DNA testing Mummies a risk to Egypt's national security???

[cleasterwood]

Egyptian Museum Tests Mummy's DNA
Scholars Try to Identify Remains of Pharaoh Thutmose I
© Stan Parchin

May 31, 2008

Scholars at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo are using state-of-the-art technology to determine if a mummy is that of Pharaoh Thutmose I.

Zahi Hawass, Egypt's Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and chief archaeologist, revealed to the Middle East News Agency on May 29, 2008 his plans for subjecting a 3,500-year-old mummy to DNA and other testing at Cairo's Egyptian Museum. He hopes to determine if the remains he's chosen to study are indeed those of Pharaoh Thutmose I (r. 1504-1492 B.C.). Dr. Hawass is also Director of Excavations at the Giza Pyramids, Saqqara and Bahariya Oasis.

Identifying Thutmose I
A mummy in the Egyptian Museum has for many years been thought to be that of the New Kingdom ruler. Hawass disputes the body's accepted identity. Assisted by an exclusive team of native Egyptologists, the National Geographic Society's most prominent Scholar-in-Residence is conducting DNA testing and X-ray analysis of another ancient corpse. The body was flown from Luxor's Valley of the Kings, the Theban necropolis or cemetery of many royal burials from Egypt's 18th Dynasty (ca. 1550-1295 B.C.), to Cairo for thorough examination.

Testing is occurring in the Egyptian Museum's $5 million DNA laboratory, a new state-of-the-art facility financed by the Discovery Channel. Dr. Hawass' long-term plans include using its modern technology to re-examine all of ancient Egypt's royal remains in an attempt to provide them with positive identifications.

Egyptian Mummies and DNA Testing
The DNA testing of royal mummies in Egypt is a relatively recent scientific development. Obtaining usable nuclear DNA from a mummy can be extremely difficult; often it is deteriorated due to age. If a viable specimen is retrieved, it needs to be compared to samples from the subject's immediate relatives for accurate determination of the person's lineage. Hawass has revealed that the mummy's DNA will be analyzed with that of two females.

For reasons of national security, DNA test results of Egyptian mummies are usually kept confidential. Some scholars conjecture that full disclosure of the research's findings could lead to a major revision of the country's ancient dynastic history.

It was almost one year ago that Zahi Hawass announced the almost certain identification of a mummy as that of Queen Hatshepsut (r. 1479-1458 B.C.), the sister of Tuthmose II (r. 1492-1479 B.C.) and ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh. His findings were based largely on forensic evidence. DNA testing was subsequently performed on the corpse. The investigation's (perhaps inconclusive) results were never published, leaving the mummy's true identity in question.



Every day the evidence that Hawass is a conspirator in something bigger than him is piling up!  HOW can the DNA results of a mummy be a matter of national security? WTF are they hiding?

[Andrew Waters]

Put yourself in Hawass' shoes. He doesn't want to be the one who breaks the news that ancient Egyptians were black people, according to what some say.

 National security? Strange comment isn't it.

[Arcturus]

I don't think the Egyptians are as prejudiced as other people are.  It could be anything, maybe the DNA shows that they have European or even Basque/Guanche blood in their veins.  Either one would be a blow to the heritage they try and preven themseves with.

[cleasterwood]

Put yourself in Hawass' shoes. He doesn't want to be the one who breaks the news that ancient Egyptians were black people, according to what some say.
 National security? Strange comment isn't it.

Yes, it is a strange comment. 

I don't think the Egyptians are as prejudiced as other people are.  It could be anything, maybe the DNA shows that they have European or even Basque/Guanche blood in their veins.  Either one would be a blow to the heritage they try and preven themseves with.

I agree, I don't think the Egyptians are as culturally biased as others.

Maybe the news is that the Ancient Egyptians were a race other than black or even worse... ALIEN!   Maybe he doesn't want to tell the world, the ancient Egyptians had otherworldly help building their culture or that we're really the aliens from Mars.  ROFLMAO 

Who knows.

[Wind]

I'm not sure what, but they are definitely hiding something, of that we can be certain.