The Younger Lady (mummy)
Encyclopedia
The Younger Lady is the informal name given to a mummy discovered in the Egyptian Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV35
by archeologist Victor Loret
in 1898. Through DNA tests this mummy has recently been identified as the mother of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun
, and the daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III
and Queen Tiye
. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") and as 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum
in Cairo
.
The mummy was found adjacent to two other mummies in KV35: a young boy who died at around the age of ten, thought to be Webensenu
or Prince Thutmose and another, older woman, identified as Queen Tiye
by the recent DNA studies on Tutankhamun's lineage. All were found together, lying naked side-by-side and unidentified in a small antechamber of the tomb. All three mummies had been extensively damaged by ancient tomb robbers.
There has been much speculation as to the identity of the Younger Lady mummy. Upon finding the mummy, Victor Loret had initially believed it be of a young man as the mummy's head had been shaved. A closer inspection later made by Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith
confirmed that the mummy was that of a female, though Loret's original interpretation lasted for many years. Recently, autosomal and mitochondrial DNA
testing have shown conclusively that the mummy is that of a female, and the mother of Tutankhamun. The results also show that she was also a full-sister to her husband, the mummy from KV55
, and that they were both the children of Amenhotep III
and Queen Tiye. There is speculation over the identity of the mummy from KV55, with some Egyptologists, including Zahi Hawass
, claiming the mummy is Akhenaten
, and others, including anthropologist Joyce Filer, claiming the mummy as Smenkhare. This family relationship would lessen the possibility that the Younger Lady (and, by extension, Tutankhamun's mother) was either Nefertiti
, or Akhenaten's secondary wife Kiya
, because no known artifact accords either wife titles such as "King's sister" or "King's Daughter". The possibility of the younger lady being Sitamun
, Isis
, or Henuttaneb
is considered unlikely, as they were Great Royal Wives of their father Amenhotep III, and had Akhenaten married any of them, they would have taken the place of Nefertiti as the principal queen of Egypt. The report concludes that the mummy is likely to be Nebetah
or Beketaten
, daughters of Amenhotep III not known to have married their father, though he is known to have had eight daughters with Queen Tiye.
There is also a theory that the younger lady is Meritaten
, daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and wife of Smenkhare, based on a study of the alleles inherited by Tutankhamun. The theory goes that Meritaten married Smenkhare, believed to be her uncle, and thereby making Tutankhamun a maternal grandson of Akhenaten. The theory holds weight as inbreeding makes it harder to distinguish the generations, but there is one problem with this theory. Meritaten must be a mitochondrial descendant of Queen Tiye
, or her mother Thuya, as the younger lady's mitochondrial DNA
fits with her being Tiye's daughter. Nefertiti's lineage is nowhere specified, and if Meritaten is the younger lady, Nefertiti must be a mitochondrial relation of Thuya.
of the skull. He found that the embalming method was very similar to that found on Amenhotep II
and other contemporaneous mummies, and assumed that she was a member of his royal family.
It had been thought that the large wound in the left side of the mummy's mouth and cheek, which also destroyed part of the jaw, had also been the result of the tomb robber's actions, but a more recent re-examination of the mummy while it was undergoing genetic tests determined that the wound had happened prior to death and that the injury had been lethal.
KV35
Tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings is the tomb of Amenhotep II.It was discovered by Victor Loret in March 1898.-Layout and history:...
by archeologist Victor Loret
Victor Loret
Victor Clement Georges Philippe Loret was a French Egyptologist.-Biography:Loret studied with Gaston Maspero at the École des Hautes Études. In 1897 he became the head of the Egyptian Antiquities Service. In March 1898, he discovered KV35, the tomb of Amenhotep II in the Valley of the Kings...
in 1898. Through DNA tests this mummy has recently been identified as the mother of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun , Egyptian , ; approx. 1341 BC – 1323 BC) was an Egyptian pharaoh of the 18th dynasty , during the period of Egyptian history known as the New Kingdom...
, and the daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
and Queen Tiye
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") and as 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum
Egyptian Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display, the remainder in storerooms....
in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
.
The mummy was found adjacent to two other mummies in KV35: a young boy who died at around the age of ten, thought to be Webensenu
Webensenu
Webensenu was an ancient Egyptian prince of the 18th dynasty. He was a son of Pharaoh Amenhotep II.He is mentioned, along with his brother Nedjem, on a statue of Minmose, overseer of the workmen in Karnak. He died as a child and was buried in his father's tomb, KV35. His mummy is still there....
or Prince Thutmose and another, older woman, identified as Queen Tiye
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
by the recent DNA studies on Tutankhamun's lineage. All were found together, lying naked side-by-side and unidentified in a small antechamber of the tomb. All three mummies had been extensively damaged by ancient tomb robbers.
There has been much speculation as to the identity of the Younger Lady mummy. Upon finding the mummy, Victor Loret had initially believed it be of a young man as the mummy's head had been shaved. A closer inspection later made by Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith
Grafton Elliot Smith
Sir Grafton Elliot Smith, FRS FRCP was an Australian anatomist and a proponent of the hyperdiffusionist view of prehistory.-Professional career:Smith was born in Grafton, New South Wales...
confirmed that the mummy was that of a female, though Loret's original interpretation lasted for many years. Recently, autosomal and mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
testing have shown conclusively that the mummy is that of a female, and the mother of Tutankhamun. The results also show that she was also a full-sister to her husband, the mummy from KV55
KV55
KV55 is a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. It was discovered by Edward R. Ayrton in 1907 while he was working in the Valley for Theodore M. Davis. It has long been speculated, as well as much-disputed, that the body found in this tomb was that of the famous 'heretic king' Akhenaten...
