A tooth found in a relic box led archaeologists to identify a long-overlooked mummy as that of Egypt's most powerful female pharoah - possibly the most significant find since King Tutankhamun's tomb was uncovered in 1922, experts said Wednesday.
The mummy was identified as Queen Hatshepsut, who 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.
Wall relief of Queen Hatshepsut from Deir el-Bahri, Egypt
A year ago, Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass began a search for Hatshepsut's mummy. At the same time, the Discovery Channel, which is to broadcast a documentary on the find in July, 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.
On Wednesday, Hawass unveiled both mummies - Hatshepsut's and that of her wet nurse, which initially was investigated as possibly being the queen.
The strikingly different mummies were displayed inside long glass cases draped with Egyptian flags. Hatshepsut's linen-wrapped mummy was bald and much larger than the slim, child-size mummy of the wet nurse, Sitr-In, which had rust-colored locks of hair.
Hawass said the queen's mummy suggested the woman was obese, probably suffered from diabetes, had liver cancer and died in her 50s.
Bas-relief from the Hatshepsut's Temple. This is a masterpiece in the temple showing queen Ahmose, queen Hatshepsut's mother
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 launched military campaigns as far away as the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, and Nubia in what is now Sudan.
Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, molecular biologist Scott Woodward, director of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, Utah, was cautious.
"It's a very difficult process to obtain DNA from a mummy," said Woodward, who has done DNA research on mummies. "To make a claim as to a relationship, you need other individuals from which you have obtained DNA, to make a comparison between the DNA sequences."
Such DNA material would typically come from parents or grandparents. With female mummies, the most common type of DNA to look for is the mitochondrial DNA that reveals maternal lineage, said Woodward.
