3500Yo Egyptian Mummy Found

3500yo Egyptian mummy found

June 27, 2007 07:50pm

EGYPT announced today the discovery of the long-lost mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, its most famous female pharaoh, billed as the most important find since the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told a packed news conference in Cairo that one of two mummies found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor about a century ago had been identified as Hatshepsut.

Hatshepsut, who ruled for 21 years from 1479 to 1458 BC, was one of the most powerful female monarchs of the ancient world, who declared herself pharaoh after the death of her husband-brother Tuthmosis II.

The fabled queen, known for sporting a false beard, was identified thanks to a broken tooth, following scientific examinations of four mummies from the New Empire, the antiquities department said.

The US-based Discovery Channel had quoted Hawass before today's news conference describing the mummy as "the most important find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamun" in 1922.

In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter – who went on to become famous for his discovery of Tutankhamun-- had discovered two sarcophogi in a tomb known as KV60 in the Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

One apparently contained the mummy of Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre-In and the other of an unknown female.

Later in 1920, he found the tomb of Queen Hatshepsut but the two sarcophogi it contained were empty.

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find next month, said Hawass was able to narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to the two mummies discovered by Carter in 1903.

He used CT scans to produce detailed 3D images and link distinct physical traits of one of the mummies to that of her ancestors.

According to the channel, a box that contained the tooth was inscribed with the female pharaoh's name and a scan of the box found that the tooth "matched within a fraction of a millimetre the space of the missing molar in the mouth of the mummy."

Pharaoh queen mummy of all discoveries

June 28, 2007

USING DNA analysis and an ancient tooth, Egyptian authorities last night identified a mummy found a century ago as the remains of Queen Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt's few women pharaohs and one of its most mysterious rulers.

The mummy was discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings burial ground in 1903 but was left unidentified at the site for decades, until two months ago when it was brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for testing, said Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass.

"We are 100 per cent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshep-sut, Dr Hawass said.

Along with DNA probes, the scientific testing of a tooth found in a relic box containing some of the queen's embalmed organs was key to identifying the mummy as Hatshepsut's. The molar perfectly matched a gap in the jaw of the mummy.

Dressing like a man and wearing a false beard, Hatshepsut ruled during the 15th century BC, wielding more power than Cleopatra and Nefertiti. But when her rule in the 18th Dynasty ended, all traces of her disappeared, including her mummy.

Another mummy, which had been in the Egyptian Museum for decades and was long believed to be the queen's wet nurse Sitre-In, was initially investigated as possibly being Hatshepsut herself.

Dr Hawass and Culture Minister Farouq Hosni unveiled the two mummies at the museum last night.

The mummy identified as Hatshepsut shows an obese woman, who died in her 50s, probably had diabetes and is also believed to have had liver cancer.

DNA bone samples taken from the mummy's hip bone and femur are being compared to the mummy of Hatshepsut's grandmother, Amos Nefreteri, said Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad.

While scientists are still matching those mitochondrial DNA sequences, Dr Gad said that preliminary results were "very encouraging".

The study was funded by the Discovery Channel, which is to broadcast an documentary on it in July. "This is a fantastic story of an ancient Egyptian queen but also a real scientific discovery," said producer Peter Lovering.

Molecular biologist Paul Evans, of the BrighamYoungUniversity in Provo, Utah, said the discovery could indeed be remarkable.

"Hatshepsut is an individual who has a unique place in Egypt's history. To have her identified is on the same magnitude as King Tut's discovery," Assistant Professor Evans said.

Hatshepsut is believed to have stolen the throne from her young stepson, Thutmose III. Her rule of about 21 years was the longest among ancient Egyptian queens, ending in 1453 B.C.

Hatshepsut's funerary temple is in ancient Thebes, on the west bank of the Nile in today's Luxor. After her death, her name was obliterated from the records in what is believed to have been her stepson's revenge.

She was one of the most prolific builder pharaohs, commissioning hundreds of projects. Almost every major museum in the world today has a collection of Hatshepsut statuary.

British archeologist Howard Carter worked on excavating Hatshepsut's tomb before discovering, in 1922, the tomb of theboy king Tutankhamen, whose treasure of gold has become a symbol of ancient Egypt's splendour. AP

Mummy mystery solved at museum

June 27, 2007 - 9:56AM

AdvertisementAdvertisement

The centuries-old search for the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, the only woman to have reigned as a pharoah in Egypt, may finally have ended - in a Cairo museum.

According to US-based Discovery Channel, Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass will announce at a media conference in Cairo tomorrow "the most important find in Egypt's Valley of the Kings since the discovery of Tutankhamun" in 1922.

Hawass last year revealed at a lecture in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts in New York that the true mummy of Hatshepsut was discovered on the third floor of the EgyptianMuseum in Cairo lying among thousands of other artefacts.

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find, said Hawass had now confirmed the identity of Hatshepsut through sophisticated DNA analysis.

It added that forensic scientists had used latest cutting-edge CT-scans to produce detailed 3D images of the mummy.

Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

But Discovery quoted him as confirming the breakthrough.

"The discovery of the Hatshepsut mummy is one of the most important finds in the history of Egypt," the channel quoted him as saying.

"Our hope is that this mummy will help shed light on this mystery and on the mysterious nature of her death."

Hatshepsut, daughter of Pharaoh Tuthmosis I who ruled from 1504-1484 BC, was one of the most powerful female monarchs of the ancient world.

Soon after her death, her monuments and tomb were demolished by her jealous successor Tuthmosis III and her mummy was thought to be lost forever.

The tomb of teenage pharaoh Tutankhamun was found in 1922 by Britons Howard Carter and Lord George Carnarvon.

Egypt's most famous female mummy found

From correspondents in Cairo

June 27, 2007 06:48pm

EGYPT has the discovery of the long-lost mummy of Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh, billed as the most important find since the discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told a packed news conference in Cairo that one of two mummies found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor about a century ago had been identified as Hatshepsut.