December 8, 2000. copyright, 2000, Graphic News. Alll rights reserved

WHO WAS THE BOY KING?

By Elisabeth Ribbans

LONDON, December 8, Graphic News: DNA TESTS on the 3,000-year-old corpse of Tutankhamun may finally solve one of Egyptology's most hotly debated mysteries: just who was this ancient boy-king?

This most famous of the ancient pharaohs was one of the most forgotten until British archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled across his magnificent tomb in the Valley of Kings at Luxor in 1922.

The dazzling treasures and wall paintings that surrounded TutankhamunÕs sarcophagus gave no clue to the exact royal lineage of a child who became king before his tenth birthday, around 1333BC during the period known as the New Kingdom, and died before he was out of his teens. 

Scientists from Waseda University in Tokyo, working with colleagues from the medicine and science departments of CairoÕs Ain Shams University, hope that by comparing the DNA in tissue samples from TutankhamunÕs mummy with those taken from the corpse of Amenhotep III -- the pharaoh thought to be his grandfather -- they can at last confirm the family tree. 

Although the team has been warned that the mummyÕs condition may be too bad to yield conclusive answers, it also hopes to solve the mystery of the young manÕs untimely death. Does a head injury -- discovered through X-rays in 1969 -- denote a fatal blow as many scientists suggest? Or could it be the sign of a brain tumour?

Some forensic experts believe the boy was poisoned, and that the bump on his head came when his body was dropped during mummification. Recently, Dutch researchers concluded that he suffered from a disease that caused obesity. 

It has even been suggested that the pharaoh, who died married but childless, may not have been a man at all -- rather a woman in disguise. After 30 centuries, all these secrets are about to be uncovered.

/ENDS
Sources: Reuters, Heritage of the Pharoahs by John Ruffle, Ancient Egypt by Lionel Casson