King Ramesses III's throat was slit, analysis reveals

[Mark]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20755264

Conspirators murdered Egyptian King Ramesses III by slitting his throat, experts now believe, based on a new forensic analysis.

The first CT scans to examine the king's mummy reveal a cut to the neck deep enough to be fatal.

The secret has been hidden for centuries by the bandages covering the mummy's throat that could not be removed for preservation's sake.

The work may end at least one of the controversies surrounding his death.

Precisely how he died has been hotly debated by historians.

Ancient documents including the Judicial Papyrus of Turin say that in 1155BC members of his harem attempted to kill him as part of a palace coup.

But it is less clear whether the assassination was successful. Some say it was, while other accounts at the time imply the second Pharaoh of the 20th dynasty survived the attack, at least for a short while.

Shrouded in mystery

The Judicial Papyrus tells of four separate trials and lists the punishments dished out to those involved in the plot, which included one of the king's two known wives, called Tiye, and her son Prince Pentawere - potential heir to the throne.

It says Pentawere, the only one of Ramesses III many sons to revolt against him, was involved in the conspiracy, found guilty at trial and then took his own life.

To find out more, Dr Albert Zink, a paleopathologist at the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Italy, and colleagues set out to examine the mummy of Ramesses III and the unidentified remains of another body found in a royal tomb near the Valley of the Kings in Egypt that was believed to be the king's son Pentawere.

Working out of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo where the bodies are now housed, the team ran some CT scans and DNA tests on the mummies.

Scans of Ramesses III revealed a deep, 2.7in (7cm) wide wound to the throat just under the larynx, which the medical scientists say was probably caused by a sharp blade and could have caused immediate death.

Amulet discovery

Dr Zink said: "Before now we knew more or less nothing about the destiny of Ramesses III. People had examined his body before and had done radiographs but they didn't notice any trauma. They did not have access to the CT scans that we do.

"We were very surprised by what we found. We still cannot be sure that the cut killed him, but we think it did.

"It might have been made by the embalmers but this is very unlikely. I'm not aware of any other examples of this."

They could see a Horus eye amulet embedded in the wound - a charm most probably inserted by the ancient Egyptian embalmers during the mummification process to promote healing.

The DNA tests showed that the unidentified body of the young man, who was aged about 18 when he died, was a blood relative of Ramesses III, and in all probability the king's son Pentawere.

Dr Zink said: "From our genetic analysis we could really prove the two were closely related. They share the same Y chromosome and 50% of their genetic material, which is typical of a father-son relationship."

When they examined the body of the young man, they found he had unusual compressed skin folds and wrinkles around his neck as well as an inflated chest.

Although these changes might have occurred post-mortem in the mummy, it could indicate that the man was strangled to death, says Dr Zink.

The body was not mummified in the usual way - and was covered with a "ritually impure" goatskin - which might have been an ancient punishment in the form of a non-royal burial procedure.

"He was badly treated for a mummy," said Dr Zink.

A full report of their findings is published in the British Medical Journal.

[Patrick Waterson]

The 'mummy of the young man' would appear to be Unknown Man E from the Cairo Museum.

Given that when this mummy was unwrapped Gaston Maspero identified the bandagings as 18th Dynasty, it is hardly likely to be the mummy of Pentwere.  DNA analysis from mummy tissue depends heavily upon 'reconstructing' very fragmentary DNA, and so far it has never failed to show a father-son relationship between any two male mummies tested (vide Dr Zahi Hawass' attempts to reconstruct the Amarna family tree).

Interesting that Ramses III had his throat cut: Ramses IV, his successor, takes pains to portray himself as the 'legitimate' successor so probably was not.  Ramses VI appears to have based his claim on being a direct descendant of Ramses III (and he may not have been the only one: the fragmentary works of Ramses VII and VIII suggest simultaneous but ultimately unsuccessful rival claimants).

Life in the Per'aa (Great House) could on occasion be quite risky.  Herodotus records an attempt to murder 'Sesostris' (Thutmose III*) which seems to parallel Josephus' story of 'Sethosis' and his two brothers, one of whom died early and the other of whom was executed for trying to usurp the throne.  (Interestingly, the Hymn of Praise detailing Thutmose III's conquests makes reference to his 'two brothers'.)  Herodotus also indicates that Thutmose II* died in a coup that placed his sister 'Nitocris' (Hatshepsut*) on the throne as sole ruler (she was not pleased and eventually took her revenge on her brother's murderers).  Even Genesis records an incident that placed the royal butler and baker in prison as suspects in a conspiracy (this seems to tie in with the circumstances of the death of Amenemhet I).

[*My identifications.]

The Judicial Papyrus (the Egyptian record of the trial- in translation) is here:
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/judicial_turin_papyrus.htm

The sentence visited upon many of the conspirators was identical:

"they found him guilty; they left him in his place; he took his own life."

If a supplementary part of the sentence had been the soak-in-natron-and-wrap-in-sheepskin/goatskin arrangement seen with Unknown Man E, we should have many more of these unusual burials.  However Unknown Man E remains unique.

The British Medical Journal article is here: http://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e8268