Chariots of Fire

(eTN)- Egyptian boy pharaoh King Tutankhamun’s chariot will travel to New York City. This is the first time that a chariot from the tomb of Tutankhamun will be allowed out of Egypt. The High Council of Culture sends the chariot to the Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs exhibit at the Discovery Times Square Exhibit.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said chariot whichs arrive in New York today will be accompanied by a conservator and the Director of the Luxor Musuem where the chariot is currently displayed.

Hawass said, “This is the first time that the chariot will travel out of Egypt in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the people of New York to see something with great significance from the boy king’s life.” The chariot is unique and stands out among the other five chariots found among Tutankamun’s burial treasures. Howard Carter found the chariot in the southeast corner of the Antechamber along with three other chariots. It is completely devoid of decoration and has a very light open-sided construction. The tires are also in bad shape, suggesting that this chariot was used frequently in hunting expeditions by the young king. Carter described the chariot as, “One of more open, lighter construction probably for hunting or exercising purposes.”

Recently the medical report detailing the testing done on Tutankhamun and members of his family was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The article, “Ancestry and Pathology in King Tutankhamun’s Family” describes how Dr. Hawass and his team uncovered the long-debated members of Tutankahmun’s family, as well as the cause of his death. A research team from Hamburg’s Bernhard Noct Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNI) however disputed claims that King Tut died of malaria, and instead believed that sickle-cell disease killed him. While some of the symptoms between malaria and sickle-cell disease are similar, Hawass and his team, stand behind their findings and confirm that Tutankhamun died of complications from malaria and Kohler’s disease, a disease that effects blood supply to the bones.

During recent CT scans and DNA tests, Hawass and his medical team discovered that King Tutankhamun had an accident a few hours before he died, which caused a fracture in the king’s left leg. This makes the use of Tutankhamun’s chariot in the New York exhibit even more interesting as the young king may have fallen from this very chariot. Hawass added, “As we discover more about Tutankhamun’s death, we may find that this chariot is an important piece of the puzzle that we’ve been working for decades to solve.”