Manchester University Helps With Pharaoh Analysis (Hatshepsut)

Eureka Alert ^ | 7-16-2007 | University Of Manchester

[blam]

Contact: Aeron Haworth
aeron.haworth@manchester.ac.uk
44-771-788-1563
University of Manchester

Manchester University helps with pharaoh DNA analysis

Preliminary results support positive identification of Egyptian queen

Preliminary results from DNA tests carried out on a mummy believed to be Queen Hatshepsut is expected to support the claim by Egyptian authorities that the remains are indeed those of Egypt’s most powerful female ruler.

Egyptologists in Cairo announced last month that a tooth found in a wooden box associated with Hatshepsut exactly fitted the jaw socket and broken root of the unidentified mummy.

Now, Dr Angelique Corthals, a biomedical Egyptologist at The University of Manchester, says that DNA tests she helped carry out with colleagues at the National Research Centre in Cairo have promising preliminary results suggesting the identity of the queen.

Dr Corthals, who is based at Manchester’s KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology, advised and trained a team led by Dr Yehia Gad in Egypt in techniques of extracting DNA samples from the mummified remains of the mystery female.

The group then compared the DNA samples with those taken from Hatshepsut’s royal relatives – her grandmother Ahmose Nefertari, the matriarch of 18th dynasty royalty, and her father Thutmose I.

“The difficulty in carrying out DNA testing on the royal mummies resides in the many times the remains have been handled as well as the chemical processes of mummification,” said Dr Corthals.

“Ironically, the chemicals that preserve the appearance of the mummies actually damage their DNA but the team was able to extract small amounts of genetic information from the areas of the mummies least affected by contamination.

“When the DNA of the mystery mummy was compared with that of Hatshepsut’s ancestors, we were able to scientifically confirm that the remains were those of the 18th dynasty queen.”

Hatshepsut, meaning ‘Foremost of Noble Ladies’, was Egypt’s greatest female ruler, having greater power than even Cleopatra. The fifth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, her reign in the 15th century BC was longer than any other female ruler of an indigenous dynasty

Most of the 18th dynasty royal mummies were moved away from their original tombs in the Valley of the Kings by the priests of the 21st dynasty fearing desecration and tomb robberies.

The cache was discovered in the 1870s by the Razzul brothers and, in 1881, all 40 mummies were moved to Cairo. However, Hatshepsut’s remains appeared to be missing and it was feared the mummy was lost, having been moved by her stepson Thutmose III, who – on succession – tried to destroy every trace of her reign.

However, in 1903, a British archaeologist, Howard Carter, excavated what became known as tomb KV60 and discovered two mummies – one in a coffin inscribed for a royal nurse, the other stretched out on the floor.

In June, Dr Zahi Hawass, Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, held a news conference in Cairo to announce that this second mummy was that of the lost queen, pointing to the tooth as evidence.

The preliminary DNA evidence – to be included in a Discovery Channel documentary being broadcast in the United States this Sunday – suggests that the mummy is indeed the great queen Hatshepsut.

The team is now planning to carry out more tests on the 40 remaining royal mummies, including that of Tutankhamun, in order to resolve the many questions surrounding the genealogy of the 18th and 19th dynasties.

Further DNA testing is expected to help resolve such mysteries as the identity of the mummy of Tuthmosis I: Is it really the mummy of the mighty warrior-king of the 18th dynasty or just the remains of a nobleman" And were the two foetuses found in Tutankhamun’s tomb really the children of the young pharaoh?

[SunkenCiv]

Hatshepsut Found; Thutmose I Lost
by Mark Rose
July 15, 2007

So, the pool of contenders for identification as Hatshepsut: KV60A (from the tomb and dubbed "the strong one" for the show), KV 60B (from the nurse's coffin), DB320A (called "the screaming one" because her mouth is open), and DB320B ("the serene one"). Dennis Forbes has pointed out that "the serene one" is in fact Unknown Woman D from KV35, often thought to be the 19th Dynasty queen Tausert. DB320B is often thought to be Tetisheri, matriarch of the 18th Dynasty. And we have Thutmose II and III for comparison, along with "Thutmose I." These all get run through a CT scanner in the museum's basement and that's when the fun begins. Who will be voted off Hatshepsut's Island? Who will be Pharaoh for a Day?

Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, examines a possible royal mummy in KV60, left. Four mummies, one of which might be Hatshepsut's, right. (Discovery Communications)

[SunkenCiv]

dead link, from a file:

The Lost Pharaoh
by Gaile Robinson
Friday, Aug. 25, 2006

The story of her ascendancy and eventual disappearance, as well as more than 200 artifacts created during and shortly after her reign, are on exhibit in "Hatshepsut: From Queen to Pharoah," which opens Sunday at the Kimbell Art Museum. There are still holes in her story, and new interpretations arise every decade. It is known that she was the daughter of a king, Thutmose I, and that she married her half-brother, Thutmose II, a common practice among Egyptian royal families to ensure the bloodline. Thutmose II became pharaoh and died soon after leaving Hatshepsut and her daughter Neferure, and a secondary wife, Isis, mother of Thutmose III... She could not officially rule, because she was not the king's mother. Hatshepsut crowned herself king (yes, king) to strengthen her claim to the throne. Once she became king, though, she could not step down, not even when Thutmose came of age... Hatshepsut died around 1458 B.C., and 20 years later, Thutmose III began a systematic eradication of all evidence of her as a pharaoh. Images of her as a queen were left intact, but those of Hatshepsut in a short skirt and the double crown were defaced... For quite some time, it was believed this was a retaliatory measure of an angry stepson against an evil stepmother. But recent scholars say that, had that been the case, Thutmose would have not waited almost two decades to begin his assault on her history.

Egypt is trying to show the world its commitment to equality (uh, which doesn't exist).

[wildbill]

i was worried it would cause you some ankhst.

[reagan_fanatic]

Not to be confused with the tomb of King Hatshempsut...

[jpl]

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.egyptsites.co.uk/middle/minya/antar.html

in the lengthy text the queen describes the chaos of Hyksos rule and extols the benefits of her own reign and her restoration of the damage they caused...it is possible that the Hyksos may have been used in the text as a metaphor for chaos...

( It would be interesting to read the full text.)

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.basarchive.org/sample/bswbPrintPage.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=7&Issue=5&ArticleID=4

This inscription has long been known and was first published in 1880. It is famous because of its reference to Asiatics or the Hyksos invaders of Egypt. No one previous to Professor Goedicke however, has related the inscription to the Exodus.

The inscription was translated by Sir Alan H. Gardiner, the dean of hieroglyphic translators, in an article published in 1946 (“Davies’ copy of the Great Speos Artemidos Inscription,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology Vol. 32, p. 43.). Gardiner referred to the inscription as a “difficult text” and concluded his translation with these words: “I cannot refrain from once more stressing the highly speculative nature of my results.”

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.ancientneareast.net/texts/egyptian/speos_artemidos.html

The Speos Artemidos Inscription of Hatshepsut

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.specialtyinterests.net/sheba.html

The Timing and Direction of the Voyage

[SunkenCiv]

It just made me cross. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks!

[fish hawk]

I watched that too. A little bit Hollywood but still very interesting.

[wildbill]

Cross? Cross? That’s outside the bounds. Aswan who learned punt rules on Mummy’s lapiz, I harden my heart and become o so wary of you.

[SunkenCiv]

I Thutmose people wouldn’t get that.

[wildbill]

Let my people goyim?

[SunkenCiv]

Moses didn’t plague games.

[SunkenCiv]

Pharaoh Hatshepsut Died in Pain
by Rossella Lorenzi
Discovery News
July 2, 2007

Obese, plagued with decayed teeth and perhaps a skin disease, Queen Hatshepsut might have spent her last days in pain... Bald in front but with long hair in back, the mummy shows an overweight woman just over 5 feet tall, who died at about 50... The daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I and wife of Tuthmosis II, her half-brother, Hatshepsut reigned from 1498 to 1483 B.C. as the fifth pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty... When her husband-brother died, Hatshepsut became regent for the boy-king Tuthmosis III, the child of Tuthmosis II and a concubine... Examination of the mummy's mouth and her missing molar, which led to her identification as Hatshepsut, revealed very poor dental hygiene... Obesity and poor oral hygiene suggested to Selim and colleagues that she might have suffered from diabetes... One thing, however, is certain: Hatshepsut had cancer, cancer that had metastasized.