2006年VOA标准英语-Tests Show Egypt's King Tut Died of Leg, Not He

By Jessica Berman
Washington
28 December 2006

Egypt's boy king Tutankhamun probably died of an infection caused by a broken leg and not a blow to the head as commonly believed. The finding was reached by an international team of scientists that performed a CT scan of the 3,000-year-old mummy.  VOA's Jessica Berman reports.

X-ray images of King Tut's mummy in 1968 found bone fragments inside the skull¹ or cranium, leading historians to conclude that the 19-year-old Egyptian Pharaoh had been bludgeoned to death.  But new images of the ancient mummy dispel² the popular theory.

Scientists using a more sensitive form of x-ray technology known as a computed³ tomography, or CT, scanner say it appears the king's skull was completely intact at the time of his death. 

Ashraf Selim, a professor of radiology at Cairo University, led the study of the mummy near Luxor, Egypt, where the tomb is located.

Selim says the rest of the mummy was in pieces, having been broken apart in 1922 by an expedition team that discovered King Tut's tomb.

Selim says the team dismembered the corpse⁴ with chisels⁵ in an attempt to steal a golden mask that was fused tightly by embalming⁶ fluid.  The mask was one of 5,000 precious artifacts buried with the king.

Had King Tut died of a head injury, Selim says the 1,900 cross-sectional CT images would have showed the two bone fragments inside the skull fused with embalming resin⁷.  But they did not. 

Selim says the bone fragments probably came from the upper spine⁸, which was shattered.

"So, this piece of bone just get inside the cranium and it remained in there for all these past years from 1922 until now," he said.

So, if the Boy King did not die of a blow to the head, what killed him?

Selim and colleagues found a fracture on the mummy's lower left thigh⁹ bone with a thin coat of embalming fluid around the break, suggesting that the injury occurred before Tut was embalmed¹⁰.

Selim believes the fracture could have could have led to the boy king's untimely death.

"Remember that we are talking about 3,300 years ago, and there were not antibiotics¹¹, nothing at that time that were known to these people," he said.  "And if we assume that this fracture also has some sort of soft tissue injury, we know, and it got infected by [one] means or another,  there is a chance that it got into his blood producing some sort of serious problem that led to his death."

Selim and colleagues presented their findings recently at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.  

1 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

2 dispel   

vt.驱走，驱散，消除

参考例句：

• I tried in vain to dispel her misgivings.我试图消除她的疑虑，但没有成功。
• We hope the programme will dispel certain misconceptions about the disease.我们希望这个节目能消除对这种疾病的一些误解。

3 computed   

adj.[医]计算的，使用计算机的v.计算，估算( compute的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He computed that the project would take seven years to complete. 他估计这项计划要花七年才能完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Resolving kernels and standard errors can also be computed for each block. 还可以计算每个块体的分辨核和标准误差。 来自辞典例句

4 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

5 chisels   

n.凿子，錾子( chisel的名词复数 )；口凿

参考例句：

• Chisels, brushes, paints-all are the products of technology. 凿子、刷子、颜料―这些都是工艺技术的产物。 来自辞典例句
• He selected the right chisels from a pile laid out beside him. 他从摊在身边的一堆凿子中挑出适用的几把。 来自互联网

6 embalming   

v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的现在分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气

参考例句：

• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming. 尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They were experts at preserving the bodies of the dead by embalming them with special lotions. 他们具有采用特种药物洗剂防止尸体腐烂的专门知识。 来自辞典例句

7 resin   

n.树脂，松香，树脂制品；vt.涂树脂

参考例句：

• This allyl type resin is a highly transparent, colourless material.这种烯丙基型的树脂是一种高度透明的、无色材料。
• This is referred to as a thixotropic property of the resin.这种特性叫做树脂的触变性。

8 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

9 thigh   

n.大腿；股骨

参考例句：

• He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了，疼得很。
• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。

10 embalmed   

adj.用防腐药物保存（尸体）的v.保存（尸体）不腐( embalm的过去式和过去分词 )；使不被遗忘；使充满香气

参考例句：

• Many fine sentiments are embalmed in poetry. 许多微妙的情感保存于诗歌中。 来自辞典例句
• In books, are embalmed the greatest thoughts of all ages. 伟大思想古今有，载入书中成不朽。 来自互联网

11 antibiotics   

n.（用作复数）抗生素；（用作单数）抗生物质的研究；抗生素，抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
• The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。