Egyptian Mummy’s DNA

The Extraction of an Ancient Egyptian Mummy’s DNA

Back in 1915, US archaeologists went on an excavation mission of the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Deir El-Bersha, where they discovered a hidden tomb. When they opened it, they found a mummy’s gruesomely severed head. The room, in which they discovered the tomb, was the final resting place for a governor named Djehutynakht (juh-HOO-tuh-knocked) along with his wife. They are believed to have existened around 2000 BC during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. Over the years, robbers have stolen the gold and jewels inside the chamber. In order to cover their tracks, they threw the headless, limbless mummified torso into one corner of the room, and set the room on fire.

The archaeologists tried to recover the painted coffins and anything that survived the theft, then sent them to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in 1921. The collection was exhibited in 2009. As for the body, the torso remained in Egypt, while the detached head became an unsolved mystery, waiting to be revealed. First, the museum needed to know if the head belonged to a he or a she (referring to the governor or his wife). They decided that only a DNA test would answer their question. However, in 2009, the extraction of DNA from mummies was still not a successful progress.

The head of the mummy was examined in Massachusetts General Hospital in 2005, using a CT scan, it was revealed that head had missing cheek bones and part of its jaw hinge. These features could have helped in determining the sex of the mummy. This destruction in the head spiked up another question: why is the face full of disfigurements? Dr. Rajiv Gupta, a neuroradiologist, stated that the attachment of muscles functioning in chewing and closure of the mouth were all taken out. It is believed that this disfigurement may be a part of the ancient mummification practice known as “opening of the mouth” ceremony. This ritual was done since Pharaohs believed that there was an afterlife, and so the deceased could eat, drink and breathe easier. Surprisingly enough, the cuts are very precise – ancient Egyptians somehow performed coronidectomy surgery 4,000 years ago.

What made extraction of DNA from Egyptian mummies so challenging is because of the very hot weather of the desert, rapidly degrading DNA. All attempts to obtain any DNA failed or the results were contaminated with modern DNA. The only option was to ask the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help.

It was decided by the doctors and museum staff that the only way to obtain the mummy’s DNA was to extract a tooth from its mouth. It’s well-known that teeth contain DNA. Many scientists tried to obtain DNA from the tooth, but they still failed. Until 2016, when the crown of the tooth reached the FBI’s lab in Quantico, Virginia. In the FBI’s lab, Dr. Odile Loreille, a forensic scientist, dug into the tooth, collected some powder, then dissolved it.

 The process contained analysis of the sample and the ratio of chromosomes in the sample. The DNA extracted showed signs of heavy damage, which meant that it was not a contaminated modern DNA. And it was a success! Finally, the head was identified: it belonged to a male. And by that, ancient Egyptian DNA could indeed be extracted from mummies. Who knows how many more mysteries can be revealed?

Pharaohs of ancient Egypt (their customs and traditions)

 

Pharaohs of ancient Egypt (their customs and traditions)

 

Pharaoh, (means "incredible house"), initially, the illustrious royal residence in antiquated Egypt. The word came to be utilized metonymically for the Egyptian lord under the New Kingdom (beginning in the eighteenth administration, 1539–1292 BCE), and by the 22nd tradition (c. 945–c. 730 BCE) it had been embraced as an appellation of regard. It was never the lord's proper title, however, and its advanced use as a nonexclusive name for all Egyptian rulers depends on the use of the Hebrew Bible. In authentic records, the full title of the Egyptian ruler comprised of five names, each went before by one of the accompanying titles: Horus, Two Ladies, Golden Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Son of Re. The last name was given to him during childbirth, the others at crowning celebration.

Egyptians consider the Pharaohs their Gods!

The Egyptians accepted their pharaoh to be the arbiter between the divine beings and the universe of men. After death the pharaoh got divine, related to Osiris, the dad of Horus and lord of the dead, and gave his sacrosanct powers and position to the new pharaoh, his child. The pharaoh's perfect status was depicted in symbolic terms: his uraeus (the snake on his crown) spat flares at his adversaries; he had the option to stomp on a huge number of the foe on the combat zone; and he was almighty, knowing it all and controlling nature and richness.

 

 

Pharaohs responsibilities) How pharaohs ruled Egypt)

As a celestial ruler, the pharaoh was the preserver of the inherent request, called maat. He possessed an enormous part of Egypt's territory and coordinated its utilization, was answerable for his kin's monetary and profound government assistance, and apportioned equity to his subjects. His will was preeminent, and he administered by illustrious announcement. To administer decently, however, the pharaoh needed to assign obligation; his central partner was the vizier, who, among different obligations, was boss equity, top of the depository, and administrator everything being equal. Underneath this focal position, the illustrious will of the pharaoh was regulated through the nomes, or regions, into which Upper and Lower Egypt were isolated.

 

Numerous researchers accept the primary pharaoh was Narmer, additionally called Menes. In spite of the fact that there is some discussion among specialists, many accept he was the primary ruler to join upper and lower Egypt (this is the reason pharaohs hold the title of "master of two terrains").

Female pharaohs!

 Pharaohs were ordinarily male, in spite of the fact that there were some essential female pioneers, as Hatshepsut and Cleopatra. Hatshepsut, specifically, was an effective ruler, however numerous engravings and landmarks about her were devastated after her demise—maybe to prevent future ladies from turning out to be pharaohs.

