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DNA tests to study mummy fetuses in King Tut tomb
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-08-07 09:54

One of his top goals is to find the mummy of Nefertiti, the queen legendary for her beauty.


In this undated photo released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008, Zahi Hawass, head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, right uncover along with an aid the two mummified fetuses found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun in 1922, during preparations for a DNA test in Cairo, Egypt. [Agencies] 

Last year, Egypt announced that archaeologists had identified the mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most powerful queen and the only female pharaoh. But scientists later said they were still analyzing DNA from the bald, 3,500-year-old mummy to try to back up the claim.

Hawass has long rejected DNA testing on Egyptian mummies by foreign experts, and only recently allowed such projects on condition they be done exclusively by Egyptians. A $5 million DNA lab was created at the Egyptian Museum, with funding from the Discovery Channel.

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But some experts have warned that Hawass is making claims like that of Hatshepsut too quickly, without submitting samples to a second lab to corroborate DNA tests or publishing the results in peer-reviewed journals, both common practice.

The council announced in its statement Wednesday that the government had agreed with Cairo University's Faculty of Medicine to open a second DNA testing lab, though it did not give details on funding for the lab or when it could begin work.

Abdel-Halim Nour el-Deen, a former head of the council and a leading Egyptologist said DNA testing on mummies thousands of years old is very difficult.

"It is doubtful that it could produce a scientific result to determine such important issues such as the lineage of pharaohs," Nour el-Deen told the AP.

Nour el-Deen also criticized the antiquities authority for not making public the results of the tests already carried out.