News:

Welcome to the SoA Forum.  You are welcome to browse through and contribute to the Forums listed below.

Main Menu

Egyptian mummies are half-brothers

Started by Duncan Head, January 19, 2018, 09:11:37 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Duncan Head

Genetic analysis of two 12th-dynasty mummies :

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2018/01/18/ancient-two-brothers-mummy-mystery-solved-thanks-to-high-tech-dna-test.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X17305631

QuoteFlinders Petrie and Mackay concluded that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht were brothers, partly because the two bodies were buried adjacent to one other, but also because the inscriptions on the coffins mention the female name Khnum-Aa, who is described as 'lady of the house' and referred to as the mother of both Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht. However, the inscriptions were less informative regarding the paternal filiation, the father of both men indicated only by a generic title and not by name  ...

The presence of identical mtDNAs indicates that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht had a maternal relationship, consistent with a shared mother or a more distant kinship relationship such as cousins or uncle-nephew. However, based on the common maternal name as documented in the inscriptional evidence, it can be deduced that the two individuals were both children of Khnum-Aa. The differences between the Y chromosome SNPs indicate different paternal lineages, and so we conclude that Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht were half-brothers.
Duncan Head

Imperial Dave

very interesting find Duncan and clearly shows the advances in genetic tools for investigating stuff like this
Slingshot Editor

Patrick Waterson

They may get some further opportunities if Zahi Hawass finds Anhkesenamun's tomb.  Six months of silence suggests that so far he has not.

Ankhesenpaaten (she reputedly hated the name 'Ankhesenamun') might actually be one of the KV21 mummies (the other perhaps being Beketaten).  There is in any event an opportunity to redo the Amarna family tree, including Unknown Man E from the Cairo museum, whether or not this latest tomb search unearths anything.
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Winston Churchill