King Tut's Curious Embalming May Point to Religious Struggle

Ancient mythology has fascinated me since I was a child. The more we've studied of ancient cultures, the more intriguing their lives and culture become - I try to imagine what it would've been like to live day-to-day in ancient Egypt, Rome, and Greece and enjoy the creative exercise. New speculation such as this only enriches that trip into time...

King Tut's Mummified Erect Penis May Point to Ancient Religious Struggle
By Owen Jarus, LiveScience Contributor | January 02, 2014

Egypt's King Tutankhamun was embalmed in an unusual way, including having his penis mummified at a 90-degree angle, in an effort to combat a religious revolution unleashed by his father, a new study suggests.

The pharaoh was buried in Egypt's Valley of the Kings without a heart (or a replacement artifact known as a heart scarab); his penis was mummified erect; and his mummy and coffins were covered in a thick layer of black liquid that appear to have resulted in the boy-king catching fire.

The mummified erect penis and other burial anomalies were not accidents during embalming, Ikram suggests, but rather deliberate attempts to make the king appear as Osiris, the god of the underworld, in as literal a way as possible.

Exactly. It bugs me that even on the National Geographic website page about King Tut, they don't have this information listed. It doesn't help improve the public's understanding, nor foster that idea that historic cultures were dynamic.