Posted on 07/10/2007 4:52:43 PM PDT by blam
Mystery of Tut's Father: New Clues on Unidentified Mummy
Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News
July 10, 2007
Egyptologists have uncovered new evidence that bolsters the controversial theory that a mysterious mummy is the corpse of the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, husband of Nefertiti and, some experts believe, the father of King Tut.
(Photos: Who Was Tut's Father?)
The mummy's identity has generated fierce debate ever since its discovery in 1907 in tomb KV 55, located less than 100 feet (30 meters) from King Tutankhamun's then hidden burial chamber.
So an international team of researchers led by Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, used a CT scanner to peer inside the body and those of several other Valley of the Kings mummies. (The expedition was partially funded by the National Geographic Society, which owns National Geographic News.)
The scan revealed a number of striking physical similarities between the mystery mummy and the body of Tut, including a distinctive egg-shaped skull. (Related photo gallery: King Tut's New Face.)
"CT technology virtually unwraps the mummies without damaging them," explained Hawass, who is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, in a press release.
"They reveal everything, including information about age and disease."
A CT machine produces some 1,500 cross-sectional "slice" images for each body. When put together they reproduce the entire body in three dimensions.
Heretic Pharaoh
Akhenaten, a powerful mid-14th century B.C. pharaoh also known as Amenhotep IV or Amenophis IV, had a heretical devotion to Egypt's sun god.
He decreed that Aten, the divine embodiment of the sun's life-giving warmth, was Egypt's one true god and that the pharaoh was the earthly incarnation through which Aten must be worshiped.
Akhenaten banned ancient festivals and closed temples that had honored other deities for centuries. He also founded
(Excerpt) Read more at news.nationalgeographic.com ...
Akenaten is believed to have had Marfan Syndrome (Abe Lincoln Disease).
GGG Ping.
Who did Tut most resemble? His daddy or his mummy?
I have a dog named Helen...
Whose your daddy?
As is the tradition on all Tut threads....
King Tut. King Tut.)
Now when he was a young man, he never thought he’d see
People stand in line to see the boy king.
(King Tut)
How’d you get so funky?
(Funky Tut)
Did you do the monkey?
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia
King Tut)
Now if I’d known they’d line up just to see him
I’d have taken all my money and bought me a museum.
(King Tut)
Buried with a donkey.
(King Tut)
He’s my favorite honky
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia
King Tut)
(Tut! Tut!)
Dancing by the Nile!
(Disco Tut! Tut!)
The ladies love his style!
(Boss Tut! Tut!)
Walkin’ for a mile.
(Rockin’ Tut! Tut!)
He ate a crocodile.
(Oooooh, wah-ooooh)
He gave his life for tourism.
You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That’s a good-looking mummy” —Bill Clinton, looking at “Juanita,” a newly discovered Incan mummy on display at the National Geographic museum
That Beetlejuice is such a joker!
Who’s your Mummy?
Ice Maiden - "Juanita" of Peru
Also known as "Juanita", the Inca Ice Maiden was discovered on Mount Ampato, near Arequipa, Peru by Johann Reinhard in 1995. She was sacrificed sometime around the ages of 12-14 and lived about 500 years ago. Her body lay frozen at the mountaintop until a nearby volcanic eruption melted Mount Ampato's ice cap. Mitosearch: H35HN
Name Haplo mtDNA Sequence
Ice Maiden A 16111T, 16223T, 16290T, 16319A
ping.
How many frigid women have required a volcanic eruption, in order to melt? This may be the first one...
"Ah did not have sexual relations with that woman, Queen Nefertiti.."
Years ago, I got to see the Splendors of Ancient Egypt traveling exhibit at the Phoenix Art Museum, and really got the giggles looking at one of their ancient coffins.
The sides of the wooden coffin were painted in broad red and white stripes, and the inside of the lid over the face of the mummy was painted dark blue, with white dots depicting the stars in the night sky.
When opened, it bore a striking resemblance to an American flag, and thus my laughter.
Obviously, that time machine half worked, at least.
I inhale the sweet breath that comes from your mouth
I contemplate your beauty every day.
It's my desire to hear your lovely voice
like the north wind's whiff.
Love will rejuvenate my limbs.
Give me your hands that hold your soul,
I shall embrace and live by it.
Call me by name again, again, forever,
and never will it sound without response.
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One of my dogs is named Rameses. The other four have normal dog names. ;)
doesn’t sound conclusive, but interesting.
thanks.
Anatomy Of A Mummy"An anatomical examination cannot identify the individual, but it can provide information useful in evaluating the theories various scholars have proposed. The human remains from Tomb 55, as presented to me, are those of a young man who had no apparent abnormalities and was no older than his early twenties at death and probably a few years younger. If those wanting to identify the remains with Akhenaten demand an age at death of more than mid-twenties, then this is not the man for them. As an obviously younger individual, some people might like to identify the remains as belonging to the mysterious Smenkhkare."
