At the mention of Ancient Egypt in the mind's eye of each of us, first of all, probably, the pyramids rise. And then - the golden mask of Tutankhamun - a pharaoh who belonged to the XVII! dynasty and ruled from about 1333 to 1323 BC. However, another sequence is possible: first the mask, and then the pyramids … This burial mask is one of the unique monuments of Egyptian art of the 18th dynasty. The face of the young king in the headdress of the pharaohs is crowned with the image of the heads of a kite and a snake. The grooves in gold are filled with navy blue, turquoise and red smalt. Expressive eyes with a black pupil are outlined in dark blue. Judging by this mask, Tutankhamun was amazingly handsome. Although the artisans who made the mask could well have neglected the portrait resemblance …
He died and was buried
According to historical documents, Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten and, presumably, his sister, whose name is still unknown. The last ruler of the XVIII dynasty became the husband of Ankhesenamun, the third daughter of Akhenaten and his beloved wife Nefertiti. That is, it turns out that Tutankhamun was married to his own sister on his father's side.
Tutankhamun's grandmother was Queen Tia, wife of Amenhotep III and mother of Akhenaten.
Having ascended the throne at the age of nine, the young king, naturally, could not independently govern the state. This was done for him by the elderly courtier Eye and the commander Horemheb.
According to the famous English archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter, who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun in 1922, "… the only remarkable event in his life was that he died and was buried." However, this is not quite true. Tutankhamun and his wife are known for abandoning the policy of Akhenaten, who worshiped the sun god Amun, and returned to the ancient tradition of worshiping Aten, the only god of the solar disk, erecting new temples for him.
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Equal to the gods
The cause of the early death of Tutankhamun is still a fierce debate among Egyptologists. According to one version, he died from blood poisoning, according to another - from malaria, according to the third - he fell victim to a murderer. It is not for nothing that there is a gaping hole on the back of the mummy's head, which could remain from a blow with a blunt object. But there are scholars who consider this hole to be the work of the Tarichevts, or embalmers. However, there is another hypothesis according to which the young pharaoh suffered from many diseases, including genetic ones. The cause of disease is incest, incest of royalty. The famous Egyptologist Professor Zahi Hawass also adheres to this version. He came to this conclusion based on the DNA analysis of Tutankhamun's mummy. Indeed, marriages between close relatives were common among the pharaohs. Even the Egyptian god Osiris married his sister-goddess Iris,what is worse than the pharaohs, equal to the gods?
Genetic examination
Recently, Zahi Hawass published an article in which he spoke about the creation of two genetic laboratories in Cairo to determine the nucleotide sequence of a DNA molecule. At that time, several mummies had already been identified - Tutankhamun himself, as well as Amenhotep III and the parents of his crowned wife Tiya - their names were Yuya and Tuya.
Material for genetic examination was taken inside the bones. Thus, the likelihood of foreign DNA getting into it - for example, taricheuts, archaeologists who worked with mummies, as well as the researchers themselves - was reduced. In addition, DNA was purified from foreign elements, for example, special resins, which were impregnated with the body.
Unknown man
By conducting these studies, archaeologists tried to establish exactly who was the father of Tutankhamun. It is interesting that the inscriptions on the stele of the era of the reign of the young pharaoh, where he calls Amenhotep III his father, have survived. But there is a ten-year gap between the death of Amenhotep and the birth of Tutankhamun! There are also inscriptions where Akhenaten calls Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun his beloved children. As mentioned above, Ankhesenamun was indeed the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. So Tutankhamun could well have been both the son and son-in-law of Akhenaten.
Using complex methods of genetic examination, scientists have determined that there is another contender for the title of Tutankhamun's father. A mysterious person was buried in tomb KV55
a man who turned out to be the son of Amenhotep III. Perhaps, scientists decided, this is Smenkhkara, the Egyptian pharaoh from the XVIII dynasty, the successor of Akhenaten and the predecessor of Tutankhamun. And yet, most likely, this is the famous reformer Akhenaten himself - this is the conclusion that most researchers have come to.
Usually Akhenaten was depicted with a long face, thick lips and a large belly. From this it was concluded that the pharaoh suffered from a genetic disease. However, now with the help of computed tomography it was possible to establish that Akhenaten looked like an ordinary person. His images were supposed to emphasize that this is a divine being, identical to Aton.
By the way, the appearance of many pharaohs was still unusual. In particular, they were distinguished by the unusual shape of the skull, elongated towards the back of the head. There is an opinion of ufologists, according to which the pharaohs owe this head shape to their real parents - aliens from other planets. However, this opinion is still unsubstantiated. But a genetic disease may well manifest itself in this way.
Brother and sister
Genetic examination also established that Tutankhamun is indeed the son of Akhenaten and his sister. It was this incest that caused Tutankhamun's ailments (he suffered from a bone disease), his early death and, as a result, the death of an entire dynasty. The unhappy young man could only move by leaning on a cane. He was depicted sitting even at the moment of archery. However, this disease was not the cause of death. It turns out that Tutankhamun was ill with severe malaria several times. Scientists do not exclude that it was this disease that fatally weakened the immunity of a 19-year-old boy and, ultimately, sent him to the kingdom of shadows.
As for the two premature babies in the grave of Tutankhamun, they, most likely, were his children. The young pharaoh and his wife tried to continue their lineage, but, being brother and sister, they could not do this - all Ankhesenamon's pregnancies ended in miscarriage.
The desire to preserve the purity of the royal blood, not to defile oneself by marriage with people of lower origin turned out to be fatal not only for the pharaohs, but also for representatives of many other noble families all over the world.
Source: “Interesting newspaper. The world of the unknown”№8 2011