CAIRO: In a communiqué from the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, and a team of researchers strongly questioned a recent research team’s claims to have identified three mummies as the Pharaoh Akhenaton, his wife Nefertiti, and his mother Tiye.
Using a portable CT-scan machine donated to the Supreme Council for Antiquities by the National Geographic Society and Siemens, Inc, Hawass and his team conducted tests on the ancient mummies, leading them to refute the Nefertiti identification, and to dispute the evidence underlying those of Akhenaton and Tiye.
“There is no Akhenaton, Nefertiti, or his mother identified at this point, Salima Ikram, Head of the Egyptology department at the American University of Cairo told The Daily Star Egypt. “And there isn’t going to be for a long time because of the difficulties of using DNA evidence.
The mummy believed to have been that of Akhenaton was found in an Amarna-period cache (mid-14th century BC) called by researchers KV 55. The other two mummies previously identified as Nefertiti and Tiye, respectively called the “Younger Lady and the “Elder Lady, were found in a side chamber of the New Kingdom tomb of Amenhotep II (15th century BC) which was used as a storage place for New Kingdom royal bodies in the 21st Dynasty (1-81-931 BC).
Were they to be confirmed, these findings would electrify the world of Egyptology. Akhenaton and his wife were fascinating figures and religious revolutionaries who overturned the traditional polytheism of Egypt in favor of the monotheistic worship of the Sun God.
The research team identified KV 55 as Akhenaton for several reasons. The mummy was found in a royal sarcophagus and objects contained within the tomb bore the names of kings Amenhotep III, Akhenaton, and Tutankhamun. The mummy itself was directly linked to the royal family because its skull structure is similar to that of Tutankhamun. In addition, the cadaver’s age at the time of death was around that of Akhenaton’s, roughly 30 years old.
However the recent CT-scan turned up evidence suggesting that the skeleton belonged to a far more elderly man, perhaps even over 60 years of age. This new evidence, while not definitively disproving the Akhenaton identification, at least muddies up the waters significantly.
In the case of the Younger Lady, the CT-scan positively disproved the strongest pieces of evidence for the identification, a bent right arm (sign of royal status) and facial defacement, which suggested that succeeding pharaohs deliberately defaced her out of jealousy to stamp out any evidence of her real importance.
The CT-scan revealed that the bent right arm was not hers, instead concluding that a nearby straight arm was the matching one. It also showed that the facial damage must have occurred before the embalming, perhaps even while the woman was still alive.
In summary, Hawass stated that there is no compelling evidence proving the Younger Lady to be Nefertiti.
The last mummy, called the Elder Lady and believed to be Queen Tiye by many scholars, could neither have its identity confirmed nor denied by the CT-scan. The CT-scan did suggest however, that due to her arm positioning and the careful embalming patterns, she was of royal descent.
But while CT-scans could be useful, DNA testing results are generally unreliable.
“Ancient DNA evidence is very dodgy and should not be depended upon because the degeneration of DNA is quite high and because you can only find out a few things from the female mitochondrial DNA.
“DNA testing has not even been done on many mummies because the tests are very destructive towards the mummy and scientists are unwilling to damage mummies for questionable test results.
Recent scientific questioning of DNA tests came on the heels of recent claims of having identified the mummy of the ancient female Pharaoh Hatshepsut.
However, Ikram was positive about the CT-scan technology.
“The CT-scan technology is very good though and yields good data, unlike DNA technology which will have to improve significantly before we can positively identify mummies, she said.
