In 1922, Howard Carter discovered the tomb intact Pharaoh Tutankhamun . The importance of this Egyptian king is fundamentally in that finding, since his reign did not last for 9 years in which his greatest achievement was the stabilization of the country to renounce the "heresy of Amarna" promoted by his father, Akhenaten, and the return to the traditional system of Egyptian religion. Tutankhamun was the last pharaoh of royal blood of the XVIII Egyptian dynasty. His successors were his maternal grandfather Ay and after this one of his collaborators, general of the armies, and possibly son-in-law named Horemheb who died without offspring. Thus ended the XVIII dynasty and the XIX began. So, ask us: Did Pharaoh Tutankhamun have children? Were there any descendants of Tutankhamun?
Did Pharaoh Tutankhamun have children?
Pharaoh Tutankhamun arrived at the Egyptian throne when he was only 8 years old. According to DNA tests performed on mummies found in tombs KV55, possibly Akenaton, and KV35 known as "The younger Lady", these were his parents, who were also full brothers.
Between the death of his father and his accession to the throne, there was another pharaoh who reigned only one year, called Semenejkara. The young king was married to his half sister Anjesenamon , daughter of Nefertiti, who was 3 or 4 years older than him and became "Great Royal Wife", title that bore the main wife of a pharaoh. If you want to know more about this princess and queen of Egypt We invite you to read the post: The wife of Tutankhamun | The tragic story of Anjesenamón . Tutankhamen are not known as secondary wives, although he probably had them since it was a custom of the Egyptian court. The king died at 18/19, more than enough time for him to have had offspring at that time.
When everything found in Tutankhamun's tomb, the KV62, was studied and classified, an amazing discovery was made: in an unadorned wooden crate, from which the figure of a beetle had been removed, they found two small anthropoid coffins, delicately decorated , placed side by side. Inside, as if it were Russian dolls, there were other small coffins, until finally reaching the mummies of two fetuses of advanced gestation time. Was it the confirmation that Pharaoh Tutankhamun had children? In 2008, the DNA analyzes of the two small mummies began.
The offspring of Tutankhamun
The DNA tests performed on the two fetuses, very deteriorated at present since they have been tested with them over the years, confirmed that at least one corresponded to a descendant of Tutankhamun . After that result, it is considered good that both mummified fetuses correspond to the young Pharaoh's children and can be answered affirmatively to the question about whether Tutankhamun had children . Mummying fetuses was not such a strange custom in the Old Egypt as we could see in the article: This bird mummy was it until surprise! It is a human fetus .
Specifically the two fetuses correspond to two girls . At one time it was believed that they could be twins, but currently it is thought that due to their different size and treatment they correspond to two different pregnancies. The smallest of the mummies believe that it is from a fetus with a gestation of little more than 5 months, since it measures less than 30 cm., And the second corresponds to a girl who was born about 7 months, but who had to die at born or was born dead and measuring 38.5 cm.
The mother of one of the girls is, without a doubt, one of the mummies found in the KV21 tomb since DNA confirms this. It is believed that this mummy corresponds to Anjesenamón, the Great Royal Wife of Tutankhamun.
Maybe the pharaoh Tutankhamun had children of other women and they did not happen to him for not being of real blood or the surest thing, according to the egiptólogos, is that those two children were their only descendants and they were spoiled. However, we want to share a curiosity with you: the result of a DNA study carried out by the IGENEA Institute in Zurich. The researchers of this genealogy center have reconstructed the genetic profile of Tutankhamun , resulting that it belongs to a halog group called R1b1a2 which, surprisingly, share 70% of Spanish and British males. If you look throughout Western Europe, 50% of men belong to that halogroup, which means they have an ancestor in common. If you are male and you were born in Spain, you have a 70% chance of being Kin of Tutankhamun! Interestingly, only 1% of current Egyptians share that group with Pharaoh. So, with so many relatives, perhaps Tutankhamun had children and does not appear in any record. Maybe the kinship comes from the Egyptian princess who founded Scotland , That according to some historians could be Meritatón, sister on the part of father of Tutankhamun and that before settling in the British Isles he spent some time in Spain or, as the geneticists say, the relationship dates back 9,000 years ago to a man who lived in the Caucasus area.
Did you know that yes, that Tutankhamun had children ? Do you think that you can be a relative of Tutankhamun?
Images: , Jerzy Strzelecki