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Babylon & Beyond

EGYPT: A King Tut mystery solved?

By Jeffrey FleishmanStaff Writer 
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Mysteries spring eternal from the tombs and graves of ancient Egypt. Scientists are analyzing DNA samples to determine if two fetuses discovered in coffins in the 1920s were the stillborn children of King Tutankhamen, the enchanting boy Pharaoh.

The tests may resolve one of Egypt’s most fascinating hereditary puzzles: Were the fetuses fathered by King Tut and was their mother Ankhesenamun, the daughter of Nefertiti? Egyptologists say that the DNA could help them solve another enduring mystery -– the identity of Nefertiti’s mummy.

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“For the first time we will be able to identify the family of King Tut,” Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt’s Supreme Council for Antiquities, told the media.

King Tut ruled Egypt from 1333-1324 BC. But his significance lies in his afterlife. In 1922, British explorer Howard Carter opened a tomb and found the king’s in-tact treasures and well-preserved mummy and death mask. The gold-foiled coffins of the fetuses were tucked amid the trinkets, chests and riches. Autopsies done in the 1930s determined that the stillborn were between 4 and 2 months old.

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Babylon & Beyond
Jeffrey Fleishman

Jeffrey Fleishman is a senior writer at the Los Angeles Times. Previously, he was the foreign and national editor. A 2002 Nieman fellow at Harvard University, Fleishman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in feature writing. A longtime foreign correspondent, he served as bureau chief for The Times in Cairo and Berlin, and was previously based in Rome for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He also was a writer on film, art and culture. Fleishman has been a finalist for the Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and a finalist for the Center for Public Integrity’s Award for Outstanding International Investigative Reporting. He is the author of five novels, including “Good Night, Forever” and “Last Dance.”

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