Is she or isn’t she?
Months after Egypt boldly announced that archeologists had identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, scientists in a museum basement are still analyzing DNA from 3,500-year-old corpse to try to back up the claim aired on TV.
Progress is slow. So far, results indicate the linen-wrapped mummy is most likely, but not conclusively, the female pharaoh who ruled Egypt for 22 years in the 15th century BC.
Running its own ancient-DNA lab is a major step forward for Egypt, which for decades has seen foreigners take most of the credit for major discoveries in the country.
But the Hatshepsut discovery also highlights the struggle to back up other recent spectacular findings in Egypt, including the unearthing of ancient tombs and mummies, investigations into how King Tutankhamen died, and even the discovery in the Siwa oasis of possibly the world’s oldest human footprint.
Most of the evidence that led Zahi Hawass to declare the mummy to be Hatshepsut did not come from DNA but from CT scans. Those scans showed that a tooth found in a relic box displaying the pharaoh’s insignia matched a gap in the mummy’s jaw. CT scans also showed facial similarities between the mummy and already identified mummies of Hatshepsut’s royal relatives, as well as evidence of a skin disease that the queen may have shared with some of them.
Hawass has ambitious plans for DNA testing in Egypt, including examining all the royal mummies and the nearly two dozen unidentified mummies stored in the Egyptian Museum. He believes DNA tests will show that some royal mummies on display are not who archeologists thought they were.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20071220/mummy_claim_071220/20071220?hub=SciTech
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