During the Middle Kingdom Period, having a daughter appointed as a God’s Wife in your local temple meant that you were a member of the upper crust of Egyptian society. But at the dawn of the New Kingdom, Pharaoh Ahmose I drafted a legal contract that made the God’s Wife of Amun arguably the second most powerful person in the kingdom. Before all was said and done, one God’s Wife would use the office to become the most powerful person in the kingdom.

With Amun now the King of the Gods, his earthly consort came into her own wealth and authority in a way that would ultimately shatter the glass ceiling of Egyptian politics, at least for a while…

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Tags: Ahhotep I, Ahmose I, Ahmose-Nefertari, Amun, Benefactor Stele, Donation Stele, Eighteenth Dynasty, Gods Wife of Amun, House of the Adoratrice, Karnak, Khabekhnet, Middle Kingdom Period, New Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, Second Priesthood of Amun, Seventeenth Dynasty, Tempest Stele, Thebes

So much for the evil god Set keeping his mouth shut—people just seem to insist on questioning authority. The JAMA article is jammed with answers, but queries continue. Assembled here for your pleasure and edification are the best examples of critical questioning culled from the Egyptological blogosphere.

Tangled roots, the passed-over prince, aging them bones, lack of control, and Kate Phizackerley’s Quest for Accuracy.

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Tags: Akhenaten, Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping, Journal of the American Medical Association, KV21, KV21A, KV21B, KV35, Mark Rose, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, Webensenu

Was King Tut a warrior king or “one sick kid”? Even as the Family of Tutankhamun Project was publishing its findings in the Journal of the American Medical Association that the Boy King was a frail young man who needed a cane to walk, Egyptologist W. Raymond Johnson was publishing his evidence that Tut was an active young man who rode chariots into battle.

So which is the true Tut? What if both versions are accurate? Could this perfect storm of physical challenges and adventurous behavior have led Tutankhamun to a heroic but early grave?

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Tags: Akhenaten, Albert Zink, Ay II, Battle Narratives, Carsten Pusch, Eighteenth Dynasty, Emily Teeter, Family of Tutankhamun Project, Forensic Mummy Studies, Freiberg-Kohlers Disease, Horemheb, Medical Practices, Oriental Institute Epigraphic Survey, Temple of Luxor, Tutankhamun, W Raymond Johnson

Meet the mummies of the Family of Tutankhamun Project! If you are looking for a mummy-by-mummy summary of the recent JAMA article, then you are in luck!

In The Mummies Gallery we will take a look at each of the mummies in both the study and control groups and pull together the familial and pathological data for easy referencing.

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Tags: Akhenaten, Amenhotep III, Ankhesenamun, Beketaten, Eighteenth Dynasty, Family of Tutankhamun Project, Forensic Mummy Studies, Freiberg-Kohlers Disease, Genetic Mapping, Journal of the American Medical Association, KV21A, KV21B, KV35EL, KV35YL, Kiya, Mummy CCG61065, Nebetah, Nefertiti, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, Queen Thuya, Queen Tiye, Ramesses-I, Sitra-In, Thutmose II, Tutankhamun, Yuya

Who built the Great Sphinx? Why did they build it? How did they build it? These questions and more are addressed in Riddles of the Sphinx, by the PBS series NOVA.

Featuring Mark Lehner, Zahi Hawass, Rick Brown, Gunter Dreyer, Richard Redding, Rainer Stadelman, and Fathi Mohamed.

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Tags: Eighteenth Dynasty, Fathi Mohamed, Fourth Dynasty, German Archaeological Institute, Great Sphinx, Gunter Dreyer, Horemakhet, Khafre's Pyramid, Mark Lehner, Rainer Stadelmann, Richard Redding, Rick Brown, Sphinx Temple, Thutmose IV, Zahi Hawass

Was King Tut murdered? Did Akhenaten have both a male and female physiology? Did incest and inbreeding lead the Eighteenth Dynasty down a genetic dead end? Last month the Family of Tutankhamun Project attempted to answer these questions—and more—with the publication of a two-year forensic study of sixteen mummies of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

This article is the first of several in which we will attempt to put the research into layperson’s terms. First we will take a look at the what, who, where, why and how of the study itself.

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Tags: Akhenaten, Albert Zink, Carsten Pusch, Eighteenth Dynasty, Family of Tutankhamun Project, Forensic Mummy Studies, Frank Ruhli, Freiberg-Kohlers Disease, Genetic Mapping, Gino Fornaciari, Journal of the American Medical Association, Paul Gostner, Robert Connolly, Stephen Buckley, Tutankhamun, Yehia Zakaria Gad, Zahi Hawass

Plus: Catching Up Em Hotep!

