This article focuses on the identification of the mummy in KV55 as Akhenaten and also looks at why Akhenaten was more important in ancient Egypt than Tutankhamun. Here’s an extract.
The discovery of Akhenaten’s remains lay to rest longtime speculation over his physical appearance. Royal statues of the time show an effeminate figure with womanly hips, elongated skull and fleshy lips – leading to speculation he suffered from any number of rare diseases that distorted his body.But the mummy and DNA tests showed a normally shaped man without genetic conditions that might given him both masculine and feminine features.
“It ought to dampen down some of the more dramatic interpretations,” said Barry Kemp, who has been working on the Amarna excavations since 1977. “But people do love a good story.”
Jerome Rose, of the University of Arkansas, who has been working on the site with Kemp, said the discovery “makes our work at Amarna of greater interest.”
What the discovery does not resolve, however, is the mystery of how Akhenaten died. Unlike Tutankhamun’s well preserved mummy, which showed he suffered from congenital defects and malaria, Akhenaten’s remains are little more than bones with no soft tissues to provide clues to his death.
In fact, the difference in preservation between his skeleton and all the other royal mummies could have been due to his different religious beliefs or animosity by those burying him.