, and that they were both the children of Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
and Queen Tiye. There is speculation over the identity of the mummy from KV55, with some Egyptologists, including Zahi Hawass
Zahi Hawass
Zahi Hawass is an Egyptian archaeologist, an Egyptologist, and former Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs. He has also worked at archaeological sites in the Nile Delta, the Western Desert, and the Upper Nile Valley....
, claiming the mummy is Akhenaten
Akhenaten
Akhenaten also spelled Echnaton,Ikhnaton,and Khuenaten;meaning "living spirit of Aten") known before the fifth year of his reign as Amenhotep IV , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt who ruled for 17 years and died perhaps in 1336 BC or 1334 BC...
, and others, including anthropologist Joyce Filer, claiming the mummy as Smenkhare. This family relationship would lessen the possibility that the Younger Lady (and, by extension, Tutankhamun's mother) was either Nefertiti
Nefertiti
Nefertiti was the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a religious revolution, in which they started to worship one god only...
, or Akhenaten's secondary wife Kiya
Kiya
Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's first royal wife, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni...
, because no known artifact accords either wife titles such as "King's sister" or "King's Daughter". The possibility of the younger lady being Sitamun
Sitamun
Sitamun was an Ancient Egyptian princess and queen consort during the 18th dynasty.-Family:...
, Isis
Iset (daughter of Amenhotep III)
- Family :Isis was one of the daughters of Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. She was a sister of Akhenaten. Iset's other brother was Crown Prince Thutmose....
, or Henuttaneb
Henuttaneb
-Family:Henuttaneb was one of the daughters of Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty and his Great Royal Wife, Queen Tiye. She was a sister of Pharaoh Akhenaten. She also had several more siblings - one other brother and several sisters....
is considered unlikely, as they were Great Royal Wives of their father Amenhotep III, and had Akhenaten married any of them, they would have taken the place of Nefertiti as the principal queen of Egypt. The report concludes that the mummy is likely to be Nebetah
Nebetah
Nebetah was one of the daughters of Ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. She was a younger sister of Akhenaten.- Biography :...
or Beketaten
Beketaten
Beketaten was an Ancient Egyptian princess of the 18th dynasty. Beketaten was the youngest daughter of Pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye, thus the sister of Pharaoh Akhenaten...
, daughters of Amenhotep III not known to have married their father, though he is known to have had eight daughters with Queen Tiye.
There is also a theory that the younger lady is Meritaten
Meritaten
Meritaten also spelled Merytaten or Meryetaten was an ancient Egyptian queen of the eighteenth dynasty, who held the position of Great Royal Wife to Pharaoh Smenkhkare, who may have been a brother or son of Akhenaten...
, daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, and wife of Smenkhare, based on a study of the alleles inherited by Tutankhamun. The theory goes that Meritaten married Smenkhare, believed to be her uncle, and thereby making Tutankhamun a maternal grandson of Akhenaten. The theory holds weight as inbreeding makes it harder to distinguish the generations, but there is one problem with this theory. Meritaten must be a mitochondrial descendant of Queen Tiye
Tiye
Tiye was the daughter of Yuya and Tjuyu . She became the Great Royal Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III....
, or her mother Thuya, as the younger lady's mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA is the DNA located in organelles called mitochondria, structures within eukaryotic cells that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, adenosine triphosphate...
fits with her being Tiye's daughter. Nefertiti's lineage is nowhere specified, and if Meritaten is the younger lady, Nefertiti must be a mitochondrial relation of Thuya.
Description of the mummy
Grafton Elliot Smith provided an extensive description of the mummy in his survey of the ancient royal mummies at the beginning of the 20th century. He found the mummy to be in height, and judged her to have been no older than 25 years old at the time of death. He also noted the major damage done by ancient tomb robbers, who smashed the anterior wall of the mummy's chest, and had torn the right arm off just below the shoulder. The right ear had also been broken off, and 38mm×30mm hole had been punched into the frontal boneFrontal bone
The frontal bone is a bone in the human skull that resembles a cockleshell in form, and consists of two portions:* a vertical portion, the squama frontalis, corresponding with the region of the forehead....
of the skull. He found that the embalming method was very similar to that found on Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II
Amenhotep II was the seventh Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few military campaigns in Syria; however, he fought much less than his father, and his reign saw the effective cessation of hostilities...
and other contemporaneous mummies, and assumed that she was a member of his royal family.
It had been thought that the large wound in the left side of the mummy's mouth and cheek, which also destroyed part of the jaw, had also been the result of the tomb robber's actions, but a more recent re-examination of the mummy while it was undergoing genetic tests determined that the wound had happened prior to death and that the injury had been lethal.
External links
- Press Release Zahi Hawass: CT-scans of Egyptian Mummies from the Valley of the Kings - The “Younger Lady” from KV 35