King Tut's Father ID'd in Stone Inscription
Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

Dec. 17, 2008 -- An inscribed limestone block might have solved one of history's
greatest
mysteries -- who fathered the boy pharaoh King Tut.
"We can now say that Tutankhamun was the child of Akhenaten," Zahi Hawass, chief
of
Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told Discovery News.

The finding offers evidence against another leading theory that King Tut was
sired by the
minor king Smenkhkare.
Hawass discovered the missing part of a broken limestone block a few months ago
in a
storeroom at el Ashmunein, a village on the west bank of the Nile some 150 miles
south
of Cairo.
Once reassembled, the slab has become "an accurate piece of evidence that proves
Tut
lived in el Amarna with Akhenaten and he married his wife, Ankhesenamun," while
living in
el Amarna, Hawass said.

The text also suggests that the young Tutankhamun married his father's daughter
-- his
half sister.
"The block shows the young Tutankhamun and his wife, Ankhesenamun, seated
together.
The text identifies Tutankhamun as the 'king's son of his body, Tutankhaten,'
and his wife
as the 'king's daughter of his body, Ankhesenaten,'" Hawass said.

"We know that the only king to whom the text could refer as the father of both
children is
Akhenaten, himself. We know from other sources that Ankhesenamun was the
daughter of
Akhenaten and Nefertiti. Now, because of this block, we can say that Tutankhamun
was
the child of Akhenaten as well," Hawass said.

Found among other sandstone slabs in the storeroom of El Ashmunein's
archaeological
site, the block was used in the construction of the temple of Thoth during the
reign of
Ramesses II, who ruled around 1279-1213 B.C.
But the block wasn't freshly cut by the workers of the temple. Instead, it was
recycled and
brought there from el Amarna, along with some other thousand blocks, originally
used to
build the Amarna temples.

Now known as el Amarna, the city was once called Akhetaten after the "heretic"
pharaoh
Akhenaten (1353-1336 B.C.) had established the capital of his kingdom,
introducing a
monotheistic religion that overthrew the pantheon of the gods to worship the sun
god
Aton.

When Akhenaten died, a state decree was issued to purposefully destroy Amarna
and its
building materials were distributed for use elsewhere.
According to Hawass, the block comes from the temple of Aton in Amarna and the
forms
of the inscribed names clearly date it to the reign of Akhenaten.

The best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt, King Tut has been puzzling scientists
ever
since his mummy- and treasure-packed tomb was discovered in 1922 the Valley of
the
Kings by British archaeologist Howard Carter.
Only a few facts about his life are known.

While he lived in el Amarna, his name was Tutankhaton ("honoring Aton" -- the
sun god).
When he ascended the throne in 1333 B.C., at the age of nine, and moved to
Thebes, he
changed his name to Tutankamun ("honoring Amun" -- a traditional cult).
As the last male in the family, his death in 1325 B.C. at age 19 ended the 18th
dynasty --
probably the greatest of the Egyptian royal families -- and gave way to military
rulers.
Mapping out the lineage of the Egyptian pharaohs is one of Hawass's latest
challenges.
King Tut has been either credited to be the son of Akhenaten or the offspring of
Amenhotep III, who was Akhenaten's father.
Doubts also remain about King Tut's mother. Scholars have long debated whether
he is
the son of Kiya, Akhenaten's minor wife, or Queen Nefertiti, Akhenaten's other
wife.

Egyptian researchers are currently carrying out DNA testing on two mummified
fetuses
found in King Tut's tomb, believed to be his offspring.
"If the fetus DNA matches King Tut's DNA and Ankhesenamun's DNA, then we would
know
that they shared the same mother," Hawass said.
According to Swiss anatomist and paleopathologist Frank Ruhli, head of the Swiss
Mummy
Project at the University of Zurich, Hawass' finding is very important.

"It supports one of my favorite theories about King Tut's parentage. DNA of
proven
relatives would help if it matches with the one of King Tut," Ruhli told
Discovery News.


http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/12/17/king-tut-father.html