The disease of Akhenaten
The discovery
The Mummy 61072 was discovered with two other mummies in the tomb of Amenhotep II (Valley of the Kings KV 35) by Victor Loret in early 1898. At that time it was believed to be the mummy of a man. Later G. E. Smith speculated that it was the mummy of a woman and that, on the basis of the analysis of the iliac bones and by virtue of the fact that the third molar had not yet emerged, the young woman could be estimated to have been less than 25 years old at death.
The identification of the person to which the mummy belongs is still uncertain.
Based on the dubious identification of the other "elder woman" mummy in the Queen Tiye, grand bride of Amenhotep III, it has been suggested that the young woman might have been Satamon, daughter and secondary bride of Amenhotep III.
In 1999 Marianne Luban speculated instead that it might be Queen Nefertiti, grand bride of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten.
This hypothesis was supported four years later by British researcher Joann Fletcher, who supports the identification with the fact that the woman had a shaved head and had pierced earlobes, as could be inferred from some depictions of the famous queen.
This interesting hypothesis was countered by Dr. Zahi Hawass, director of the SCA - Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, who believed, despite the scientific opinions expressed, that mummy 61072 might be that of a man.
To endorse this idea, Hawass went so far as to publicize a phantom DNA test, with no consideration by the academia.
Then Hawass reported that X-ray examinations had shown the young woman to be about 16 years old and that, therefore, the hypothesis of identification with Nefertiti seemed to be impossible.
Alternative hypotheses
An alternative hypotheses is that Akhenaten was actually a woman disguised as a man and that the two mummies of women in KV 35 may have been those of Nefertiti (61070) and Akhenaten (61072).
It is unknown when Nefertiti died and whether she survived her husband, but it is most likely that both rulers were assassinated, during the 17th year of their reign, in a coup d'état, organized by the army and perhaps inspired by the Amun clergy of Waset/Thebes.
In light of this hypothesis, it is possible that the obvious disfigurements inflicted on the two mummies are not the result of vandalism by treasure thieves, but are the very serious wounds inflicted during the coup and may have resulted in their deaths.
Since it is very likely that the two rulers married at the time of Amenhotep IV's appointment as co-regent and were around 12 to 14 years old at the time, it seems possible that both were around 30 years of age at death.
It seems therefore possible that the two rulers and their daughters were affected by Marfan Genetic Syndrome.
The deformities detectable from their many representations (elongated face and dolichocephalic skull, elongated and exceptionally fat limbs, eye problems, etc.) would thus be the result of the severe disease and not an ideal artistic representation.
The syndrome is said to have spread to the royal family through two Mitanni princesses, Gilu-Heba and Tadu-Heba, both of whom were married by Amenhotep III, and to have died out, for lack of heirs, with Tutankhamun and the royal couple's daughters.
Recent examinations
Professor Ashraf Selim of Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine performed on the three unidentified mummies of KV 35 the CT (Computed Tomography) analysis and anticipated that the results would be such that the identification of mummy 61072 with Nefertiti would be definitively impossible.
Further examinations by Hawass revealed that the wounds on mummy 61072's body were inflicted before embalming, confirming that they may have been caused by violent axe blows during the coup. The CT scan would have suggested an age of 25 to 35 for the young woman, in perfect agreement with the likely age at death of the Akhetaten rulers.
The results for mummy 61070, believed by most to be that of Tiye (who died at an age around 50) and identified probably as Nefertiti, showed welding of the epiphysis and degenerative changes in the cervical vertebrae and both knees, such as to suggest an age at death of 40-60 years.
Probably Hawass presented such a wide fork in order to still be able to consider Tiye's identification, an identification that as is well known is based on a simple comparison among the mummy's hair and a similar lock of hair preserved inside a box, engraved with the queen's name and found in Tutankhamun's tomb. The bone deformities are compatible with deformities induced by Nefertiti's possible Marfan syndrome and such that her joints resemble those of a somewhat older woman.
Another point must be made about the skeleton of KV 55. It has been analyzed in the past by various physicians and scientists, and in view of the missing epiphysis weld, it has been given an age of 25-26 years (Smith).
