Egypt reveals Tutankhamun's cause of death
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![The photo taken on Feb. 17, 2010 shows the mummy of King Tutankhamun's mother (front), who still cann't be identified by name, displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, capital of Egypt. [Xinhua]](http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20100218/0011432100f50ce6e56c05.jpg "The photo taken on Feb. 17, 2010 shows the mummy of King Tutankhamun's mother (front), who still cann't be identified by name, displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, capital of Egypt. [Xinhua]") |
| The photo taken on Feb. 17, 2010 shows the mummy of King Tutankhamun's mother (front), who still can't be identified by name, displayed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, capital of Egypt. [Xinhua] |
According to the CT scan, Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten died at the age between 45 and 55, not at the age between 20 and 25 as previously thought.
In support of this lineage, the DNA study also traces a direct line from Tutankhamun through the KV 55 mummy to Akhenaten's father Amenhotep III.
The DNA testing shows that the mother of the KV 55 mummy is the "Elder Lady" from KV 35. This mummy is the daughter of Yuya and Tjuya, and thus definitively identified as Amenhotep III's great queen Tiye.
"Tutankhamun's only grandparents, on both his paternal and maternal sides, were Amenhotep III and Tiye," Hawass said.
"Two stillborn fetuses were found mummified and hidden away in a chamber of Tutankhamun's tomb. Preliminary DNA analysis supports the Egyptological belief that these were children of the young king's," he said.
This analysis has also suggested a mummy known as KV21A, a royal female whose identity was previously completely unknown, as the most likely mother of these children and thus as Tutankhamun's wife, Ankhsenamun.
No evidence was found for inherited disorders, such as Marfan syndrome and gynecomastia/craniosynostoses syndromes, that have been previously postulated based on representations in Egyptian art, thus the artistic conventions followed by the Amarna period royal family were most likely chosen for religious and political reasons.
Tutankhamun (1341 BC -- 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty (ruling during 1333 BC -- 1324 BC in the conventional chronology), during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom. His original name, Tutankhaten, means "Living Image of Aten," while Tutankhamun means "Living Image of Amun."
The boy-king's tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922. It sparked a renewed public interest in ancient Egypt, for which Tutankhamun's burial mask remains the popular symbol. Exhibits of artifacts from his tomb have toured the world.
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