DNA from the body helped narrow down the search for Tut's parents, unraveling the mystery regarding the king's royal ties. Tut's glittering grave goods captured a snapshot of ancient Egyptian history, and his mummy also shed light on practices and cultural changes around the time he died in about 1324 B.C. The teenage pharaoh's mummy was still nestled inside three coffins, including one made of solid gold. The opening of his tomb in 1922 was an international sensation because, unlike many royal tombs, it had not been looted.

The young pharaoh died more than 3,000 years ago at the age of 19. Perhaps no mummy is more famous than that of the boy king, King Tut.

(Image credit: BEN CURTIS/AFP via Getty Images) King TutankhamunĪn archaeological worker looks at the face of King Tutankhamen in 2007 as the mummy was moved to a climate-controlled case. He was wearing a sheepskin cap and leather belt and still had the rope used to hang him knotted around his neck. (Most people in this time period were cremated, so the fact he was buried in a bog lends credence to the 'human sacrifice' theory.)Īccording to Museum Silkeborg, where the mummy is now on display, Tollund Man was between 30 and 40 years old when he died and stood at least 5 feet 4 inches (163 centimeters) tall (perhaps a bit taller, presuming his body shrank in the bog after death). Researchers suspect his death was part of a ritual sacrifice because Tollund Man was then laid to rest in a fetal position, with his eyes and mouth carefully closed, according to Museum Silkeborg in Denmark. On his last day, he ate a meal of barley porridge and fish and was then hanged until he suffocated.

The exquisitely preserved mummy belongs to a man who lived during the Iron Age, between about 405 B.C.

Tollund Man, a bog body found in Denmark in 1940, may be evidence of human sacrifice. (Image credit: Tim Graham /Getty Contributor) Tollund Man may have been a victim of human sacrifice between 405 B.C.

Blue gold the mummy