EGYPT: A King Tut mystery solved?

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.

“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

Photo: The mummy of a fetus from King Tut's tomb. Credit: Al-Ahram Weekly.

Comments

[jonas]

i love the jonas brothers