King Tut Fetuses To Be Tested By Egypt (VIDEO)

King Tut Fetuses To Be Tested By Egypt (VIDEO)

Egyptian scientists will carry out DNA tests on two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun to determine their link to the young pharaoh, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said in a statement Wednesday.

The two tiny female fetuses -- found in the tomb in Luxor as part of the 1922 King Tut discovery -- may be his stillborn children, the Council said.

The statement quoted Zahi Hawass, the head of the Egyptian antiquities, as saying that the tests will also try to determine Tutankhamun's family linage, a source of ambiguity among many Egyptologists.

"All of these results will be compared to each other, along with those of the mummy of King Tutankhamun," Hawass said.

There has been no archaeological indication that the young pharaoh, who died around the age of 19 under mysterious circumstances over 3,000 years ago, left any offspring.

Scholars believe that at the age of 12, Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun -- the third daughter of Pharaoh Akhenaten by his wife Nefertiti -- but the couple had no surviving children.

Keep reading here.

OR

Watch video of King Tut below.

Popular in the Community

Close

What's Hot