Many remember the sensational statement made in 2011 by the Swiss geneticist Roman Scholz: they say that 50% of men in Western Europe are distant relatives of the most famous Egyptian in history, Pharaoh Tutankhamun. The news instantly spread through the world media, the pharaoh did his job. Explanations of serious scientists that the Swiss "sensation" is nothing more than a publicity stunt for a commercial genetic laboratory, almost no one has heard.
Last year's news - the discovery of hidden rooms in the tomb of Tutankhamun - is not an advertisement and not a "duck", but the Egyptologists' find quickly became overgrown with speculations about what and, most importantly, who might be in these secret rooms.
For almost two centuries, the increased interest in the royal mummies of Egypt has been causing confusion in the minds, including scientific ones. An article recently published in the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology does not contain any sensational discoveries - rather, it is an attempt to organize the available data. The authors call their research a meta-analysis: they revised and brought together all the methods ever used to identify the remains, and made their own conclusion regarding the attribution of the mummies of the XVIII dynasty of the New Kingdom - the same dynasty to which Tutankhamun belonged.
The authors of the article are renowned experts in mummies and ancient DNA analysis: paleopathologist Michael Habicht, molecular biologist Abigail Bouwman and Frank Rühli, director of the Institute for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich.
A popular narrative of the scholarly article, commented by Frank Ruely, has been published on Discovery News, including in the hope that the scientists' views will be heard by the general public.
It would seem that modern technologies make it possible to study almost any genetic material. But this is not the case, otherwise some geneticists would not have to apologize for the mistake that almost rewrote the history of an entire continent, while others would have long identified all ancient Egyptian mummies - who is who and to whom.
“It is one thing to work with modern genetic material, and quite another to analyze DNA 3500 years old. You yourself understand that the second is much more difficult to do, - this is how Frank Ruhli briefly described the problem in an interview with Discovery News.
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Scientists from Zurich focused their attention on the mummies of the 18th dynasty, the so-called Thutmoses (among the representatives of the family there were four pharaohs named Thutmose, hence the name). The Thutmoses are one of the most "media" dynasties of Ancient Egypt, it is enough to recall just a few names of its most prominent representatives: Thutmose III, the woman-pharaoh Hatshepsut, Amenhotep III, the heretic pharaoh Akhenaten, the queen Nefertiti, the "golden boy" Tutankhamun, the mysterious Smenkhkara …
In 2010, a large-scale genetic study was conducted of 11 mummies of individuals of royal blood, who are or could be relatives of Tutankhamun. The project was called The Tutankhamun Family project. Several other royal mummies from other dynasties of the New Kingdom were chosen as the "control group." The study was led by Zahi Hawass, the former head of the Egyptian High Council of Antiquities.
The results obtained, however, did not at all put an end to the definition of the ownership of all mummified remains. Genetic analysis and its interpretation have generated new controversy. The authors of the 2016 article in the Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, biologists and geneticists themselves, call for "not getting hung up" on DNA, but to consider all the data in a complex: records in historical chronicles, inscriptions and images found on the mummies themselves, in burial chambers or on lifetime monuments, physical resemblance, age at the time of death, results of anthropological studies, identified genetic links, and so on.
For example, archaeological identification based on named artifacts found in the burial shroud of mummies has never been erroneous. If there are no such obvious clues, then inscriptions and images on lifetime monuments or on the walls of tombs come to the rescue - the relief in Ashmunein once again indicates that Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten, and the inscription in the royal tomb of Amarna reports that Nefertiti was the boy's mother. The totality of historical information suggests that Akhenaten and his wife, Queen Nefertiti, are the parents of Tutankhaton (that was the name of Tutankhamun, while his father, who worshiped the one god Aton, was alive).
Or another example: Pharaoh Amenhotep II was known for his outstanding strength and brutality in battle. The physical characteristics of his mummy confirm this historical characterization. It is about this approach to identifying mummies, which would take into account not only genetic analysis, but the entire body of data, say the authors of a recent article.
Researchers of the Thutmoses' family ties have a clear advantage: Tutankhamun is the only pharaoh of the 18th dynasty whose remains have been identified with absolute certainty. There is no disagreement about the mummies of his ancestors on the part of his mother: Yuya's great-grandfather and Tuya's great-grandmother. Their remains were found in 1905 in original sarcophagi, both mummies are perfectly preserved, and the inscriptions on the funerary objects contained clear information about their names and status. But about other related to Tutankhamun mummies, the opinions of scientists still differ.
