Famed ancient Egyptian ruler Ramses III likely died in a bloody coup attempt in which his throat was cut, an Egyptologist team confirms, and he was likely buried with his disgraced son, one of the coup plotters.
In the current BMJ journal, a team led by Egypt's Zahi Hawass reports the results of forensic and genetic studies of two mummies found in the tomb of Ramses III (or Ramesses III), who is long known from papyrus records to have been the target of a palace assassination attempt around 1155 B.C. The court records, written in the flowery language of the ancient "New Kingdom" court of the time, had left unclear whether the pharaoh had survived the assassination attempt.
It appears he did not. X-ray analysis, "revealed a serious wound in the throat of Ramesses III's mummy, directly under the larynx," reports the study. "The extent and depth of the wound indicated that it could have caused the immediate death of Ramesses III."
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