All the world is abuzz with the long-awaited release of the current genetic study of the Eighteenth Dynasty, particularly as it relates to the goose that continues to lay the golden eggs—King Tut.

Your humble scribe is still mulling over the subject before attempting his own contribution, but in the meanwhile, here are a few excellent pieces from some of the most excellent writers in the Egyptology blogosphere. In the spirit of parsimony, I have narrowed my selection down to the three which I found to be the most unique in their approach and thought provoking in their implications. Enjoy!

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Tags: Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping, Tutankhamun

Dr. Otto Schaden has posted an update to his webpage stating that the excavation of KV63, the tomb/mummy cache he discovered back in 2005, has been completed. This milestone was passed this fall when the remaining sealed jars discovered in KV63 were opened and their contents examined. In addition to seven empty (except for smashed jars and mummification tools) coffins, Dr. Schaden’s team discovered 28 large storage jars in one of the chambers of KV63, most of them sealed.

But with all the jars now opened, work on KV63 is far from over and the most exciting discoveries are certainly yet to come.

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Tags: Eighteenth Dynasty, Otto Schaden, Valley of the Kings, kv63

King Tut is known as the Boy King for two reasons. The first is the young age at which he assumed the throne—around eight or nine. The second is that he died at around nineteen, so he never really reached adulthood. Why he died so young is a question that has been with us since his tomb was discovered by Howard Carter in 1922.

In 2005 a team of top radiologists conducted a series of CT scans on Tutankhamun’s mummy, and when the results were announced the following year at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America, the results were not 100% conclusive. Most of the team felt they had settled the question of what had caused Tut’s early death, but there were some holdouts.

So when Zahi Hawass announced last August that he was on the verge of announcing the exact cause of Tut’s death, Em Hotep! took notice. So does a new article and video on Dr. Hawass’ website finally put the question to rest?

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Tags: Akhenaten, Amarna, Ashraf Selim, Ay II, Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Howard Carter, Mummification, Richard Covington, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass

Last week Shemsu trudged out into the cold and rain just to bring a local interest story to Em Hotep!’s Kentuckiana readers. Stuffed grape leaves, butter-scotch baklava, and bellydancing. These are just a few of the hazards I braved to bring you this exclusive.

Pictured to the left, Shemsu’s better half—Sekhmet.

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Tags: Akhenaten, Amarna, Amenhotep III, Andrea Deagon, Apis Bull, Bellydancing, Egyptian Art, Eighteenth Dynasty, Ghawazee, Karnak Temple, Louisville, Luxor, Nebamun, Roman Period, Temple of Amun at Karnak, Tomb Art

Dra Abu el-Naga is a sort of suburb, if you will, of the Valley of the Kings where some tombs belonging to Seventeenth Dynasty royalty (such as Queen Ahhotep I, to the left) have been discovered, along with the tombs of Theban priests and officials.

Zahi Hawass has released a new video, which premiered at Heritage Key, with some of the recent discoveries at Dra Abu el-Naga, including some details about the tomb of Amun-Em-Opet, the Supervisor of Hunters.

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Tags: Ahhotep I, Amun-Em-Opet, Dra Abu el-Naga, Eighteenth Dynasty, New Kingdom Period, Tombs, Valley of the Kings, Zahi Hawass

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Tags: Ahmose I, Akhenaten, Amarna, Amenhotep I, Amenhotep II, Amenhotep III, Amenhotep IV, Ay II, Eighteenth Dynasty, Horemheb, Memphis, New Kingdom Period, Priesthood of Amun, Ramesses-I, Smenkhkare, Thutmose II, Thutmose III, Thutmose IV, ThutmoseI, Tutankhamun

Kate Phizackerley of News from the Valley of the Kings has raised a few questions of her own regarding DNA Testing Limitations. It is the most accessible treatment of the subject that I have seen so far, and if you really want to have a thorough understanding of this very interesting story as it unfolds, you owe it to yourself to give it a read.

Tags: Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping

If I were a stockbroker and Nefertiti was a commodity, I would be advising my clients to buy. Dr. Zahi Hawass’ last year with the Supreme Council of Antiquities promises to be an interesting one, with robots crawling the Great Pyramid, mummies in CT scanners, and rumors of KV64.

But somehow Nefertiti seems to keep slipping back into the story.

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Tags: Altes Museum, Ankhesenamun, Bust of Nefertiti, Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Internal Ramp, Jean-Pierre Houdin, KV64, Khufu's Pyramid, Mummies, Mutnodjmet, Nefertiti, New Kingdom, Repatriation, Secret Doors, Supreme Council of Antiquities, The Great Pyramid, Tutankhamun, Zahi Hawass