Posted on 05/02/2008 10:57:44 AM PDT by ElkGroveDan
BALTIMORE - Akhenaten wasn't the most manly pharaoh, even though he fathered at least a half-dozen children. In fact, his form was quite feminine. And he was a bit of an egghead.
So concludes a Yale University physician who analyzed images of Akhenaten for an annual conference Friday at the University of Maryland School of Medicine on the deaths of historic figures.
The female form was due to a genetic mutation that caused the pharaoh's body to convert more male hormones to female hormones than needed, Dr. Irwin Braverman believes. And Akhenaten's head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.
The pharaoh had "an androgynous appearance. He had a female physique with wide hips and breasts, but he was male and he was fertile and he had six daughters," Braverman said. "But nevertheless, he looked like he had a female physique."
Braverman, who sizes up the health of individuals based on portraits, teaches a class at Yale's medical school that uses paintings from the university's Center for British Art to teach observation skills to first-year students. For his study of Akhenaten, he used statues and carvings.
Akhenaten (ah-keh-NAH-ten), best known for introducing a revolutionary form of monotheism to ancient Egypt, reigned in the mid-1300s B.C. He was married to Nefertiti, and Tutankhamun, also known as King Tut, may have been his son or half brother.
Egyptologist and archaeologist Donald B. Redford said he supports Braverman's belief that Akhenaten had Marfan syndrome, a genetic disorder marked by lengthened features, including fingers and the face.
Visiting clinics that treat those with the condition has strengthened that conviction, "but this is very subjective, I must admit," said Redford, a professor of classic and ancient Mediterranean studies at Penn State University.
Others have theorized Akhenaten and his lineage had Froehlich's Syndrome, which causes feminine fat distribution but also sterility. That doesn't fit Akhenaten, who had at least six daughters, Braverman said.
Klinefelter Syndrome, a genetic condition that can also cause gynecomastia, or male breast enlargement, has also been suggested, but Braverman said he suspects familial gynecomastia, a hereditary condition that leads to the overproduction of estrogen.
The Yale doctor said determining whether he is right can easily be done if Egyptologists can confirm which mummy is Akhenaten's and if Egyptian government officials agree to DNA analysis.
Braverman hopes his theory will lead them to do just that.
"I'm hoping that after we have this conference and I bring this up, maybe the Egyptologists who work on these things all the time, maybe they will be stimulated to look," he said.
Previous conferences have examined the deaths of Edgar Allan Poe, Alexander the Great, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Florence Nightingale and others.
ping
“And Akhenaten’s head was misshapen because of a condition in which skull bones fuse at an early age.”
You mean, that’s not a HAT?
Baby’s got back!
Hasn’t anyone seen Earth Final Conflict? This whole thing is explained in that show several times. They were all aliens.
That's Nefertiti's story and she's sticking to it!
Notice all his stewards around him have similar physiques. I think it is just the artistic style of the stonemason.
They always refer to him as a Monotheist. In reality, he probably practised monolatrism or henotheism, i.e. the worship of one god alone while still acknowledging the exitance of others.
I was an art history student. I thought images of people all looked that way because artists’ representations became so stylized that that they followed a strict formula in representing humans. I read somewhere that the style was forced on Egyptian artists by the priestly class who dictated positively EVERYTHING in the culture. Can someone clarify that. My memory is vague.
If you hadn’t posted that pic I would have posted one like it. He’s my favorite honky bump.
He probably heard, as a child, how special he was, and in adulthood he believed it to the point where he encouraged caricatures that exaggerated his distinctive features, and even made them the standard. (Thank goodness the sculptors were occasionally permitted to do more realistic depictions.)
What always intrigued me about the art of his time, was the absence of depictions of the male heir. You don’t see a boy among his daughters by the great royal wife; you don’t see a boy heir by any other wife; you don’t see early depictions of Akhenaton with his father Amenhotep III, or any other sons with A3, to my knowledge.
As for the misshapen skull, somebody must have started it, some powerful figure that the others emulated. Probably the same with the Mayans and their crossed eyes that they thought so becoming.
I was just about to post the same thing. Thanks!
Their were standards for ‘high’ heiroglyphs that were carved on temples and monuments and religious texts. The heratic form was less so since it was used in everyday communication.
LOL, I was thinking the same thing. All we know is that she mothered 6 daughters, not that he fathered them.
“They always refer to him as a Monotheist. In reality, he probably practised monolatrism or henotheism, i.e. the worship of one god alone while still acknowledging the existance of others.”
Or, the worship of Pharaoh and his family as the supreme deities of Egypt (but who were associated with all the other Egyptian deities).
Be nice someday to find another tomb with some more info in it. . .
Mama’s baby, Daddy’s maybe.
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