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Behind the Mask, the Face of King Tut Revealed

2007-11-23 11:29:59 未知

Eighty-five years after the archaeologist Howard Carter first walked into Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, the rest of the world got its first glimpse of the most famous pharaoh in history.The boy king's delicate remains were transferred from a stone sarcophagus in his tomb to a climate-controlled glass box to preserve it for the future."The face of Tutankhamun is different from any king in the Cairo museum," said Egypt's head of antiquities, Zahi Hawass. "With his beautiful buck teeth, the tourists will see a little bit of the smile from the face of the golden boy."Tutankhamun has captured the world's imagination in the decades since his 3,000-year-old mummy was found. An exhibition of some of the ancient artefacts found in the tomb is coming to Britain later this month. It is currently touring the US, where it attracted 4 million people in its first few months. Thousands of tourists also visit the tomb in Luxor every month.But the interest has taken its toll on the king's remains. "The humidity and heat caused by ... people entering the tomb and their breathing will change the mummy to a powder," said Dr Hawass. "The only good thing in this mummy is the face. We need to preserve the face."Scientists had begun the process of restoring Tutankhamun's badly damaged mummy more than two years ago, when he was briefly removed to undergo CT scans for the first time. The first 3D image of the mummy enabled researchers to build sculptures of the king's head.The work also helped archaeologists understand how the king had died, aged 19. The scans ruled out the violent assassination many had long suspected and suggested instead that he had badly broken his left thigh a few days before his death, which may have caused a fatal infection.The scans also showed that the king was well-fed, healthy, stood at 5ft 6in and had the overbite typical from other kings in his family.Tutankhamun was the 12th pharaoh of the 18th dynasty and reigned for 10 years around 3,300 years ago. The display also marks the start of a project to determine the pharaoh's lineage - it is unclear if he is the son or half-brother of Akhenaten, the "heretic" pharaoh, or the son of Amenhotep III."Every person will see what Egypt is doing to preserve the golden boy," said Dr Hawass.
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