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Is King Tut The Daddy Of Mummified Fetuses?

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The Associated Press

Published: August 8, 2008

CAIRO, Egypt - Egyptian scientists are carrying out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine whether they are the young pharaoh's offspring, the antiquities authority said this week.

The two tiny female fetuses, between five to seven months in gestational age, were found in King Tut's tomb in Luxor when it was discovered in 1922.

DNA samples from the fetuses "will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun," the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Zahi Hawass, said in a statement.

The testing is part of a wider program to check the DNA of hundreds of mummies to determine their identities and family relations. Hawass said the program could help determine Tutankhamun's family lineage, which has long been a source of mystery among Egyptologists.

The identities of Tut's parents are not firmly known. Many experts think he is the son of Akhenaten, the 18th Dynasty pharaoh who tried to introduce monotheism to ancient Egypt, and one of Akhenaten's queens, Kiya. But others have suggested he was the son of a lesser known pharaoh who followed Akhenaten.

Scholars think that at age 12, Tutankhamun married Ankhesenamun - a daughter of Akhenaten by his better known wife Nefertiti - but the couple had no surviving children.

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