Doug M Wrote:
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> We do know that various rulers (and the population
> in general) suffered from various ailments and
> afflictions. However, I think it is quite
> unrealistic to believe that the Amenhotep IV
> (Akhenaten) or his family were afflicted with it.
> Most of the artwork from the period, which was
> destroyed in ancient times, depicted ALL
> officials, servants, royals and everyone else from
> Egypt proper in the same style as Akhenaten
> himself. Therefore, this does not lend itself to
> the idea of big hips and other extreme features
> being synonymous with marfan's syndrome. More
> likely it was a new style of artistic portrayal,
> where fat hips and other features were seen as
> desired traits and a sign of fertility, prosperity
> and happines.

While what you say is possibly (I tend for symbolic meanings being derived from actual physical characteristics), I think it's very important to realise that simply because every official portrayed himself the same as the king's characteristics has a very long tradition in Egyptian art. From the Mycerinus (Menekare) triad of the Old Kingdom where all relatives and deities look the same as Menekare, to representations of Middle Kingdom officials with the same glum countenance and large ears similar to Senwosret III's, and even to the "rejuvenated" versions of officials adopting Amenhotep III's "rejuvenated facial features after his 3rd Heb Sed. Similarly, every male god during Tutankhamun's reign looks like him, while many of the female goddesses all look like representations of Ankhsenamun, down to the portruding bellies, folds of skin under the chin, etc. The same can be said of the officials serving this king and queen.

> Given that the mummies we do have
> don't actually provide any evidence for marfan's
> disease, including the last analysis of Tut's
> mummy, this must be considered as very unlikely.
> A good example of the artistic style of
> exaggerated features can be seen in the
> reconstructed talatat wall of Akhenaten's temple.

The last I checked, we have the mummy of Tutankhamun, but none of his family that are verifiable. Marfan's does not strike every member of a family at any rate, as the general rate of an inherited reponse from one parent is only 50%, bu increases to 75% if both parents have the disease. Since there is no singleone “test” to diagnose the condition, particularly upon deceased remains, we will never know for sure.

Rates of Marfan's inheritance:

Overall odds of inheriting from mother: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.*

Overall odds of inheriting from father: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Mother to son inheritance odds: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Father to son inheritance odds: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Mother to daughter inheritance odds: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Father to daughter inheritance odds: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Inheritance from one diseased parent odds: Usually 50% for autosomal dominant diseases.

Inheritance from two diseased parents odds: Usually 75% (50% disease, 25% double dominant) for autosomal dominant diseases.

Genetic carriers of Marfan syndrome: Carriers possible for disease?: No, not for autosomal dominant diseases.

Odds daughter becomes genetic carrier: 0%. There are no carriers for autosomal dominant diseases.

Odds son becomes genetic carrier: 0%. There are no carriers for autosomal dominant diseases.

At least 25 percent of classic Marfan syndrome cases result from a new mutation in the FBN1 gene. These cases occur in people with no history of the disorder in their family.

*What is autosomal dominant inheritance?

Autosomal dominant inheritance means that the gene is located on one of the autosomes (chromosome pairs 1 through 22). This means that males and females are equally affected, and "dominant" means that only one gene is necessary to have the trait. When a parent has a dominant trait, there is a 50 percent chance that any child they have will also inherit the trait.

There are four possible combinations in the children. Two of the four, or 50 percent, have inherited the trait. The other 50 percent have not inherited the trait. These four combinations are possible every time a pregnancy occurs between these two individuals. The gender of the children (whether they are sons or daughters) does not matter. The chance is 50/50 for each pregnancy.

If an individual carries an abnormal gene for Marfan syndrome, that individual has a 50 percent risk for occurrence of Marfan syndrome with each future pregnancy. If a person does not carry the gene abnormality, then the risk for occurrence of the disorder in future offspring would be the same as the population risk.

Now, I don't think you can say a) we have enough relative genetic materials from all members of Akhenaten's family to make the diagnosis that Marfans did not exist in the family line, but then again, it's equally possibly that Marfan's did exist in Akhenaten, but did not affect all of his genetic heirs or was present in his genetic ancestors.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom