The tomb of King Tutenkhamen—better known as King Tut—has raised many questions over the years. What killed the young king? And—what’s the ___1___ stuff on the walls?

Since the tomb was opened in 1922, tourists have peered at the ___2___ painted walls. And some strange brown stains. Are the brown spots caused by contamination from visitors? Are they threatening the paintings? Or the health of the tourists?

The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities asked the Getty Conservation Institute. They in turn posed the question to Harvard microbiologist Ralph Mitchell. His lab ___3___ material from the spots and sequenced its DNA. It turns out that the brown marks contain melanins—by-products of fungus metabolism. But the fungus is no longer alive. And photos show that the spots haven’t grown in the past almost 90 years.

Mitchell thinks this evidence indicates that King Tut was buried in a hurry. Because the paint on the walls was probably still wet. And that moisture, along with the body and the food buried there, would have fed the wall fungus, until the tomb ultimately ___4___. But why the hasty funeral? Just another bit of ___5___ surrounding the boy king.
【視聽版科學小組榮譽出品】
weird elaborately cultured dried out intrigue
圖特王之墓疑團重重：圖特王到底為何英年早逝？墓墻上的怪異斑點又是什么呢？ 自1922年圖特王墓向公眾開放以來，游客們就對其精心繪制的墓墻頗感興趣。墓墻上，那些怪異的棕色污點也同樣引起了人們極大的好奇心。這些斑點是游客參觀時弄臟的嗎？它們會影響墓墻上的繪畫嗎？亦或者，它們會威脅到游客們的健康嗎？ 埃及古跡最高委員會向美國蓋蒂保護研究所發(fā)問，繼而研究所又將問題拋給哈佛大學的微生物學家拉爾夫米切爾。米切爾在實驗室里培養(yǎng)了從棕色斑點上提取的某種物質(zhì)，并且排列出了該物質(zhì)的DNA。他發(fā)現(xiàn)，棕色斑點中含有真菌代謝物——黑色素，不過真菌已經(jīng)死亡了。照片顯示，在過去的90年間，這些斑點都沒有擴大。 米切爾認為這一證據(jù)表明圖特王是匆忙下葬的，于是墻上的畫沒有干透，再加上國王的尸體以及陪葬的食物等等，都為墻上的真菌提供了養(yǎng)份，直到墓墻完全干透，真菌才停止生長。但為什么會匆匆忙忙下葬的呢？圖特王的疑團還真是沒完沒了了～