EXTENSIVE DNA and a radiological analysis of King Tutankhamun showed that malaria and hereditary bone disease may have been the cause of death of the teenage Pharaoh, Egypt's antiquities supremo Zahi Hawass said on Wednesday. "It is amazing to think that we were able to extract DNA from the body of a person who died 3,000 years ago," Hawass told reporters in Cairo, where he announced the results of an Egyptian- German study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Egyptian and foreign researchers spent more than two years conducting DNA and radiological tests in a purpose built 5-million- dollar laboratory in the Egyptian Museum, granted by Discovery TV. Their results were confirmed by further testing in a second lab at Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine. The DNA tests also confirmed that Tutankhamun was the son of the Pharaoh Akhenaten and his sister. Both mummies were identified by the study. Akhenaten founded a new, monotheistic religion at a time when a whole host of deities were worshipped. Akhenaten also moved the royal capital from Memphis to Amarna in Middle Egypt. "Akhenaten has been portrayed with deformities, some thought he had womanly traits whilst others believed him to be homosexual. But what we have discovered is that he was a completely normal man," Hawass, the Secretary-General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said. "The Pharaohs were depicted with the traits of both man and woman because this was believed to be godly at the time. The feminine traits give them fertility, the ability to create life," he continued. "It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique. It is important to note that ancient Egyptian kings typically had themselves and their families represented in an idealised fashion," Hawass said. The scientists also confirmed that one of the two still-born fetuses buried with Tutankhamun had been his daughter, born of King Tut's marriage to his own sister. Carsten M Pusch, one of the German scientists involved in the research, said more testing had to be done to confirm that the cause of death was malaria, saying that the parasite that causes the disease can be present without causing symptoms. "Tutankhamen had multiple disorders, and some of them might have reached the cumulative character of an inflammatory, immune-suppressive …quot; and thus weakening …quot; syndrome. He might be envisioned as a young but frail king who needed canes to walk," Hawass wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association. There have been many speculations as to how Tutankhamun died. Some said that he was murdered at the age of 19 by a blow to the back of the head, that he had been poisoned, or had died when fat was released into his bloodstream after he broke his leg. "I brought in German scientists so that no foreign scientist can come to us later and say the Egyptians messed up the process," Hawass told reporters. Tutankhamun, who took the throne at the age of nine, has fascinated Egyptologists and the general public since his mummy and the treasures hidden in his intact tomb were unearthed in 1922. He died after a nine-year reign in 1324 BC and left no heirs, bringing an end to one of the most powerful Pharaonic ruling houses, the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom. "I do not think the mummies should be viewed by the public, but I do believe in using them for scientific discoveries," Hawass said. "I wouldn't mind if my own body was drilled into and used for science," he added.
