A new report of CT scans shows that there was murder afoot, or more precisely a-toe, in the conspiracy to kill Ramesses III.

In a new book from famed Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Cairo University radiologist Sahar Saleem, "Scanning the Pharaohs: CT Imaging of the New Kingdom Royal Mummies", the researchers reported on scans of royal mummies from about 1543 B.C. to 1064 B.C., including Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Tutankhamun, Seti I as well as Ramesses III.

The authors had already announced in 2012 the discovery that Ramesses' likely cause of death was a slit throat. The assault had cut through the rulers trachea and esophagus, according to the Daily Mail.
But another injury has now thickened the plot. "The site of foot injury is anatomically far from the neck-cut wound; also the shape of the fractured toe bones indicate that it was induced by a different weapon than that used to induce the neck cut," Saleem told Live Science. "So there must have been an assailant with an ax/sword attacking the king from the front, and another one with a knife or a dagger attacking the king from his back, both attacking at the same time."

Scholars have long thought that a plot was behind the death of this ancient Pharaoh, as such a scheme was mentioned in papyrus court documents. In these, the scheme appears to have been cooked up by one of his wives, Tiye, in an effort to put her son Penatawere on the throne. Both of them, as well as other conspirators including staff and family members, were brought to trial for the murder and put to death, according to the ancient documents.

According to the researchers' latest findings, the cut-off big toe was covered up by embalmers, who created a postmortem prosthesis out of linen soaked in resin.

"This hid the big secret beneath the wrappings," Saleem said. "It seems to me that this was the intention of the ancient Egyptian embalmers, to deliberately pour large amounts of resin to glue the layers of linen wrappings to the body and feet."

Thanks to CT the investigators were able to see much greater detail without causing destruction to the mummy's fragile material. A 2014 scan showed pharaohs who had back problems and tooth decay, and also revealed mistakes made by the embalmers.

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