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The gilded treasures of Tutankhamun have returned to the United States more than 25 years after the sensational success of their first visit, and this time Egypt intends to cash in on the enduring popularity of the boy king. The comeback museum tour has all of the trappings of a Hollywood blockbuster sequel: a "gold carpet" opening in Los Angeles, a high-powered marketing effort and the potential for a massive box office with tickets as high as $30 each. "I am not going to send any exhibit for free anymore. We took you for a free lunch and dinner a...

King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy By Evan Henerson Staff Writer Wednesday, June 15, 2005 - Nobody can be sure exactly what the boy king Tutankhamun looked like. But a group of African-American activists charting the "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibition are certain of one thing: He didn't look white. Following an appearance before the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, activists from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Committee for the Elimination of Media Offensive to African People, and the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations plan...

King Tut Exhibit Outrages Activists. Critics Want Busts Depicting Tut As White Removed. LOS ANGELES -- African-American activists criticized the Board of Supervisors Tuesday for allowing a King Tut exhibition at the county Museum of Art, saying that renderings of the boy king as white are inaccurate. The "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs" exhibit opens a four-city, nationwide tour at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on June 16. Among the installations are three busts of Tut II reconstructed from the boy king's mummified corpse. All of the busts, fashioned by three groups of researchers, show...

Egyptian scientists have finally lifted the veil of mystery surrounding famed pharaoh Tutankhamun's death, saying he died of a swift attack of gangrene after breaking his leg. "After consultations with Italian and Swiss experts, Egyptian scientists ... have found that a fracture in the boy king's left leg a day before his death was infected with gangrene and led to his passing," Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Tuesday. "The fracture was not sustained during the mummification process or as a result of some damage to the mummy as claimed by (British archeologist Howard) Carter," who discovered the sarcophagus of...

The year is about 1446 BC. The Egyptian pharaoh, his army and all the members of all the priesthoods have left in great haste. They are enraged that their entire slave population has fled, even though less than a week earlier the pharaoh and his ministers had virtually begged them to leave. The Egyptians lavished the great multitude of slaves with objects of gold, silver and precious stones as supposed "payment" for all the work they had done as slaves. EXO 12:35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they borrowed of the Egyptians...

The first ever facial reconstructions based on CT scans of King Tutankhamun's mummy have produced images strikingly similar to the boy pharaoh's ancient portraits, Egypt's top archaeologist said Tuesday. One of the models shows a baby-faced young man with chubby cheeks and a round chin — with a resemblance to the famous gold mask of King Tut found in his tomb in 1922 by British excavation Howard Carter. Three teams of forensic artists and scientists — from France, the United States and Egypt — built models of the boy pharaoh's face based on some 1,700 high-resolution photos from CT...

Scan suggests pharaoh was not murdered - but may have been roughly handled by embalmersTutankhamun, the world's most charismatic boy king, probably died of natural causes. A sophisticated scan of the mummy, discovered by British archaeologists in the Valley of the Kings in 1922, reveals a badly broken leg but no sign of foul play. In a statement calculated to end decades of feverish speculation about royal intrigue, religious repression, palace revolution and cold-blooded assassination in the ancient Nile kingdom, Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's supreme council of antiquities, told Reuters yesterday: "We don't know how the king died, but...

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - The results of a CT scan done on King Tut's mummy indicate the boy king was not murdered, but may have suffered a badly broken leg shortly before his death at age 19 - a wound that could have become infected, Egypt's top archaeologist said Tuesday. Zahi Hawass, secretary general if the Supreme Council of Antiquities, announced the results of the CT scan about two months after it was performed on Tut's mummy. Hawass said the remains of Tutankhamun, who ruled about 3,300 years ago, showed no signs that he had been murdered - dispelling a...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The gilded treasures of King Tutankhamun are on their way back to the United States in what could prove a gold rush for Egypt and big business. "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" starts a 27-month tour of the United States in June 2005 that will mark the first return here in more than two decades of the precious artifacts buried with the mysterious boy king. The exhibit is twice the size of the late-1970s King Tut global tour which launched an era of "blockbuster" museum exhibitions. This year's version will charge up to...

The exhibit is twice the size of the late-1970s King Tut global tour which launched an era of "blockbuster" museum exhibitions. This year's version will charge up to $30 per ticket and give corporate backers a share in the profits, heralding a new trend in partnerships between private companies, museums and the antiquities' home countries.

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt plans to X-ray the mummy of Tutankhamun to find out what killed the king who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago and died while only a teen-ager. Archaeologists will move Tutankhamun's body from its tomb, which was discovered packed with treasure in 1922, to Cairo for tests which should resolve the mystery over whether he died naturally or was murdered. "We will know about any diseases he had, any kind of injuries and his real age," Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told Reuters. "We will know the answer to whether he died normally or was...

Curses! Mummy Tale Not True Fri Dec 20, 2:53 PM ET By Amanda GardnerHealthScoutNews Reporter FRIDAY, Dec. 20 (HealthScoutNews) -- Tut tut to those who believe in the mummy's curse. Reuters Photo According to a study reported in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal, there is no mummy's curse associated with the opening of the tomb of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamen in Egypt. The study confirms what other experts have long suspected. "I've never had any weird experience with a mummy, and I've worked with them for 30 years," says Bob Brier, an Egyptologist at Long Island University's...