By Rachel Mason

All the evidence I have found seems to point towards the fact that King Tutankhamun was murdered. My three reasons for thinking this are; one, after Tutankhamun died his embalmer found a mark on the back of his head, possibly from a hit. My second reason is that people at that time were anxious to win the throne. There were no second thoughts about killing anybody. My last thought was that Tutankhamun’s health was not good at the time of his death. He would have been an easy target.

Tutankhamun was the first boy King recorded. Since he was so young he could not properly rule the country until he was eighteen. His uncle Ay, became his adviser and more or less ran the country. When Tutankhamun got older he became more interested in law and politics. Ay was worried that Tutankhamun had got too involved and that Ay would lose his power. Tutankhamun was 18 when he died.

Firstly Tutankhamun’s embalmer found a mark on his head. He told Ay about this but Ay refused to look into it any further. (I got this information from the internet, at www.geographic.egypt.com). I think the mark on the back of Tutankhamun’s head was made from a mace head. This was one of the popular tools in Ancient Egypt for giving the death blow to the enemy. (This is just a guess of mine but I found the information on the mace head in the book, ‘Ancient Egypt’ by George Hart.)

Secondly, it was a bloodthirsty time and people weren’t worried about killing others for the throne. My evidence points to Ay as the murderer. He was next in line to the throne and he had power until Tutankhamun turned 18. I do not think it was a coincidence that Tutankhamun died at that age. Also, after he died Ay refused to look into the cause of his death. I believe Ay was the person who used the mace head to kill Tutankhamun.

My third reason is that Tutankhamun was fragile and in bad health. It would have been easy, especially for a trusted adviser and uncle, to sneak into Tutankhamun's room while sleeping and beat him to death.

Tutankhamun’s tomb was the last to be discovered in the Valley of the Kings, 1922. It was discovered by Howard Carter. Archaeologists today believe that Tutankhamun died in April, because of the flowers on his tomb.

I rest my case. Ay killed Tutankhamun by giving him a deathblow on the head with a mace head.

(For my second reason I got the information from ‘Egyptology’ by James Putnan. For my third reason I got the facts from the internet at www.pekin.net.pekin108/wash/webquest/rubic.html).