by Joyce M. Filer
March/April 2002
(abstract)Who's In Tomb 55?The largest object was a wooden shrine, sheathed in gold, that had been made for the funeral of Queen Tiye, the mother of the late 18th Dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten (r. 1350-1333 B.C.). This pharaoh's name could be read on two of the four clay bricks found on the tomb's floor. In the niche were four jars, originally inscribed for Kiya, a secondary wife of Akhenaten, mismatched with stoppers bearing exquisite portraits, probably of one or more of Akhenaten's daughters. The strangest of the tomb's contents was an elaborate coffin, also originally for Kiya as attested by reworked yet still decipherable inscriptions, but adapted for a male burial by the addition of a beard and the alteration of the inscriptions. The face on the coffin had been broken off and the royal names on it, which might have identified its occupant, removed. Sometimes I wonder if the people who study mummies aren't wrapped too tight. ;')
by Mark Rose
March/April 2002
(abstract)Who Was Who Among The Royal MummiesSeti II is an interesting case, because he should belong to the Nineteenth Dynasty line, being the grandson of Ramesses II and son of Merenptah. Elliot Smith in his catalogue of the royal mummies had already noted in 1912 that Seti II does not at all resemble the orthognathous heavyjawed pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but bears a striking resemblance to the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Smith's observations, which were not made with the aid of x-rays and computer analysis of craniofacial variation, nonetheless were those of a person with considerable experience in examining human remains. Subjected to Jim's more sophisticated approach using cephalometric x-ray tracings and cluster analysis, this mummy was found to be most similar in craniofacial morphology to the mummies of Thutmose II and III. In other words, Seti II was not Seti II. The confusion between Seti II and Thutmose II may have been occasioned by the similarity of their prenomens when written in the hieratic script.
by Edward F. Wente
Since the identification of Thutmose I was already seriously in doubt, there would be room to insert the Seti II mummy into the first half of the Eighteenth Dynasty. This possibility sent me to reevaluate the dockets supposedly identifying the mummy of Thutmose II. On the mummy the orthography of the king's name was not without ambiguity, while on the coffin the scribe had originally written the prenomen of Thutmose I and then altered it to Thutmose II's. Since the mummy identified as Thutmose II was older at death than the Seti II one, and from historical considerations we believe that Thutmose I died at an older age than Thutmose II, the end result of this part of our inquiry was to suggest that the Thutmose II mummy really belonged to Thutmose I and the Seti II mummy to Thutmose II, while Thutmose III has possibly been correctly identified. I say "possibly" because the shroud of Thutmose III, which has been used to identify the mummy, was discovered not wrapped around the body but simply folded on top of the mummy, which itself bore no clear identification...
The craniofacial morphology of the mummy labeled Amenhotep III also made it difficult to place in the position he should occupy as son of Thutmose IV. Of the mummies in the collection only the one supposed to be Amenhotep II is a suitable candidate to have been the father of the Amenhotep III mummy. Over the years Jim became increasingly intrigued by the Amenhotep III mummy, because it is one of the most severely battered of the royal mummies, having suffered postmortem injuries of a very violent nature, more than what tomb-robbers generally inflicted upon the mummies in search of precious items. Since the publication of the x-ray atlas further study of this mummy has been undertaken by Jim and Dr. Fawzia Hussein, Director of the Anthropological Laboratory of the National Research Center, Cairo; and it has been ascertained that the skull is two standard deviations too large for his body, and its craniofacial characteristics are consonant with sculptured portraits of Akhenaten... What may be said on the basis of the biologic evidence of craniofacial variation is that the mummy labeled as Amenhotep III by the restorers was not a likely father, or even grandfather, of Tutankhamun... [W]e suggest that Thutmose IV was the paternal grandfather of Tutankhamun, a conclusion consonant with a literal reading of the text on the Oriental Institute astronomical instrument, and that Amenhotep III was his maternal grandfather. In other words, Tutankhamun was the offspring of a marriage between a son of Thutmose IV and a daughter of Amenhotep III.
Sequence Of Kings Royal Mummies Dynasty 18 Scheme 1 Scheme 2 Scheme 3 Thutmose I = Thutmose II Thutmose II Thutmose II Thutmose II = Seti II Seti II Seti II Thutmose III = Thutmose III Thutmose III ? Thutmose III Amenhotep II = --- --- ? Thutmose III Thutmose IV = Amenhotep II Amenhotep II Thutmose IV Amenhotep III = Thutmose IV Thutmose IV Amenhotep II Akhenaten = KV 55 --- Amenhotep III Smenkhkare = --- KV 55 KV 55 Tutankhamun = Tutankhamun Tutankhamun Tutankhamun Aye = Amenhotep III Amenhotep III ---
Royal Mummies Musical Chairs:Turning to the problematic "Thutmose I," they concluded that No. 61065 was, indeed, almost certainly a Thutmosid because of his craniofacial morphology, but not a king. Analysis of Harris’s x-rays concurred with Smith’s original estimate of the individual’s age at death being eighteen or twenty years — far too young for the historical Thutmose I. And then there was the aforementioned problem of the mummy’s extended arms. Since the arms of Amenhotep I and the individual thought to be Thutmose II were in the kingly crossed position, it seemed wholly unlikely that those who mummified "Thutmose I" would have broken with established tradition (inasmuch as the so-called "royal position" was apparently not a New Kingdom innovation, the skeletal remains of ephemeral King Hor of the late Middle Kingdom having been found at Dahshur by Jacques De Morgan with the arms crossed). Thus, Harris and Wente relegated No. 61065 to anonymity, leaving the "Thutmose I" slot open for another candidate.
Cases Of Mistaken Identities?
by Dennis C. Forbes
(book excerpt)
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