I really don't understand the point in doing such things after all these years. Are they doing things like this for science or for 10 minutes of fame?



CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh's offspring, Egyptian antiquity authorities said Wednesday.
The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in the King Tut's tomb in Luxor when the tomb was disovered by Howard Carter in 1922.

DNA samples from the fetuses "will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun," the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement.

The testing is part of a wider program to test the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and their family relations, and Hawass said the program could help determine Tutankhamun's family lineage, which has long been a source of mystery among Egyptologists.

The identity of Tut's parents is not firmly known. Many experts believe he is the son of Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt, and one of Akhenaten's queens, Kiya. But others have suggested he was the son of a lesser known pharaoh who followed Akhenaten.

Scholars believe that at the age of 12, Tutankhamun married Ankhesenamun — a daughter of Akhenaten by his better known wife Nefertiti — but the couple had no surviving children. There has been no archaeological indication that Tut, who died around the age of 19 under mysterious circumstances over 3,000 years ago, left any offspring.

Tutankhamun was one of the last kings of Egypt's 18th Dynasty and ruled during a crucial, turmoil-filled period, when Akhenaten's monotheism was ended and powers were returned to the priests of ancient Egypt's multiple deities.

The council said that if the tiny mummies are unrelated to Tut, they may have been placed in his tomb to allow him to "live as a newborn in the afterlife."
Ashraf Selim, a radiologist and member of the Egyptian team, said the tests could take several months. So far, the team has carried out CT scans on the two fetuses and taken samples for DNA tests.

"We want to find out the truth and facts relevant to the history of these kings," Selim told The Associated Press.

Since they were found in King Tut's tomb, the mummified fetuses were kept in storage at the Cairo School of Medicine and were never publicly displayed or studied, Selim said.

Hawass has announced ambitious plans for DNA tests on Egyptian mummies, including tests on all royal mummies and the nearly two dozen unidentified ones stored in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. He has said the tests may show that some royal mummies on display are not who archaeologists thought them to be.
One of his top goals is to find the mummy of Nefertiti, the queen legendary for her beauty.

Last year, Egypt announced that archaeologists had identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most powerful queen and the only female pharaoh. But scientists later said they were still analyzing DNA from the bald, 3,500-year-old mummy to try to back up the claim.

Hawass has long rejected DNA testing on Egyptian mummies by foreign experts, and only recently allowed such projects on condition they be done exclusively by Egyptians. A $5 million DNA lab was created at the Egyptian Museum, with funding from the Discovery Channel.

But some experts have warned that Hawass is making claims like that of Hatshepsut too quickly, without submitting samples to a second lab to corroborate DNA tests or publishing the results in peer-reviewed journals, both common practice.

The council announced in its statement Wednesday that the governent had agreed with Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine to open a second DNA testing lab, though it did not give details on funding for the lab or when it could begin work.

Abdel-Halim Nour el-Deen, a former head of the council and a leading Egyptologist said DNA testing on mummies thousands of years old is very difficult.

"It is doubtful that it could produce a scientific result to determine such important issues such as the linage of pharaohs," Nour el-Deen told the AP.

"We haven't seen any of their results," he said. "Such announcements are good for publicity ... They sell well in the media."

The testing is part of a wider program to test the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and their family relations, and Hawass said the program could help determine Tutankhamun's family lineage, which has long been a source of mystery among Egyptologists.

there's your point. it seems as good as any other. and as worthy of spending
taxpayers' money on as any other historical investigations.

however, i have an above normal hatred for Zahi Hawass. i mean. i never ever
dislike people just from looking at them or listening to them. i seldom have
a strong dislike for people i actually know and think are horrible people.

but i do hate Zahi Hawass

everything about him screams phony and fraud to me.

having to sit and watch/listen to him as they subjected the viewers to that
incredible farce that was the "historical" opening of the chamber in the
great pyramid's air shaft was stomach turning. i kept wanting to throw a
hammer through the screen but i couldn't because i wanted to see what they
would find.

fcuz they found nothing since the whole thing was staged back 2 front and
back again.

we've found another door behind the first door. now let's pack up
and wait another 35 years before we go back in. lol.

that "live" broadcast was an even bigger disappointment that prince's new
website going "live" on january 31st.



aaaaanywho. the plan of testing the mummies for family relations is a
very good idea imo. even if it is Hawass who's behind it. i think if they
do this right and with integrity -regardless of [disappointing] outcomes,
it would certainly be one of the more interesting scientific investigations
in egyptian history.

i'm intrigued...

It's funny how this is brought up because I was just reading about this a month ago. Also, I've read recently that they've found approximately 60 mummies in Egypt. I wonder if they found King Tut's queen wife, because from what I've researched, after his death, she remarried their advisor and grandfather against her will and she disappeared without a trace. I am very interested in Egypt studies and artifacts.