King Tut's club foot has recently been discovered by an international team of researchers. Their virtual autopsy, which is essentially a close analysis of a life-size image of the ancient boy king, indicates that Tut had a club foot, buck teeth, and a relatively girlish figure.
The virtual autopsy was acquired from over 2,000 CT scan images of King Tut's mummified remains.
The findings of the study, which were featured in a new BBC One documentary, entitled, "Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered," gave a few suggestions about how the king died.
An Egyptologist who teaches at the Royal Ontario Museum, Gayle Gibson, told The Huffington Post that their latest findings cast some doubt on a relatively popular theory that the young king rode a chariot and died when it crashed.
King Tut's club foot made it highly unlikely that he was riding in chariots. The deformity indicated that the king walked with a limp and could get around with the use of a cane.
Dr. Albert Zink of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy, informed The Huffington Post, "The evaluation of the CT scans clearly points out that it is highly unlike that he was riding a chariot due to his foot disease and his general bad health."
"Therefore, it is unlikely that he had an accident while riding the chariot," Zink added. "His remains show a fracture at the left knee that didn't show any signs of healing, but this could be the result of a simple fall and is not typical for a 'car' crash."
"Some of Tut's male ancestors suffered from feminizing features of enlarged breasts and wide hips, according to artistic and sculptural sources, whilst some of his ancestors may also have suffered from likely neurological symptoms," Hutan Ashrafian of the Department of Surgery & Cancer at the Imperial College London said.
A genetic analysis of King Tut's club foot remains also confirmed that his parents may have been siblings, a pairing which could have majorly contributed to his anatomy and knee injury.
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