Believing that the skeleton belonged to Akhenaten, who died at an older age, the latter advanced the hypothesis that the personage suffered from Frohlich Syndrome, and that the delayed welding, induced by the genetic disease, could hide an age of about 35 years.
Other researchers assigned the mummy an even younger age (23-year-old D. Derry and 20-year-old R. G. Harrison, A. Batrawi, and M. S. Mahmoud ).
Recent examinations would have confirmed the missing exit of the wisdom molar (upper right), but more importantly they would have shown that the skeleton, slightly scoliotic, showed major deformities, which would have suggested an age at death of about 60 years.
It is not clear why no age fork is presented this time and why a slight scoliosis and some bone deformities would suggest such an advanced age this time.
In this regard, a National Geographic documentary mentions the determination of an age between 25-40 years, showing that perhaps Hawass's information should be considered incorrect.
Previous analysis and confirmation of dental status should have suggested, however, that bone deformities in such a young person could, again, be associated with a genetic syndrome and, in particular, Marfan syndrome.
It is worth mentioning that "official" Egyptology has difficulty in safely identifying Pharaoh Smenkhkara. It is known that he is supposed to have reigned, for about a year, after Akhenaten, but neither his parents nor his kinship with the "heretic" pharaoh is known.
Medical examinations have shown only the same blood type and a close genetic link with his successor Tutankhamun (brothers or father and son).
Probably Smenkhkara was the son of Amenhotep III and Tadu-Heba, who would have been married shortly before the appointment of the co-regent.
The Mitanni princess would have taken the Egyptian name of Nefertiti (the beautiful one has arrived) and at the time of the appointment of the co-regent would have been given by her father in marriage to Amenhotep
IV / Akhenaten, his eldest daughter, disguised as a man for reasons of state.
Nefertiti would have already been pregnant, and her son Smenkhkara, born in the first year of Akhenaten's co-regency, would have contracted the severe disease from his mother and died of unrelated causes, being about 17-18 years old. Probably Smenkhkara married Akhenaten's second daughter, Mekataten, as a teenager, and from the very young princess, who died in childbirth, was born the future pharaoh Tutankhaten / Tutankhamun, who ascended the throne of his carnal father.
Conclusion
Smenkhkara was the son of Amenhotep III and Tadu-Heba, who would have been married shortly before the appointment of the co-regent. This Mitanni princess would have taken the Egyptian name of Nefertiti (the beautiful one has arrived) and at the time of the appointment of the co-regent would have been given by her father in marriage to Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten, his eldest daughter, disguised as a man for reasons of state. Nefertiti would have already been pregnant, and her son Smenkhkara, born in the first year of Akhenaten's co-regency, would have contracted the severe disease from his mother and died of unrelated causes, being about 17-18 years old. Smenkhkara married Akhenaten's second daughter, Mekataten, as a teenager, and that from the very young princess, who died in childbirth, was born the future pharaoh Tutankhaten / Tutankhamun, who ascended the throne of his carnal father.
Thus, it seems possible that modern and sophisticated medical examinations are showing the first concrete traces of the serious genetic disease that is supposed to have affected the royal family in the late of the 18th Dynasty. The clues of Marfan Syndrome were, until now, related to the representations of the various characters of the royal family, while it is possible that the bone deformities discovered in mummy 61070 and the skeleton of KV 55 are the first and important scientific findings of it.
It should be recalled in this regard how radiological examinations, carried out on Tutankhamun's mummy, also revealed deformities in the cervical vertebrae, such that it was suggested that the young ruler had trouble moving his head and died as a result of a fall from the chariot, possibly caused by his impaired physical condition.
There are in this regard two representations of an unidentified ruler, who leans on a long staff, as if he had problems with his balance. Egyptologists have not been able to identify the ruler with certainty, but it is possible that it is Smenkhkara and Tutankhamun. The two rulers have fairly similar faces, as was evidenced by the study of their skulls, but the young wives look different. In the former it seems possible to identify Smenkhkara with Merytaten, who was married toward the end of Akhenaten's reign, while in the latter it seems possible to identify Tutankhamun, whose rich collection of walking sticks is known, with Ankhesenamon, Akhenaten's third daughter, who seems to have had a decidedly less prominent skull than that of her older sister.
