by the documentary, however, is the story of how King Tut’s body had been burnt. After chemical tests and studying the piece of flesh under an electron microscope, Nauton says the body caught fire after spontaneously combusting inside its sarcophagus. The researchers believe that those who mummified Tut messed up the procedure, which led to a chemical reaction between oxygen and embalming oils that would have raised the temperature of the enclosure to over 400 degrees.

H/T Justin Scuiletti