More re Hatshepsut mummy identification

Egypt Today (Cache Seel)

See the above page for the full story, which is accompanied by photographs

The search for Hatshepsut unearths more questions than answers, but makes for great TV . . . Before the results of the DNA tests were received, the idea was hit upon to scan the box containing Hatshepsut’s canopic jar. The box was sealed shut, but the three-dimensional scan revealed a molar. Molars have two roots; the one in the box only had one. This made the task of matching it to a mummy that much easier. The scan of the mummies showed that the tooth did in fact come from one of them; the only mummy Hawass ever took from the Valley of the Kings. “I am 100 percent certain that we have discovered the lost mummy of Queen Hatshepsut,” he declares excitedly.

But some Egyptologists, while acknowledging that the results are promising, have voiced fears that he rushed to conclusions. Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA passed from mother to daughter. Samples have been taken from Hatshepsut’s grandmother to be compared against the mummy now believed to be Hatshepsut. The initial results have been called promising, but conclusive proof takes months. When final, these results will prove beyond any doubt whether or not she is Hatshepsut.