By Zahi Hawass Queen Mutnodjmet is not one of the famous queens, like Nefertiti or Nefertari, but she married a high official named Horemheb who later became Pharaoh. Horemheb was the leader of the army in the reigns of Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ay. After Ay's death, Horemheb rose to the throne. Prior to his ascension he had constructed for himself a nobleman's tomb at Saqqara. After his ascension, however, this tomb was no longer suitable, so he had a second one carved out in the Valley of the Kings that was more befitting of his rank. His first tomb at Saqqara has, since then, suffered much damage, and some of its blocks have illegally been taken out of the country. Archaeologist Geoffrey Martin has been in charge of re- excavating and restoring the tomb, and has carried out some very impressive work. I am currently trying to locate the bones of Horemheb's queen, Mutnodjmet, in order to include her remains within our DNA research on the family of King Tutankhamun. Her bones could be an extra piece of the puzzle in helping us to identify more individuals who were related to the Golden Boy. Some scholars believe that Queen Nefertiti had a sister named Mutbenret who bore the title "Daughter of the King". She is believed to have been the daughter of Ay. This woman employed, on occasion, the same name and title as Queen Nefertiti. Therefore these women must have had a connection with each other. Some scholars claim that Mutbenret is, in fact, Mutnodjmet. I have been searching for the bones of Queen Mutnodjmet from among the remains found by Geoffrey Martin. This man spent most of his career re- excavating the tomb of Horemheb at Saqqara. When I questioned him about the location of the queen's skeletal remains, however, he could not give me an answer. Later on, Strouhal, an anatomist from the Czech Republic who had previously studied the queen's bones, returned to Egypt to look at them, but could not find them either. Thus, I decided to go on an adventure and seek out the bones of Queen Mutnodjmet. First I visited her burial shaft located inside Horemheb's tomb at Saqqara. It was a thrilling feeling descending 28 metres under the rock. I soon reached the burial shaft dug out between two pillars in the rock. Martin had worked very hard to go down and excavate this shaft. He did not find any inscriptions on the walls, but he did discover the sarcophagus inside the burial chamber, as well as some funerary equipment and other objects that had belonged to the queen. The team unearthed pottery vessels used to store food and wine for the queen in the afterlife, parts of a female royal statue, and remains of an alabaster vase inscribed with the name and titles of the queen; "singer of Amun" and "wife of the king", Mutnodjmet. As for the canopic jar with the queen's name found inside the tomb, this is now in the British Museum. During the re-excavation of the Saqqara tomb, Martin found human remains that were studied by Strouhal, who determined that they belonged to the queen. Strouhal demonstrated that Mutnodjmet lost her teeth at an early age. She had died at the age of 40 while giving birth; the team found a foetus inside the tomb. Both mummies were in very bad condition because of damage by tomb-robbers. I have high hopes that we will be successful in our search to locate the bones of Queen Mutnodjmet. Among other things, we could push our DNA research that much further and identify the mummy of Queen Nefertiti. We could determine the identity of Tutankhamun's father and mother, find the mummy of Queen Tiye, and even discover the remains of Tutankhamun's wife. It was wonderful to descend the tomb shaft at Saqqara -- a real adventure. Adventures in archaeology can often help us to reveal the secrets of the Pharaohs.
