CAIRO: The Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities announced news that most had already assumed to be fact this week when they confirmed the famous boy-king Tutankhamun was indeed the son of the “heretic” Pharaoh Akhenaton. Egypt's top Egyptologist Zahi Hawass announced the results of DNA testing on Wednesday that confirmed the lineage of the boy-king. Hawass told reporters and researchers at a press conference that DNA tests and CT scans of the 3,300-year-old mummy confirmed his immediate family's lineage and the cause of death. He said that Akhenaton – the controversial Pharaoh who attempted to establish monotheism during his reign – is the father. The top archaeologist, however, said they have yet to identify the boy's mother by name, who is believed to be buried in the tomb of Amenhotep II. Tutankhamun died of severe malaria, Hawass said, citing the results of the DNA project carried out by a team of Egyptian scientists on ancient mummies. “We found evidence from DNA that proves he had very severe malaria,” Hawass said. “He was ill, weak, walked on a cane. When he was 19, and got malaria, he fell, how we don't know, maybe he fell in the bathroom, ” he said, adding that “When he fell, and was weak from malaria, he died.” According to the CT scan, Tutankhamun's father Akhenaten died at the age between 45 and 55, not at the age between 20 and 25 as previously thought. BM
