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About 1336-1327 BCEPeer-reviewed · 2 sourcesDebated

The Boy King Who Undid His Father's Religion, Then Died at Seventeen

On the timeline · around About 1336-1327 BCE · The New KingdomThe New KingdomThe Boy King Who Undid His Father's Religion, Then Died at Seventeen1,450 BCE1,400 BCE1,350 BCE1,300 BCE1,250 BCE1,200 BCE

What happened

Tutankhamun took the throne around age 8 or 9 after the death of his father Akhenaten, who had outlawed Egypt's traditional gods and forced the country to worship the sun disk Aten alone. As a child king guided by his advisors and the priesthood of Amun, Tutankhamun reversed that policy, changing his own name from Tutankhaten, living image of Aten, to Tutankhamun, living image of Amun, and issuing what is now called the Restoration Decree, which describes the temples as having fallen derelict under Akhenaten and states that the gods no longer heard the prayers of the people. Tutankhamun died around age 17 or 18, so suddenly that his tomb shows signs of rushed construction. Modern research has found he suffered from Kohler disease II, a bone-wasting condition in the foot, walked with the aid of canes found buried in his tomb, and carried DNA from four separate malaria infections. A 2010 genetic and CT-scan study concluded that avascular bone necrosis combined with malaria was the most likely cause of death, but no single theory has been settled as definitive, and researchers have separately linked his family's generations of sibling marriage to a cluster of inherited health problems.

Why it matters

Tutankhamun's restoration decree is the clearest surviving proof that Akhenaten's religious revolution collapsed almost immediately after his death, rejected by the same priesthood and bureaucracy it had displaced. Because Tutankhamun died without an heir, his death also ended his family's direct bloodline on the throne, opening the succession to the officials Ay and then Horemheb, who ruled next before the throne passed to an entirely new family under Ramesses I.

How we know

The religious restoration is documented on Tutankhamun's Restoration Stela, a granite stela recovered from Karnak describing the temples' neglect under Akhenaten and the young king's repairs. The medical evidence comes from a 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which combined CT scans and genetic testing of Tutankhamun's mummy and related royal mummies, identifying Kohler disease II, four strains of malaria parasite DNA, and walking impairment corroborated by canes and medicinal items found in his tomb.

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