The archeologist community is abuzz with excitement -- Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's most powerful female pharoah, has been identified.
An intriguing story, the mummy was found in a humble tomb (labeled Tomb 60) in 1903 in The Valley of the Kings, but overlooked for over a hundred years. Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, said identification of the well-preserved mummy was made several weeks ago when a CT scan of a box, containing the queen's insignia and an embalmed liver, revealed a tooth. Like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, the tooth fit precisely in the jaw socket and broken root of an obese mummy from Tomb 60. The tooth is a key piece of evidence, but DNA analysis also links the female mummy to the matriarch of 18th dynasty royalty, Ahmose Nefertari. Other Egyptologists remain reserved until the DNA analysis and other confirmed evidence are further studied, but Hawass claims he is 100 percent certain.
The New York Times reported the mummy identified as Hatshepsut died in her 50s. She was obese, had bad teeth, probably had diabetes and died of metastatic bone cancer. The search to find the queen was funded by The Discovery Channel. Discovery is airing an exclusive documentary on the find in July. What a scoop!
In a few years when my kids both reach elementary school, I might get the chance to chaperone a field trip to the Chicago Field Museum to meet Queen Hatshepsut. Amazing.
