carnelianheart

"Pharaoh or ALIEN BEING?!"

Pharoah. There. Glad we cleared that up.

Director is obviously in charge, then the succession as follows:

Assistant Director

Head of Youth

Head of Reference

Systems Admin

Collection Development (me)

Deputy of Youth

Like ONE of the girls was buried separately with their brother but which one?!? Either the age estimates on the bones are wrong or the height estimates are wrong. The American and Russian teams came to different conclusions about whether Maria or Anastasia was missing.

Likewise with the mummies, they did DNA analysis like 15 years ago but these people were, uh, famously super inbred, so I'm a little skeptical about how useful that was. It's not a family tree so much as a family knot.

But anyway they think the KV55 mummy is Tut's father and KV35 Younger Lady is his mother. They also think KV55 and KV35YL are full siblings, children of Amenhotep III and Tiye. But if Tut's father is Akhenaten, then the age estimate on KV55 is wrong--almost all studies say KV55 was around 20 when he died, and Akhenaten ruled for 17 years and seems to have already fathered at least one child by the time he took the throne or very shortly thereafter. So Akhenaten's gotta be at least 30. Does that mean Tut's father isn't Akhenaten? Then who is this mummy? If he's a son of Amenhotep and Tiye then he's Akhenaten's brother. So Tut's his nephew? Or all they just so inbred that it's impossible to tell the exact relationships?!?!

Likewise KV21a could be the mother of the babies in Tut's tomb, so she's presumably his wife Ankhesenamun. But Ankhesenamun we know for sure was Akhenaten and Nefertiti's daughter, her birth name was Ankhesenpaaten and she was all over the tombs and temples and stuff, and apparently the DNA says KV55 can't be KV21a's father. But KV21b could be her mother (so Nefertiti?!?). Tut wasn't known to have any other wives and the babies have alleles from mutual ancestors of Tut and Ankhesenamun that they didn't get from Tut so like, the mother has gotta be her or a DIFFERENT close relative.

So is KV55 actually Smenkhkare? Is he Tut's father? It sort of makes sense? It was always weird that there were apparently all these shenanigans of co-regents and possible female pharaohs after Akhenaten's death if he had a biological son right there, even if he was only a child. But if Smenkhkare is Akhenaten's younger brother and Tut was Smenkhkare's son, then it makes sense that Smenkhkhare would reign first (and die almost immediately) and that Nefertiti might try to take power--Tut isn't her kid or even her husband's kid, he's a nephew (and eventually son-in-law).

And this would mean Tut didn't marry his sister or half-sister after all. He married his cousin. Which by Egyptian royal standards is pretty good!