CAIRO: Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities says the country’s scientists will start DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine their link to the young pharaoh.
The fetuses were found in 1922 in the tomb in Luxor and have since been stored at Cairo University. They are widely believed to be King Tut’s stillborn children.
The tests will be carried out in collaboration with Cairo University’s Faculty of Medicine under the leadership of Dr Ashraf Selim, head of Cairo Scan.
Selim together with Dr Yehia Zakaria of the National Research Center have carried out CT scans of the two fetuses and took samples to make the DNA tests.
The council quotes in a statement Egypt’s Antiquities chief Zahi Hawass as saying the test will also try to determine the fetuses’ mother as well as Tutankhamun’s family lineage, a mystery that has baffled Egyptologists for years.
Scholars believe that at the age of 12, Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun – the third daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten by his wife Nefertiti. He died under mysterious circumstances around the age of 19 and left no children.
Hawass said the tests will also help in identifying the mummy of Queen Nefertiti.
This falls under efforts to identify royal mummies. DNA tests of several unknown mummies found at the Egyptian museum will be included for comparisons.
A second DNA lab will be established at Cairo University to facilitate the test and the comparison of results. Currently, Egypt’s only archeological DNA lab is at the Egyptian Museum.
Under the collaboration between the university and the SCA, the forensic department of the faculty of medicine will study the bones found inside the pyramid builders’ cemetery at the Giza plateau to estimate their average ages and common diseases of the time. -Additional reporting by AP.
