TUTANKHAMEN'S FATHER Finally Revealed In Stone Inscription - UPDATES

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                                               King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription






Rossella Lorenzi,
Discovery News
Dec. 17, 2008

-- An inscribed limestone block might have solved one of history's greatest mysteries -- who fathered the boy pharaoh King Tut.

"We can now say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten," Zahi Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

The finding offers evidence against another leading theory that King Tut was sired by the minor king Smenkhkare.

Hawass discovered the missing part of a broken limestone block a few months ago in a storeroom at el Ashmunein, a village on the west bank of the Nile some 150 miles south of Cairo.

Once reassembled, the slab has become "an accurate piece of evidence that proves Tut lived in el Amarna with Akhenaten and he married his wife, Ankhesenamun," while living in el Amarna, Hawass said.

The text also suggests that the young Tutankhamun married his father's daughter -- his half sister.

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               TUTANKHAMUN AND ANKHESENAMUN









"The block shows the young Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenamun, seated together. The text identifies Tutankhamun as the 'king's son of his body, Tutankhaten,' and his wife as the 'king's daughter of his body, Ankhesenaten,'" Hawass said.

"We know that the only king to whom the text could refer as the father of both children is Akhenaten, himself. We know from other sources that Ankhesenamun was the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Now, because of this block, we can say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten as well," Hawass said.

Found among other sandstone slabs in the storeroom of El Ashmunein's archaeological site, the block was used in the construction of the temple of Thoth during the reign of Ramesses II, who ruled around 1279-1213 B.C.

But the block wasn't freshly cut by the workers of the temple. Instead, it was recycled and brought there from el Amarna, along with some other thousand blocks, originally used to build the Amarna temples.

Now known as el Amarna, the city was once called Akhetaten after the "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten (1353-1336 B.C.) had established the capital of his kingdom, introducing a monotheistic religion that overthrew the pantheon of the gods to worship the sun god Aton.

When Akhenaten died, a state decree was issued to purposefully destroy Amarna and its building materials were distributed for use elsewhere.

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               AKHENATEN









According to Hawass, the block comes from the temple of Aton in Amarna and the forms of the inscribed names clearly date it to the reign of Akhenaten.

The best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt, King Tut has been puzzling scientists ever since his mummy- and treasure-packed tomb was discovered in 1922 the Valley of the Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

Only a few facts about his life are known.

While he lived in el Amarna, his name was Tutankhaton ("honoring Aton" -- the sun god).

When he ascended the throne in 1333 B.C., at the age of nine, and moved to Thebes, he changed his name to Tutankamun ("honoring Amun" -- a traditional cult).

As the last male in the family, his death in 1325 B.C. at age 19 ended the 18th dynasty -- probably the greatest of the Egyptian royal families -- and gave way to military rulers.

Mapping out the lineage of the Egyptian pharaohs is one of Hawass's latest challenges. King Tut has been either credited to be the son of Akhenaten or the offspring of Amenhotep III, who was Akhenaten's father.

Doubts also remain about King Tut's mother. Scholars have long debated whether he is the son of Kiya, Akhenaten's minor wife, or Queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten's other wife.

Egyptian researchers are currently carrying out DNA testing on two mummified fetuses found in King Tut's tomb, believed to be his offspring.

"If the fetus DNA matches King Tut's DNA and Ankhesenamun's DNA, then we would know that they shared the same mother," Hawass said.

According to Swiss anatomist and paleopathologist Frank Ruhli, head of the Swiss Mummy Project at the University of Zurich, Hawass' finding is very important.

"It supports one of my favorite theories about King Tut's parentage. DNA of proven relatives would help if it matches with the one of King Tut," Ruhli told Discovery News.

