Royal heritage
Tutankhamun may only have been a boy when he came to the throne but he was a royal boy. For decades, Egyptologists have argued over his ancestry but an increasing number of historians are now agreed that he was probably the son of King Akhenaten and his second most important wife, Kiya. Kiya herself drops out of view around the time of Tutankhamun's birth. Perhaps she died in childbirth or maybe she fell out of favour with her husband and his powerful "Great Royal Wife", Nefertiti. At any rate, Tutankhamun survived long enough to be the only male heir available around 1334 BC, when he was crowned at the age of about seven.

Powers behind the throne
Adulthood came early for Egyptian royals but, at about seven, Tutankhamun was considered too young to rule alone. It seems that Ay and Horemheb, two influential officials with ambitions of their own, cut a deal to share real power between them. Ay was Nefertiti's father and a consummate politician. He had been a leading supporter of the controversial King Akhenaten and probably felt that backing Tutankhamun was the best way of continuing the family's grip on the throne. Horemheb was a commoner who had risen through the ranks of the military. Historians believe he had fallen out with Akhenaten over the king's neglect of Egypt's security and his promotion of a radical new state religion.

Restoration drama
Akhenaten's determination to revolutionise religious practice in Egypt had caused upheaval. He had decreed that only the sun-disc, Aten, should be worshipped. References to Egypt's other gods had been removed from religious buildings and elaborate new temples glorifying Aten had been constructed. Akhenaten also built a new religious capital and called it Akhetaten. He took up residence there and, when his son was born, Akhenaten called him Tutankhaten to honour the sun-disc. Tutankhaten spent his early years in Akhetaten but moved his court back to the traditional capital, Memphis, or the long-established religious centre of Thebes quite soon after his coronation. He also changed his name to Tutankhamun, to honour a much more traditional Egyptian god, Amun. And he began to reverse his father's religious reforms, too, restoring references to traditional gods in temples and dismantling buildings that glorified Aten.

Boys will be boys
Tutankhamun had married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti - Egyptian nobles thought nothing of marriage between close relatives if it meant consolidating power. The royal couple appear to have been relatively happy together. The restoration of Egypt's traditional religious practices would have been a popular move, allowing Tutankhamun and his queen to relax a little and enjoy some of the trappings of life at court. The young king is thought to have preferred hunting to the duller duties associated with being Pharaoh.

Untimely death
Tutankhamun's reign began positively but he died unexpectedly during his tenth year on the throne. In the past, Egyptologists have speculated that he was murdered by Ay or Horemheb, perhaps because he was growing up and beginning to assert power in his own right. A thinning of the skull behind the mummy's left ear seemed to suggest an injury. Could an attacker have hit the king hit on the head? It seems not. Most modern Egyptologists now discount the murder theory. Some believe that Tutankhamun succumbed to a brain tumour that pressed against his skull for several months before killing him. An examination of the mummy in 2005 led others to suggest that he broke his leg in a hunting accident and died of gangrene. Whatever the manner of Tutankhamun's death, Ay was quick to act on it, outmanoeuvring Horemheb and having himself crowned Pharaoh.