The Legend and the Discovery: King Tutankhamun was just a teenager when he died. He was the last ruler of a powerful family that ruled Egypt for centuries. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by a British archaeologist named Howard Carter. The tomb was packed with fabulous everyday items and incredible treasures of solid gold, ensuring Tut’s rebirth in the afterlife.

Carter’s Investigation and Damage: Carter spent months carefully recording the treasures. However, when it came to the mummy, he faced a massive problem. The ritual resins used during mummification had hardened, cementing Tut to the bottom of his solid gold coffin. To remove the mummy, Carter’s team had to chisel away the consolidated material from beneath the limbs and trunk, heavily damaging the body.

The 1968 X-Ray Revelation: Archaeology changed significantly over the decades. In 1968, an anatomy professor X-rayed the mummy and revealed a startling fact: beneath the resin that caked his chest, King Tut’s breastbone and front ribs were missing.

The Modern CT Scan (2005): On January 5, 2005, King Tut’s mummy was brought out of his tomb to be scanned by a portable CT scanner donated by National Geographic and Siemens. The goal was to answer two main questions: How did he die, and how old was he at the time of death? The machine took 1,700 digital X-ray images in cross-section.