The Murder of Tutankhamen [Hardcover]

Bob Brier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1998

"If you look at the skull, if you examine the letter from the young queen, if you hold the royal ring in your hand, it's clear that something shocking and violent happened to King Tut." -Dr. Bob Brier Three thousand years ago, a nineteen-year-old pharaoh died mysteriously. Hastily, a commoner's tomb was readied for his burial, his body mummified, fabulous jewels and furniture gathered, the tomb sealed. Then: silence. In the years that followed, almost every trace of the young king and his wife was literally erased. In 1922, the small tomb was uncovered; inside lay the most glorious royal Egyptian treasures ever unearthed, and Tut's place in history was restored. So dazzling was the treasure-the golden coffin, the mask, the jewels, the vases-that it was easy to forget that almost nothing was revealed about the man buried there. What really happened to King Tut? His brutal murder and his queen's subsequent frantic overtures to neighboring kings are just two of Dr. Bob Brier's startling allegations as he pieces together the evidence and comes back with a convincing verdict.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For decades after the discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb, the dazzling treasures found along with the mummy distracted many of us from the actual events of Tutankhamen's life. But take a look at the body itself--cranialX-rays reveal a location on the back of the skull that may indicate a hemorrhage, perhaps one caused by a deliberate blow. The question thus arises: Was King Tut murdered?

Egyptologist Bob Brier specializes in paleopathology, the study of diseases in the ancient world. In essence, he performs high-tech autopsies on 3,000-year-old corpses. (He's also taken part in a re-creation of Egyptian mummification techniques, including the extraction of the brain through the nasal passages.) Here, he examines the X-rays and other photographic evidence, correlating it with the research of other Egyptologists, and concludes that Tutankhamen was the victim of political and religious intrigues that developed into a fatal conspiracy. True crime buffs and historians alike will find much to like in Brier's fast-paced recounting of his investigations.

From School Library Journal

YA-Was Tutankhamen murdered? Brier presents his hypothesis in an engrossing tale that moves along at the pace of a well-crafted whodunit. In lucid prose, he gives the lay person an informative overview of Egyptian history prior to Tutankhamen's reign with special emphasis on his father, Amenhotep IV, who instituted the cult of Aten. As little is known about Tutankhamen's life, Brier reconstructs from wall paintings and hieroglyphic tablets and columns a perfectly plausible and fascinating picture of the boy-pharaoh's friendship with, then marriage to his half-sister Ankhesenamen and their daily life. Before reaching his 20th birthday, Tutankhamen died. His Grand Vizier, Aye, was named pharaoh, Ankhesenamen petitioned her sworn enemies, the Hittites, for a prince to become her consort, and this prince was killed en route to Egypt. A logical case is presented for murder: X rays of Tutankhamen's skull reveal what might be interpreted as a blow to his head; the Grand Vizier who succeeds the childless pharaoh wanted power; Ankhesenamen strangely disappeared after an arranged marriage to his successor. Brier obviously knows his subject and is impassioned by it. Readers who enjoy history or true-crime stories will be intrigued by this work. A detailed bibliography invites further reading.
Helena Ferret, Chantilly Regional Library, VA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Putnam Adult (April 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399143831
• ISBN-13: 978-0399143830
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,701,261 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging and good, but read it very critically, April 23, 2002

By 

Janis Cortese (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Murder of Tutankhamen (Mass Market Paperback)

Granted the evidence presented by this book is by no means conclusive, I've got to say that if more history books were written with this much verve, fewer kids would graduate school convinced that "history is boring." Brier loves what he does, and he's very well-read in it, and it shows. You get a real feel for the political intrigue of the time right after the heresies of Amarna, and he presents the information in such a way that you never forget that there are actually human personalities associated with these events. The book does a great job getting across the flavor of life in that time, and certainly it does convince me at least that something fishy was going on at the end of Tut's reign.

However, that said, I didn't find any of the medical/forensic evidence presented even slightly convincing (and the opening chapter with its dramatic film noir reenactment of the "murder" was a bit much). Tutankhamen's death itself at a young age isn't even suspicious given that there is a good chance he inherited Marfan Syndrome from his father, a disability which has an excellent track record of killing young. And given that the skull and body were grossly damaged by the funerary practices of the time, I don't feel that any solid conclusions can be drawn from the state of either. The political evidence that something fishy was happening is a lot more compelling than the physical evidence -- and Brier knows his Egyptian politics.

Brier clearly knows Egypt well, and loves it, and that intellect and enthusiasm shines through every word, making this book a more than worthwhile read as long as you have your critical filters in place. I look forward to more work from Brier. Even if you don't agree with his conclusions, you've got to admit -- if more historians were this engaging and presented history with this much texture and life, history'd be a whole lot more fun in school, wouldn't it?

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Theory but no more than a guess, really, October 9, 2000

By 

J. Collins (Las Vegas, NV USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Murder of Tutankhamen (Mass Market Paperback)

In this work, the author claims that Tutankhamen was murdered, in fact the subtitle of the book is "a true story". Well, emphasis on the "Story". Using a single piece of evidence, allegedly a swelling on the base of the mummy's skull, he spins a tale of palace intrigue and political assasination. This is certainly a good read, and a good introduction for someone to Egyptology, but it's not history. There are some details that the author has left out or altered to make his point: first, he uses the funeral portraiture on Tutankhamen's tomb to hypothesize that Ay was setting himself up as successor. Actually, in many tombs the "opening of the mouth" ceremony has the son of the deceased present. If anything, Ay is showing his dedication to the king, portraying himself as the loyal subject-the arranger of the funeral. By putting his face on the wall, he reminds Tutankhamen who performed the burial. This may well be a way to ensure that "Tut" will remember Ay when he is dead. Secondly the author uses the term "true of voice" in describing on of Tutankhamen's names. Not true, well not true while the king was alive. "True of voice" is used when meeting Anubis, Thoth, and the heart is weighed against Ma'at; it's strictly funereal. Speaking of Ay, there's simply no way to know what his motivations were, if any. He left no record, and no other record has yet been found. Finally, the comments of another reviewer concerning efforts to review the xrays and analysis raise suspicion. Any scientist who refuses to release his data for scrutiny by colleagues must make one skeptical about any conclusions drawn. I think the best analysis that could have been made would have been to take samples from the mummy for forensic exam. If testing showed that Tutankhamen did not die from disease, then the author could have moved from that premise to the one he espouses here. The strengths of the book are in the fusing of several different disciplines to attempt a solution of an ancient question. The description of day-to-day life plus the details of Akhenaten alone make the book worth reading.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great theory, but certainly not scholarly work, January 4, 1999

By 

"mrallen" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Murder of Tutankhamen (Hardcover)

This is a convincing and thorough hypothesis that is not fully proven. Yet Brier presents a case stronger than any other yet presented. I would be remiss to say this should be one's only book on Egyptian history (it is far from detailed), but I do not think one could study Egypt without reading The Murder of Tutankhamen.

I am aware of the rumblings inside the Egyptology community on the lack of precision in Brier's evidence. I am not endorsing all of Brier's reasoning, especially his extraneous investigation of the psychology of Aye and the supposed evidence presented in the Opening Of The Mouth ceremony drawing on Tutankhamen's tomb wall. However, I do find Brier's theoretical reasoning plausible and well-argued. I do not think this is a scientific book, rather it is an investigative inquiry. It may not be the truth, but Brier's analysis has more proof than theories that Tut died of plagues or diseases. (Michael R. Allen in SpinTech Magazine, July 1998)