NEW YORK: A single tooth and some DNA clues appear to have solved the mystery of the lost mummy of Hatshepsut, one of the great queens of ancient Egypt, who reigned in the 15th century B.C.
Archaeologists who conducted the research, to be announced formally Wednesday in Cairo, said this was the first mummy of an Egyptian ruler to be found and "positively identified" since King Tutankhamun's tomb was opened in 1922.
Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo, said in a telephone interview that the mummy was found in an obscure, undecorated tomb in the Valley of the Kings, across from the Nile at modern-day Luxor, and had been largely overlooked for more than a century.
Hawass said the identification of the well-preserved mummy of an obese woman as Hatshepsut was made a few weeks ago when a CT scan of a wooden box associated with the queen revealed the presence of a tooth.
Obese Woman, Single Tooth? Logan County Pharoe-ette!
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