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Now experts are planning more tests to uncover further details about Akhenaten's royal family. The new attention could also give a push to a planned new Akhenaten museum that will showcase his mummy near Amarna, his capital midway down the Nile in what is now the province of Minya, 135 miles (220 kilometers) south of Cairo.
In one tantalizing discovery, the testing established that another unidentified mummy was Akhenaten's sister, that he fathered Tutankhamun with her and that she appears to have died from violence with blows to her face and head.
Still elusive is Nefertiti, the chief wife of Akhenaten famed for her beauty. Egypt's antiquities chief, Zahi Hawass, has said one of his goals is to track down her mummy.
"The Amarna period is like an unfinished play," Hawass said at the February press conference announcing the new discoveries. "We know its beginning but have never succeeded in discovering its end."
3 comments:
So we finally know why he is so determined to make KV55 Akhenaten! A museum to "showcase" his mummy. Can't showcase what you don't have!
The never ending hot air from hawass. you'd think he get tired of hearing himself.
Dr Hawass is frequently criticized for his quick trigger finger when it comes to making claims about new discoveries, but he has done a tremendous job of popularizing the study of ancient Egypt. He may not have Akhenaten’s mummy (and I don’t think he does), but on the plus side he has obtained significant foreign funds for archaeology and recovered many illegally removed artefacts. When I first visited Egypt I learned that very few local school children (or even Egyptian adults) knew anything about their heritage. Today things are different. The study of ancient Egypt is taught at school and pupils frequently visit the museums. Some of these advances are the direct result of Dr Hawass’s efforts. His demeanour and style may not be to the liking of westerners but perhaps that is not the scale on which he should be measured.
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