An international team of experts on Egyptian mummies said Tuesday they had found evidence that an ancient pharaoh had been murdered in a royal coup, shedding light on a long-debated historical conundrum, dpa reported.
Ramses III, who is believed to have reigned from 1186 to 1155 BC, "was murdered (in a) harem conspiracy by cutting his throat," researchers from the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman of the European Academy of Bolzano/Bozen concluded.
Egyptologists had long suspected this, because papyrus transcripts have survived of a trial following a murder plot ordained by one of Ramses' wives, Tiye, and his son, Pentawere. But it was not clear whether the conspiracy had been successful.
Tests on Ramses' mummy revealed "a wide and deep wound in the throat, probably caused by a sharp blade - and which could have caused immediate death," experts said.
A Horus eye amulet was inside the wound, while the mummy's neck was covered by a collar of thick linen layers - presumably to help the healing process in view of the afterlife in which ancient Egyptians believed in, researchers suggested.
Their forensic and anthropological study was published in the British Medical Journal.
They also examined the remains of an unknown man suspected to have been Pentawere. Scientists found signs of strangling and "a ritually impure goatskin" used for the mummification process - possibly a form of punishment for the suspected murderer, they said.
DNA tests on the two mummies also revealed that they shared the same parental lineage, "strongly suggesting that they were father and son."