Mummy Identified As Egyptian Female Ruler

Queen Hatshepsut Was Egypt's Most Powerful Woman Pharoah, But Mummy Had Been Misidentified

(CBS/AP)  Egyptian authorities Wednesday identified a mummy found a century ago as the remains of Queen Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt's few women pharaohs and one of its most mysterious rulers.

In a search worthy of a plot for CSI, scientists matched DNA from a tooth found in a box of organs to a mummy unearthed more than 100 years ago, reports CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey.

The mummy was discovered in Egypt's Valley of the Kings burial ground in 1903 but was left unidentified at the site for decades, until two months ago when it was brought to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for testing, said Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass.

A molar perfectly matched a gap in the jaw of the mummy.

"That tooth exactly fit with the mummy," said Hawass. "I can say that this is the most important discovery after the discovery of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings."

A woman monarch who called herself a pharoah, dressed like a man and also wore a false beard, Hatshepsut ruled during the 15th century B.C., wielding more power than two other women of ancient Egypt, Cleopatra and Nefertiti.

More powerful than even the legendary Cleopatra, Hatshepsut's life three-and-a-half thousand years ago was the stuff of today's tabloids, reports Pizzey. She married her half brother, stole the throne from her stepson, and ruled longer than any other Egyptian queen, often dressing like a man and wearing a false beard.

But when her rule in the 18th Dynasty ended, all traces of her mysteriously disappeared, including her mummy.

Her mummy disappeared from its tomb in the Valley of the Kings, burial place of pharaohs, including the most famous of all, King Tut, shortly after it was interred.

Another mummy, which had been in the Egyptian Museum for decades and was long believed to be the queen's wet nurse Sitre-In, was initially investigated as possibly being Hatshepsut herself.

Hawass and Culture Minister Farouq Hosni ceremoniously unveiled the two mummies, kept inside long glass cases draped in the Egyptian flag, at a press conference at the museum Wednesday.

The mummy identified as Hatshepsut shows an obese woman, who died in her 50s, probably had diabetes and is also believed to have had liver cancer, Hawass said. But her left hand is positioned against her chest, in a traditional sign of royalty in ancient Egypt.

DNA bone samples taken from the mummy's hip bone and femur are being compared to the mummy of Hatshepsut's grandmother, Amos Nefreteri, said Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad, who is on Hawass' team.

While scientists are still matching those mitochondrial DNA sequences, Gad said Wednesday that preliminary results were "very encouraging."

[susanhelit]

This is really cool. That was a fascinating period in Egyptian history. She was a great ruler, but controversial, and after her death, her successors tried to obliterate her from history. It's an amazing discovery all around - from ancient history, to the science used to extract DNA and figure out where she was.

[rushlimpdrug]

If we clone ourselves and come back to live, what of our souls in our current body? do they come back also or is it a new one?
Posted by cmp271
- you come back with a new body and super powers!

[willylou11]

superdem

No we know your're an ape, probably trained to type by your little scientist buddy who changes your diapers and feeds you banannas.

[golfsecrets]

The report from Egypt about Queen Hatshepsut is thrilling. At the University of North Carolina, I was a student of Dr. Charles Harland, professor of Archaeology. He instilled in me a strong and continuing interest in archaeology.

[cmp271]

If we clone ourselves and come back to live, what of our souls in our current body? do they come back also or is it a new one?

This woman definitly was a power in Egypt. Sounds like Dynasty-Egyptian style!

[rushlimpdrug]

She looks like all the other egyptian chicks I've known.
Oh wait, does she have something stuck in her throat?
Getting mummified - $3,000.00
Getting a photo of yourself wrapped up like a burrito on the internet - priceless.

[neenga]

Rest in a piece of what?

[thgdriver]

I never cared for this morbid curiosity we have with these mummies, after all, they are/were a person who, I think , deserves to rest in piece. Just like you or I hope to do. I certainly don't want anyone taking me out of my crypt (yes, I have a paid for crypt) and putting me on display like some discarded dog bone.

[jimibear]

Personally, I thought it was Nichole Ritchie.

[superdem]

Ankhenaten got it right - the sun is earth's god, and we, along with all life on earth, are physical manifestations of sunlight. Let the sun go out, or flare up, and try to get Jesus or Allah to help you. 6 billion years of the sun's energy, blasting past a rock in the "sweet zone" and voila, life on earth. It's science, and so elementary an Egyptian saw it thousands of years ago. But we have to struggle with the Christians, who deny that we are apes. Sigh...

[grimloxz]

Michael Jackson? LOL From the photo, it appears that mummy's nose approaches a flatness Michael hasn't seen since 82'...

LOL

[neenga]

Sadat? Oh no, this mummy is definitely related to Michael Jackson. Check the nose.

[rushman71]

Egyptian Lover
Egyptian Lover Baby
Egyptian Lover
Egyptian Lover Baby

Nah, nah, naaaah
Egypt, Egypt
Nah, nah, nanaaaah
Egypt, Egypt
Nah, nah, naaaah
Egypt, Egypt
Nah, nah, naaaah
Egypt, Egypt

[galaxiana]

The ancient Egyptians believed that by preserving their corpses, they would be resurrected someday. It looks like they're right, since it's only a matter of time before we have the biotechnology to create clones from DNA.

I wonder what else the ancient Egyptians were right about in their religious beliefs...

[grimloxz]

Yes, indeed grazinggoat, the people in that time period were far more likely to be kin to Anwar Sadat than to Mubarak or Nasser for that matter. Good one...

[rushlimpdrug]

is she single?

[caykasagi]

zahi hawass, the *** of egyptology,
has smelled right again.

[barbjc1]

This identification is pretty special, considering she was assumed to be the most powerful female pharoah that ever ruled. Notice I said female pharoah not just pharoah. If they can match centuries old DNA with today's science that is awesome.

[grazinggoat]

Thought there are no physical similarities btween Mubarak abd the Mummy, but there are some similarities between their lenght of ruling. Over twenty five years now... long live Mubarak the soon to be mummy. ;o)

[grazinggoat]

this mummy has some family traits with slain former president Anwar Sadat. No likely relationwith actual Hosni Mubarak. Were they related?