The "Coffinette for the Viscera of Tutankhamun"
© AFP Jeff HaynesWashington, July 11 (ANI): Egyptologists claim to have uncovered new evidence that indicates that the mysterious mummy discovered a century back in tomb KV 55, less than 100 feet from the King Tutankhamun's hidden burial chamber, is actually the copse of the boy Pharaoh’s father, Akhenaten.
An international team of researchers led by Zahi Hawass, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, used a CT scanner to peer inside the body and those of several other Valley of the Kings mummies.
A CT machine produces around 1,500 cross-sectional "slice" images for each body. When put together they reproduce the entire body in three dimensions.
The scan revealed the mummy as that of a male between the ages of 25 and 40, who shared many physical similarities with King Tutankhamun, including a distinctive egg-shaped skull.
The jaw, cheekbones, cleft palate, impacted wisdom teeth, and slight scoliosis of the spine were also similar to King Tutankhamun—suggesting familiar traits that may have been passed on from father to son.
"CT technology virtually unwraps the mummies without damaging them. They reveal everything, including information about age and disease,” said Hawass, who is also a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.
The "Figure of Tutankhamun as the King of Lower Egypt"
© AFP Jeff HaynesAkhenaten, a powerful mid-14th century B.C. pharaoh also known as Amenhotep IV or Amenophis IV, had a heretical devotion to Egypt's sun god.
He decreed that Aten, the divine embodiment of the sun's life-giving warmth, was Egypt's one true god and that the pharaoh was the earthly incarnation through which Aten must be worshiped.
Akhenaten banned ancient festivals and closed temples that had honoured other deities for centuries.
According to the National Geographic, he also founded a new capital city, Akhetaten (now Amarna), to honour Aten and break from the past. But the radical new religion came crashing down with Akhenaten's death. Aten's temples were razed and Egyptians once more worshiped a full pantheon of favoured gods.
Archaeologists say the Amarna era ended with the disappearance of the royal family's mummies, leaving an enduring mystery for scholars.
"There are probably as many theories about what's going on in the Amarna period as there are Egyptologists who have taken an interest in that period," said Aidan Dodson, an archaeologist at the University of Bristol in England.
Scrutiny of the mummy further revealed that the face and cartouche, or nameplate, of the mummy's coffin, though hacked out, did contain traces of gold leaf.
The final confirmation, though, was the hieroglyphics surrounding the cartouche, which suggested that that the body did belong to Akhenaten, they said.
"I think the alteration of the coffin in KV 55 suggests it must be a male member of the Amarna royal family and most likely Akhenaten," said Peter Lacovara, an archaeologist for the Amarna Royal Tombs Project, which is affiliated with England's Durham University.
"We can say that the mummy in KV 55, based on evidences, age, and on the inscriptions written in the coffin, that this could be of Akhenaten," said Hawass. (ANI)
Fascinating news. Based on the images that remain of Akhenaten, which are distinctly different from the formal styles of representitive imagery of the pharoes prior to and after Akhenaten's iconoclastic monotheistic reign , it's been widely speculated that the pharoe suffered from Marfan's syndrome.There are a lot of unknowns that pervade the history of this short and singlularly different Amarna period, artistically, philosophically and politically and I look forward to finding out more.
Douglas, 15 Jul 2007