4000-Year Old Mummy Mystery Resolved

The 'next generation' DNA sequencing has enabled scientists to unwrap a mystry behind the existence of a blood relationship between two age-old mummies in the Manchester Museum.

The mummies of Khnum-nakht and Nakht-ankh dates back to around 1800 BC but they were discovered in 1907 and there was an argument among the Egyptologists on the possibility of any relationship between them. In 1908, on the basis of existing inscriptional evidence, it was proposed that one of the brothers was adopted. However, the debate continued and in 2015, DNA was extracted from the teeth of the mummies to solve the confusion. Analysis suggested the existence of a maternal relationship between them and it was determined they had different fathers.  

The search for two brothers was started from the pair’s joint burial site that was discovered at Deir Rifeh, a village 250 miles south of Cairo in the early 20^th century. The coffins of the brothers had Hieroglyphic inscriptions which confirmed that they were the sons of an unnamed governor and Khnum-aa was their mother as mentioned on it.

By: Srishti Sharma

Content: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180116222507.htm