Historian William Deutsch believes that the death of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun, which occurred about 3,300 years ago, was the result of … a plane crash
The researcher made this conclusion as a result of an experiment with a statuette from the Cairo Museum. Some experts believe that the model that fell into their hands is a prototype airframe. Its flying qualities are quite good, say historians who tested their hypothesis in a wind tunnel. It is noteworthy that testing not only a miniature prototype, but also a full-size experimental sample, built specifically for research, turned out to be a success.
A model resembling a small plane was found in the city of Saqqara in Egypt. Egyptologists consider it a hawk with spread wings and date it to the 4th - 3rd centuries. BC e. She was most likely found in 1898 in the Pa-di-Imena tomb in the northern part of Sakkara. The item, made from sycamore, is 14.2 cm long with a wingspan of 18.3 cm and weighs about 39 g.
The hieroglyphs on the tail of the bird say: "Offering to Amon," and the god Amon in Ancient Egypt was usually associated with rain. The ancient model was kept in the Cairo Museum until 1969, until the professor of anatomy Khalil Messiha drew attention to it. He noticed that it resembles a modern airplane or glider and, unlike the images of other birds in the museum, this object has no legs and feathers. According to Messih, the exhibit has a number of aerodynamic characteristics. After his brother, a flight engineer by trade, created a flying model out of balsa wood, Dr. Messih's confidence that the Saqqara bird was a scale model of an ancient glider was strengthened.
And the historian William Deutsch launched this model into a wind tunnel. According to him, her flying qualities were quite good. It is noteworthy that testing not only a miniature prototype, but also a full-size experimental sample, built specifically for research, turned out to be a success. These materials Deutsch and attached to the case, according to scienceblog.
“In addition, I am haunted by the fact that many members of the ruling families of Ancient Egypt were buried with multiple fractures that could have been obtained as a result of falling from a height,” the scientist muses. - It can be assumed that in those days gliders, albeit very primitive, could well exist.
Recall that Tutankhamun died at the age of 18. The condition of his tomb betrayed the surprise of death and the haste of the funeral. The body was crudely embalmed; no one cleaned the walls and floor of the tomb from accidental splashes of paint. The attributes of the ritual ceremony kept the hastily erased names of other people.
An autopsy of the mummy, made three years after its discovery in 1925, did not reveal traces of a violent death. But after 40 years, experts who examined the remains of the pharaoh using X-rays drew attention to bone fragments in the brain area and a dark formation that could be a blood clot.
In 2002, British film producer Anthony Geffen, who set out to solve the mystery of the death of the pharaoh, hired detectives Greg Cooper and Mike King to take on an unusual investigation. And when the police showed these pictures to the luminaries of neurology, they not only confirmed the suspicions, but also discovered signs of displacement of the brain, resulting from a strong blow to the skull. After that, the police, with the help of Egyptologists, identified the circle of the main suspects: the Mayan treasurer, the commander Horemheb, the Prime Minister Ai and the wife of Pharaoh Ankhesenamun. Then the detectives suspected the prime minister. But now, apparently, all suspicions have been removed from him.