Tutankhamun is ‘Michael Jackson" of the mummies by Nina Gotzmannova

King Tutankhamun is a legend between mummies since the discovery of his thumb in 1922. Now he gained a reputation of being an ancient Michael Jackson. It can't be determined, if he was black or white. The scientist still don't have a 100% proof of his skin tone, although they said King Tut was most likely white. And the black activist in US doesn't like it. The dispute about the skin tone King Tut begins when Zahi Hawass, a world famous Egyptologist gave a lecture in Philadelphia early this month and said that Tutankhamun was not black. Demonstrationists attacked his talk and also attacked an exhibition in Philadelphia, where King Tut is portrayed with light skin. Objections about poor Egyptian boy were strongest in 2005 in Los Angeles, where annoyed visitors of an Egyptian exhibition asked for removing a statue of Tutankhamen, because he wasn't pictured as a black emperor. The exhibition is now on its way to London. Hawass claims, that residents of ancient Egypt were not Africans despite they lived in Africa and certainly they were not Arabs. Their skin tone was therefore lighter. In 2005 was made a CT scan of the mummy, which revealed facts about the physical characteristics about the young pharaoh. The color of his body wasn't included. It is just not possible to determine the exact skin tone, because the skin of the mummy is not in a condition to reveal anything. Also the ancient people in North Africa had a range of skin tones, from fair to ebony black. For the statue of Tutankhamun was chosen a medium skin tone, on halfway between black and white to satisfy everyone. But Hawass has made a new discovery in the pharaoh thumb this week. He discovered eight baskets of 3,000 year old fruit and twenty containers with so far not revealed content. It all was supposed to serve King Tut in his afterlife.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070925/wl_africa_afp/egyptarchaeologytutankhamunrace;_ylt=AtIRmjlIxyj8592IKgCOk9Cs0NUE

by Nina Gotzmannova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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