Two weeks ago I posted my article about the JAMA* report’s analysis of King Tut’s foot problems and how they might have potentially led to his downfall (no pun intended). One of the elements of my argument was that Tutankhamun was missing a toe bone in his right foot. But he wasn’t (and probably still isn’t).
I had based my contention on a typo in one of the tables in the JAMA report, a typo that is contradicted in numerous places throughout the rest of the article, a series of dots which I somehow failed to connect. As a result, Gentle Reader Monica gently but concisely took me to task for my mistake in the Comments section of the article.
Now a writer for a much more high-profile (at least for now) outfit than Em Hotep has made the same mistake. So shamey-shamey on us. But how did the same mistake make it past the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association?
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Forensic Mummy Studies, Journal of the American Medical Association, Tutankhamun
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.
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Akhenaten, Eighteenth Dynasty, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping, Journal of the American Medical Association, KV21, KV21A, KV21B, KV35, Mark Rose, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun, Webensenu
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.
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Akhenaten, Amenhotep III, Ankhesenamun, Beketaten, Eighteenth Dynasty, Family of Tutankhamun Project, Forensic Mummy Studies, Freiberg-Kohlers Disease, Genetic Mapping, Hatshepsut, Journal of the American Medical Association, KV21A, KV21B, KV35EL, KV35YL, Kiya, Mummy CCG61065, Nebetah, Nefertiti, Queen Ahmose-Nefertari, Queen Thuya, Queen Tiye, Sitra-In, Thutmose II, Tutankhamun, Yuya
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.
Read the rest of this article »
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
Is academic criticism the personification of evil itself?
Egypt’s Vice Minister of Culture Zahi Hawass seems to think so. As the critics, both pro and con, chime in with their own analysis of the recent JAMA article, Dr. Hawass seems to cross the line between making a response and taking offense.
“I call on Set, the [ancient Egyptian] god of evil to remain silent this time!”
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Albert Zink, Forensic Mummy Studies, Genetic Mapping, Journal of the American Medical Association, Otzi Iceman, Zahi Hawass
