HSIE - History - Year 8 - Ancient Egypt: Warfare

Tutankhamun may have fought in battle and led Egypt to war, new research has found - suggesting he was not merely a sickly boy-king. Specialised photography uncovered signs of battle scars wear on the 18-year-old pharaoh's 3000-year-old war leather armour.

A 3,000-year old tunic-like garment that was originally discovered in Tutankhamun’s tomb in the 1920s is currently housed inside in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Recently, researchers analyzed the remnants of the leather cuirass by using a technique called reflectance transformation imaging (RTI). The merging of the various images revealed some hidden features of the armor, namely how it was actually worn by a person, as opposed to an ornamental piece.