Queen Hatshepsut

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Queen Hatshepsut was a powerful Egyptian woman pharaoh.

I watched something on the Discovery Channel Sunday about Queen Hatshepsut’s mummy some scientists were trying to find. They had four suspects. Using a CT scan, they ruled out because she was to old, the other because it had its arms straight and they hadf never been bent, a sign that she was not a pharaoh. There were two possibilities left, or else neither of them was the queen. They succsesfuly took some DNA from the mummies to see if it would match with relatives of the queen. But would her relitaves have enough DNA left after 3,500 years?

The scientists, while waiting for results, decided to take a look at the only part of the queen they knew was hers for sure.  Her mummified liver, inside of a canopic jar with her name on it.  But when they tried to open the jar, it was glued shut with resin! Then they put the jar through the CT scan to see inside. To their suprise, the jar contained not only her liver but her intestines as well! They looked closer, and found a little bone also inside the box.  It looked like a tooth.  They brought in an expert tooth docter and found it was indeed a tooth; a molar with one root.  Now which of the mummies was missing teeth?  Both of them.  Only one was missing a molar.  Just to be sure, they measured the tooth and the root.  It was a perfest fit.  They had found Her Majesty.

But how did she die?  She had a tumor, arthritis, diabetes, and Osteoperosis,  and bone and liver cancer, but that didn’t kill her.  At the age of about fifty she died of a ruptured abcess in her mouth, caused by pulling the tooth that identified her.

The discovery of Hatshepsut’s mummy happened in June of this year.

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