CAIRO, Egypt - The long-overlooked mummy of an obese woman, who likely suffered from diabetes and liver cancer, has been identified as Queen Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh, Egyptian archaeologists said yesterday.
A single tooth was key to solving one of the greatest mysteries of ancient Egypt, said Zahi Hawass, the country's antiquities chief.
If fully confirmed - DNA tests are continuing - the discovery could be the most significant find since archaeologists discovered King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, experts say.
Hatshepsut ruled for 20 years in the 15th century B.C., dressing like a man and wearing a fake beard. A monumental builder, she wielded more power than two other famous ancient Egyptian women, Cleopatra and Nefertiti, who unlike her never took the title of pharaoh. But when she died, all traces of her mysteriously disappeared, including her mummy.
In 1903, a mummy was found lying on the ground next to the sarcophagus holding the mummy of the queen's wet nurse in a tomb in the Valley of Kings burial ground in Luxor. For decades, that mummy was left unidentified and remained in the tomb because it was thought to be insignificant.
A year ago, Hawass began a search for Hatshepsut's mummy. At the same time, the Discovery Channel, which is to broadcast a documentary on the find July 15, gave Egypt $5 million to set up a DNA lab to test mummies. The lab was established in the basement of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.
Two months ago, the unidentified mummy was brought from Luxor to the museum for DNA testing. Hawass said his first clue that it could be the lost queen was the position of the left hand on her chest, a traditional sign of royalty in ancient Egypt.
Experts then made a stunning match. A tooth that had been found in a relic box displaying Hatshepsut's insignia and containing embalmed organs fit a gap in the mummy's jaw. Still-uncompleted DNA testing also has shown similarities between the mummy and the mummy of Hatshepsut's grandmother, which was identified previously.
"We are 100 percent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Hawass told the Associated Press. Yesterday, he unveiled both mummies - those of Hatshepsut and her wet nurse, which initially was investigated as possibly being the queen. Hatshepsut's linen-wrapped mummy was bald and much larger than the child-size mummy of the wet nurse.
Hawass said the mummy suggested Hatshepsut was obese, probably suffered from diabetes, had liver cancer, and died in her 50s.
Scientists and other Egyptologists said that the discovery was intriguing but that they would reserve judgment until DNA tests were completed and other researchers could confirm the evidence.
Hatshepsut is believed to have stolen the throne from her young stepson, Thutmose III, who scratched her name from stone records in revenge after her death. Her two-decade rule was the longest among ancient Egyptian queens, at a time of the New Kingdom's "golden age." She is said to have amassed enormous wealth, channeling it into building projects and launching military campaigns as far away as the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq and Nubia in what is now Sudan.
Hatshepsut's most famous accomplishment is her funerary temple in ancient Thebes, on the west bank of the Nile in today's Luxor. She was one of the most prolific builders among the pharaohs. Almost every major museum in the world has a collection of Hatshepsut statuary.
Take a closer look
on the Discovery Channel's Web site via http://go.philly.com/
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