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8 - 14 January 2009
Issue No. 929
Heritage 









                                            King Tut was the son of Akhenaten






By Zahi Hawwas

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I had an exceptional adventure recently. It was at a site in Middle Egypt known as Al-Ashmunein, known in Greek as Hermopolis after the Greek god Hermes, and known to the ancient Egyptians as Thoth, the god of wisdom. The site contained a temple dedicated to Thoth, and a large statue of the god in the form of a baboon can still be seen today. I hold Al-Ashmunein close to my heart because 40 years ago I started my career as an inspector of antiquities only a few kilometres away, at Tuna Al-Gabal.

I spent two incredible years in Tuna Al-Gabal. I stayed in a beautiful rest house in the desert, and in the evenings I was completely alone with my thoughts and dreams in this large, mysterious house surrounded by desert. Every day I would sit in the garden and look up at the sky. I was not a patient man, but living in this spectacular isolation taught me the virtue of patience, and I started to write. I kept a diary and recorded my memories, and I wrote letters every day to the girlfriend I had left behind in Alexandria.

Near my rest house was another built for our great man Taha Hussein when he was minister of education. Hussein used to come in the winter and every day he would visit the tomb of Isadora, a lady who lived during the Roman Period. Isadora drowned in the Nile and her lover built a beautiful tomb for her. Her lover used to travel about 50 kilometres from Sheikh Abada on the east bank of the Nile to Tuna Al-Gabal on the west bank to light a pottery lamp in her memory. When Taha Hussein was in residence, he would light this lamp every day.

In the last century a limestone block broken in two pieces was found at Al-Ashmunein. One piece of the block has an inscription that reads: "The king's son of his body Tutankhaten". The inscription on the other piece reads: "The daughter of the king, of his body, his great desire of the king of Two Lands, Ankhesenpaaten". Scholars suggest that this inscription is not only one of the few pieces of evidence showing that Tut was from Tel Al-Amarna, but also showing Akhenaten was the father of Tut because Tut was mentioned as the son alongside the well-known daughter of Akhenaten, Ankhesenpaaten. Ankhesenpaaten was the third daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti and the wife of Tut.

When I began to study the family of King Tut and investigate the identity of his biological father and mother, I knew that it was important to find this block. The block is not registered in the registry book for the magazine in Al-Ashmunein. Therefore, I started to ask scholars who had discussed this block in their work about its location -- but no one knew where it was! I called Adel Hassan, the director of Minya, and asked him to search for the block. After a few days he informed me that they had found it. I went to Al-Ashmunein and entered the storeroom, and learnt that they only had the side of the block that mentioned Tut's name but not the piece with the name of his wife, Ankhesenpaaten. We immediately started to search among the numerous stones from the Aten Temple that were reused by Ramses II in a temple at Al-Ashmunein in the hope of finding the other half of the block. And we were happily surprised when we located it. Brando Quilici, who is shooting a documentary about the family of Tut and who accompanied me to the storeroom, was surprised and thrilled that we had rediscovered this important piece of evidence.

Some people believe that Tut was the son of Amenhotep III because he is mentioned on monuments found at Thebes. Also, the hieroglyph for "king's son" can be translated as "son-in-law" or "grandfather". But it is important to understand that when Tut became king and moved to Thebes, he could not mention the name of Akhenaten. The priests of Amun hated Akhenaten for changing the religion to the worship of only one god, Aten, and for moving the capital from Thebes to Tel Al-Amarna. After the death of Akhenaten the religion returned to the old ways and the priests of Amun regained power. Therefore it is most probable that Tut, on his monuments, wanted to identify himself with his powerful grandfather Amenhotep III. Hence, the hieroglyphs on the monuments found in Thebes that read: " son of the king " can be translated as " grandson of the king ".

The block from Tel Al-Amarna is an accurate piece of evidence that proves Tut lived in Amarna with Akhenaten, and that he married Ankhesenpaaten while living there. On the block, and while he lived in Amarna, his name was Tutankhaten, honouring Aton, but when he became king and moved to Thebes he changed his name to Tutankhamen, honouring Amun. This block can also be seen as evidence that Tut was in fact the son of Akhenaten. I am sure this archaeological evidence will instigate much discussion and debate among Egyptologists.
 


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