Thursday, May 04, 2006

Tutankhamun's missing part rediscovered

"His sexual organ has been just another puzzle in the story of the best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt.Harry Burton (1879-1940) photographed the royal penis intact during Howard Carter's excavation of King Tut's tomb in 1922.But it was reported missing in 1968, when UK scientist Professor Ronald Harrison took a series of x-rays of the mummy. There was peculation that the penis had been stolen and sold. 'Instead, it has always been there. I found it during the CT scan last year, when the mummy was lifted. It lay loose in the sand around the king's body. It was mummified,' says Professor Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. His sexual organ has been just another puzzle in the story of the best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt.Harry Burton (1879-1940) photographed the royal penis intact during Howard Carter's excavation of King Tut's tomb in 1922.But it was reported missing in 1968, when UK scientist Professor Ronald Harrison took a series of x-rays of the mummy. There was speculation that the penis had been stolen and sold. "Instead, it has always been there. I found it during the CT scan last year, when the mummy was lifted. It lay loose in the sand around the king's body. It was mummified," says Professor Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities."
See the above article for the full story, including a comparison with Otzi, the so-called Ice Man.

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