The Secretary General of Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, announced Wednesday that experts are currently trying to identify the mummy identified by DNA analysis as the mother of Tutankhamun. The DNA testing program also addresses another major figure of ancient Egypt, Queen Nefertiti, wife of Akhenaten to the legendary beauty, but whose mummy has never been identified.
The results of DNA analysis and images X-ray taken two years of 16 mummies, including that of Tutankhamun, were published in the American Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday.
(Click on the image to the right to see a larger picture.)
The boy Pharaoh died at nineteen years of age, after ruling for ten years. It's no wonder he died young as scientists have now established that the pharaoh had a cleft palate (as did his father), a club foot (as did his grandfather), and also suffered from the disease of Kohler, which resulted in a lack of blood flow causing the slow destruction of bone his left foot. He suffered from a genetic bone disease and malaria which, combined with complications the fracture of a leg, probably caused of his death.
130 canes and walking sticks, some of which appeared to have been used, have been discovered in the tomb of the pharaoh.
