Peeling Off King Tut’s Ancient Genes
Dem bones, dem bones just lie around, but the whole world wants to know everything about King Tut, even what’s deep inside his bone marrow.
Ever since the tomb of King Tutankhamun was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922, this obscure pharaoh became a global sensation. Now there is nothing that Egyptologists can learn about Tut that doesn’t become headline news.
Who better to grab the headlines than Dr. Zahi Hawass, the showman secretary general of Egypt’s supreme council of antiquities? This time, Hawass steps into the spotlight for King Tut Unwrapped, showing at 8 p.m. (E.T/P.T) Sunday, Feb. 21, and continuing at 8 p.m. (E.T./P.T.), Monday, Feb. 22, on the Discovery Channel.
The title of the show is a bit of a misnomer, for Tut was unwrapped long ago by over-eager Egyptologists who didn’t understand the importance of keeping mummies intact. (In fact, Carter’s crew literally broke the mummy with crude instruments trying to pry it loose from its case.) Actually, this program is “unwrapping” Tut’s genetic code.
Tut was born in the 18th Dynasty during a time of great unrest in the 4,000-year-old Egyptian civilization. The Pharaoh Akhenaten denounced all gods and pronounced his own god, the Aten, the one true god. He and his beautiful queen, Nefertiti, moved the capital from Thebes to a new desert city called Amarna. The priesthood of Amun (the former head god) together with the military, formed a serious threat to Akhenaten. Until King Tut Unwrapped ittle was known about the young king’s status, for he was born at the time of Amarna, yet the old gods were restored during his brief reign. He died at age 19.
The lively and often clownish Hawass takes the audience on bouncy jeep rides as he searches for just the right mummies to test for DNA samples. These delicate vials of material, plus the genetic material drawn from Tut himself are delivered to an international team of forensic scientists, some who are experts in ancient or degenerated DNA. The team spends untold hours working on Tut’s DNA alone, which has been contaminated.
The candidates for father are Amenhoptep III, Akhenaten, and the mysterious Smekhare (who is said to rule just before Tutankhamun), Hawass says. Amenhotep is a wild guess, as he is more likely to be a grandfather than anything else, and no one has ever proved that Smenkhare really existed. Bingo! When the scientists filter out the gunk in Tut’s DNA they score a direct hit on the father. Hawass can’t really prove that his KV55 mummy is the father he’s thinking of, but he’s delirious with joy anyway.
On to the mother. The trouble is there are no bodies at all. There are pictures of Akhenaten’s great wife, Nefertiti, and his secondary wife, Maya. Which one, doc? However, Hawass pounces on two bodies found in a grave when many Amarna-era bodies and artifacts were tumbled together and some time in history. Two look regal, an older one and a younger one. Mitochondrial DNA testing once again has the international team cheering, for they find that both women were related to Tut. Small problem here. But the wily Hawass figures it out by reading hieroglyphs on tissue-thin leaves of gold. is there nothing he can’t do? One is the grandmother, Tiye, he says And the other, just known as Younger Woman, is Tut’s mother. But who is she?
Well, it will be time for another Discovery Channel special, folks. Just give Dr. Hawass some rope, 100-ft. ladders, searchlights and a nearly limitless budget, and we’re sure to find an answer somewhere.
Article Author: Lynn Voedisch
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