Rick Baudé Wrote:
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> Well we have Tut's body, the fetuses of both of
> his daughters, the body in KV 55. Along with Yuya
> and Thuya who proposed as her possible parents.
> And I believe the skeleton of Mutnojmet's her
> putative sister.

Actually, we have NO remains of anyone related to Nefertiti, unless Tutankhamun is her son.

Yuya and Thuya were the parents of Tiye (known from the Boundaries Scarab), Great Royal Wife of Amenhotep III, so unless you are arguing that Yuya and Thuya married off Nefertiti as a daughter(?) to their own grandson (Akhenaten), that wouldn't make much sense bloodline-wise and would violate, I suspect, even royal Egyptian taboo sensibilities.

If you argue that Ay is Nefertiti's father, we still have the problem that there's no remains of Ay to compare for mtDNA, and of course, there's no evidence that Ay was actually the son of Yuya and Thuya, either.

It's also been pretty well accepted now that Mutnedjmet, wife of Horemheb, is NOT the same as the half-sister of Nefertiti, whose name is actually Mutbenret (Reeves in Freed, et al. 1999). So, these are two different women, and Mutnedjmet did not hold any royal filiation titles (such as consort, sister, mother or daughter of a king) - but then again, neither did Ankhsenamun as Tutankhamun's Great Royal Wife in her titles (Eaton-Krauss and Graefe 1985).

The body in KV 55, a male, is related to Tutankhamun - he could be a brother or a father (Harrison and Connolly, et al. 1969). Despite the recent documentary which placed the age of these bones between 25 to 40, 3 previous physical examinations of the KV 55 remains could not attain such an older age, and felt the body was no older than 25 (Derry 1931; Harrison 1966; Filer 2000).

So, the KV 55 remains being Akhenaten doesn't seem reasonable, considering he already had 2 toddler daughters by Year 2 of his 17 year reign (Smith and Redford 1976). (That said, I await a formal report on the CT scan shown in the recent documentary, rather than simple vague statement the KV 55 remains "could be" possibly Akhenaten).

Tarpits, indeed.

Reference:

Derry, D. E. 1931. Notes on the Skeleton hitherto believed to be that of King Akhenaten. ASAE 31: 115-119.

Eaton-Krauss, M. and E. Graefe 1985. The Small Golden Shrine from the Tomb of Tutankhamun. Tut'ankhamun Tomb Series. J. R. Harris. Oxford: Griffith Institute.

Filer, J. 2000. The KV 55 body: the facts. Egyptian Archaeology 17(Autumn): 13-14.

Freed, R. E., Y. J. Markowitz, et al., Eds. 1999. Pharaohs of the Sun: Akhenaten: Nefertiti: Tutankhamen. Boston: Museum Fine Arts/Bulfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company.

Harrison, R. G. 1966. An Anatomical Examination of the Pharaonic Remains Purported to be Akhenaten. JEA 52: 95-119.

Harrison, R. G., R. C. Connolly, et al. 1969. Kinship of Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun Demonstrated Serologically. Nature 224(October 25, 1969): 325-326.

Smith, R. W. and D. B. Redford 1976. The Akhenaten Temple Project. Vol. I: Initial Discoveries. Warminster: Aris and Phillips.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

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