Ancient Egypt

Two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun will undergo DNA testing to determine their relation to the famous pharaoh, Egyptian officials announced today. The fetuses may also solve a longtime puzzle: the identity of King Tut"s mother. The young Tut, who reigned from 1336 to 1337 B.C., is controversially thought to be the son of Pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Kiya. But some archaeologists believe he could be the son of Akhenaten"s otherwife, the powerful Queen Nefertiti.

"The fetuses will help us determine whether [King Tut"s wife and daughter of Nefertiti] Ankhesenamun was a half sister or a full sister," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt"s Supreme Council of Antiquities. "If the fetus DNA matches King Tut"s DNA and Ankhesenamun["s DNA], then they shared the same mother." The testing will also reveal whether the fetuses are offspring of Ankhesenamun and Tut. Scientists caution, however, that they will probably not establish a direct link between the fetuses and Tut because suchgenetic matches are extremely difficult to prove. Additionally, mummies of fetuses found in a tomb are not necessarily the children of the buried pharaoh. "I personally feel they are not the sons of Tutankhamun," said Hawass, who is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.

View: Full Article | Source: National Geographic

A new robot has been developed that will attempt to reach a sealed chamber within the Great Pyramid of Giza.The specially designed robot will attempt to move along a small shaft and drill through two stone doors believed to seal a chamber that has remained hidden away for over 4,000 years. Following in the footsteps ofHoward Carter and Abbot and Costello, a specialized robot will penetrate deeper into the Great Pyramid of Giza than ever before.

The robot, part of a years long exploration called the Djedi Project, will explore a shaft inaccessible to a previous robot, unlocking a room that has remain sealed for 4,500 years.

View: Full article | Source: MSNBC

A huge archive of material relating to the discovery of King Tutankhamun has been put online for the first time.Documents, photographs and notes recorded by Howard Carter in 1922 when he discovered the tomb were donated to Oxford University"s Frank Griffith and later became the Griffith Institute. The huge archive of materialrelating to the discovery of King Tutankhamun has been put online for the first time.

The comprehensive notes and photos recording the find by archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922, were donated to Oxford University’s first Professor of Egyptology, Frank Griffith, by the Carter family.

View: Full article | Source: Oxford Mail

Archaeologists in Jerusalem have unearthed the most ancient written document ever found in the Holy City – a tiny fragment of a letter thought to be addressed to Akhenaten, the “heretic” pharaoh who ruled Egypt during the 14th century B.C. Discovered outside Jerusalem’s Old City walls, the document consists of a minuscule clay fragment -- about one square inch -- covered with cuneiform script in ancient Akkadian. Thought to date back some 3,400 years, the fragment appears to have been part of a tablet from the royal archives. Indeed, the script on the chip, which includes the words “you,” “you were,” “later,” “to do” and “them,” is of a very high level, according to Wayne Horowitz, a scholar of Assyriology at the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology. “It was written by a highly skilled scribe that in all likelihood prepared tablets for the royal household of the time,” said Horowitz, who deciphered the script with colleague Takayoshi Oshima of the University of Leipzig, Germany.

View: Full Article | Source: Discovery Channel