Mystery of the Burnt Mummy

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Nearly a century after Howard Carter’s momentous discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Egyptologist Dr Chris Naunton returns to Carter’s vast excavation files. Hidden amongst thousands of notes he has uncovered clues that point to a mysterious burning of the Boy King’s mummy.

With the mummy now permanently locked behind glass in his tomb, the emergence of a fragment of the pharaoh’s flesh, found in a drawer in Liverpool, provides a unique opportunity to crack this mystery. Brand new chemical tests and an experiment by fire investigators lead Dr Naunton to a shocking conclusion: That King Tut’s body spontaneously combusted due to a botched mummification.

But this mystery of the burnt mummy also provides a fresh new clue to the greatest enigma of Ancient Egypt – what caused the young pharaoh’s death.

On this trail Dr Naunton draws upon the expertise of forensic scientists and car crash investigators as they uncover the exact scenario that left the royal mummy with a highly distinct pattern of injuries and missing its heart. Combined with new, historical evidence of Tutankhamun leading the charge in Egypt’s foreign wars what emerges is a new image of this young ruler – and a tragic battlefield death.

But why did King Tut become the greatest legend of the Ancient World? This final puzzle leads Chris to uncover a sinister story of political warfare and an extraordinary Act of God that would keep Tutankhamun’s tomb intact for millennia.