In 2010, within the framework of the "Tutankhamun Family" project, to create a genetic "passport" for each mummy, scientists led by Zaha Hawass used a set of eight STR markers (from English Short Tandem Repeat, short tandem repeats). Coincidence makes it possible to establish a relationship between different people.
As a result of the project, scientists announced that they were able to restore the genetic tree of Tutankhamun up to the fifth generation. Analysis confirmed that Yuya and Tuya were his great-grandparents. Pharaoh Amenhotep III and the woman, whose mummy is known as the Elder Lady, were assigned the role of Tutankhamun's grandfather and grandmother. Now almost no one doubts that the Eldest Lady is Queen Tiye. The mummy, discovered in very poor condition, is actually a skeleton from the tomb of KV55 - most likely belongs to Akhenaten, the father of Tutankhamun. While the identity of the Younger Lady, the mummy from the tomb of KV35, remained unknown - although genetic evidence suggests that this woman was not only the mother of Tutankhamun, but also the sister of his father, Akhenaten.
Zaha Hawass's 2010 study provided a starting point for other genetic examinations and interpretations of the results, as reflected in the table below:
The last column presents the findings of Frank Ruely and his colleagues. “Overall, our study confirms the 2010 DNA test results,” says Ryuli. The mummies of Thutmose II, Amenhotep III, Yuya, Tuya, Queen Tiye, Akhenaten and Tutankhamun can be considered identified. Ryuli and his colleagues disagree only on the fact that the identity of the Younger Lady is not identifiable. In their opinion, the mummy CG 61072 or KV35YL (where KV is an abbreviation for Valley of the Kings, “Valley of the Kings”, 35 is the tomb number, and YL is an abbreviation for Younger Lady, “the younger lady”) belongs to Queen Nefertiti.
It should be explained here why the genetic examination of the ancient remains did not give convincing results and did not stop the controversy. The point is that the set of eight STR markers used to determine the degree of relationship between the Thutmoses is insufficient. Proof of biological relationship based on so many markers would not be accepted in UK or US courts today. For example, in order to establish paternity, the courts of Great Britain require matches for at least 10 markers, in the USA - for 13. In the project "Tutankhamun's family" there were only 8 of them, more of the ancient DNA was not "squeezed out".
Ryuli's associates offer their own version of the identification of the Younger Lady's mummy, based not only on insufficient genetic material, but also on other information.
“We cannot say with absolute certainty that this is Nefertiti, but computed tomography showed a strong physical resemblance of the woman to Tutankhamun. All written and graphic sources call Nefertiti the mother of Tutankhamun. Genetic analysis suggests that the Younger Lady was the mother of Tutankhamun. Based on the totality of the data, we conclude that the Younger Lady is Nefertiti,”explained Ryuli.
If his conclusions are correct, then in a secret room, discovered last year behind the western wall of the tomb of Tutankhamun, anyone but Nefertiti could rest. Those who like to speculate are offered other possible candidates: the mysterious and elusive pharaoh Smenkhkara, the no less mysterious Kiya - Akhenaten's secondary wife, and Meritaton, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, who could rule as regent under her young brother Tutankhamun.
"Or maybe they won't find anything at all in this secret room - no mummies, no artifacts," Ryuli reasonably remarked.
Genetic identification of ancient remains is still an imprecise science. For example, two mummies from a 2010 study (the last rows in the table) have remained unidentified. The mummy KV21A has only 1 full and 6 partial matches of markers with the rest of the mummies, and the situation with KV21B is even worse: 2 complete and 1 partial matches. It is not enough not only for identification, but also for establishing relationship.
“In such cases, it is difficult to identify family ties. Of course, if we consider five coincidences, complete or partial, sufficient proof of kinship, then among the readers of this article, you will suddenly find many relatives of Tutankhamun and his family, the Swiss scientists wrote caustically at the end of the article, as if wishing to dissociate themselves from their unscrupulous compatriot and colleague in the workshop. … He, by the way, still offers Europeans to buy a genetic test and be tested for distant relationship with Tutankhamun.