Pharaohs believed that there is Life after death

After their demises, numerous pharaohs were buried and encircled by wealth they were intended to use in life following death. Travelers and archeologists have found these burial chambers and took in a lot about antiquated Egyptian culture from them. One exceptionally well-known model was in 1922 when prehistorian Howard Carter found the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen, a pharaoh who passed on when he was just nineteen.

 

Elephantine Temple

The reuse and reusing of funerary landmarks and assortments happened since the commencement of old Egypt from many rulers and aristocrats of old Egypt (which is regularly called the usurpation of the artifacts of the progenitors) - and a long way from that advanced idea of considering a few rulers ransacked the relics of their precursors and thinking of them as insatiable rulers who reused the ancient pieces Those who went before them for individual magnificence, however by and large there were loved strict purposes behind doing as such ... What occurred during the rule of King Senusret I of re-fixing old offices that were harmed, was a model that Queen Hatshepsut continued in modifying, reestablishing and fixing tremendous structures Affected offices 

On account of sacrosanct design, the demolition of strict offices and landmarks according to the antiquated Egyptian was commensurate to obliterating the inestimable world and reestablishing its maintenance and rebuilding is the reclamation of the world to the hallowed scene and the framework once more 

Very nearly a century after the removal of the Hyksos, Queen Hatshepsut expressed on the dividers of her sanctuary known as Istabl Antar, south of Minya, that these intruders didn't care for the Egyptian culture, and that she fixed what was obliterated and modified what was annihilated when the Asians were living in Awares in the Delta and he used to live among them. The drifters who annihilated what existed, on the grounds that they were administering without the god Ra. "This is the manner by which the content says, albeit numerous Hyksos lords bore the name" Ra " 

The fundamental element of the arrangement that Hatshepsut followed and afterward Tuthmosis III followed was development all through the nation .... It appears to be that Queen Hatshepsut started reestablishing the nation and kept on thinking about and change it. 

The principle objective of these sanctuary redesigns was that all rulers in old Egypt discovered crushed sanctuaries, including those worked of mud blocks from prior times ... The possibility of ​​renovation was communicated in structures that were reestablished and mostly remade, which portrays a gathering of development works during the rule of Hatshepsut. Furthermore, Thutmose III attested that this style was not created in the Eighteenth Dynasty, yet was utilized significantly sooner during the rule of King Senusret the First. 

Every one of these rulers accepted that the world that they found had been harmed to an enormous degree, so their job was to modify the crushed nation and reestablish request to it, and make and recharge structures, that is, to reestablish Maat (the inestimable framework) once more. 

Lords used to depict the decay of the current world from one viewpoint and its reestablishment then again. There were numerous highlights connecting the rule of Senusret I and the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III in remaking and fixing what was harmed. 

Senusret likewise sought after a similar political and change program in the nation that his dad, Amenemhat, had taken, and Hatshepsut and Thutmose III finished it, and after them Horemheb and Seti the First Ramses II, and hence this was a convention followed, and it appears to be that Senusret I acquired this idea from his dad and kept on reconstructing the nation 

For the reasons for the regal philosophy, the decimated world was spoken to in detail as a picture that mirrors the demolished custom scene in three writings, including two writings from two elephants, one of which is a regal pronouncement composed on the mass of the sanctuary and the other is engraved on an uncommon plaque ... furthermore, the third content comes from the city of al-Toud in Luxor, the focal point of the religion of the nit "Minto" Lord War, toward the start of the rule of King Senusret the First 

The sanctuary on Elephantine was in an extremely helpless condition as per the content safeguarded on the external mass of the sanctuary where the recorded content says: "The Great Hall was a heap of rubble on the ground ... There is no information on shrewdness, no room in the sanctuary for the undertakings of ladies (priestesses), no spot For the "HM-NTR" (The Priest) ... No entryway, no entryway papers to seal the crates 

It appears to be that the regal engraving shows the genuine condition of the terrible scene in the Temple of Elephantine, and a similar data was introduced in another content of what befell this honorable structure: "A few pieces of it vanished, its dividers were demolished, and all the rooms were loaded with rubble, and the earth gulped its holiness .... and so forth 

A similar picture is comparable in a book recorded on the mass of the Temple of the Toud in Luxor during the rule of King Senusret the First: "Every one of its rooms were heaps on the ground, the blessed spot was totally failed to remember

KA

KA 

The King of Egypt and the "Ka" government are the secret of the endless patterns of creation 

Every one of the rulers of Egypt is essential for the perfect mystery behind the redundancy of the patterns of creation and the rebirth of people. 

The ka majesty is the way to understanding the secret of the endless patterns of creation, so we need to stop at this idea to attempt to comprehend it through antiquated Egyptian writings. 

The old Egyptians accepted that the individual isn't just an actual body, however there are numerous magical components and profound bodies that partake together in the arrangement of the human substance that consolidates the two boundaries (destruction and interminability), and among these powerful components and otherworldly bodies the ka 

The "ka" appears at a similar second the actual body is made, and the pictograph for "ka" is two arms raised to the sky. 

The "ka" is conceived at a similar second when the actual body is conceived, implying that the "ka" is the existence energy that possesses everything known to mankind and enables it to live and move 

Everything known to mankind has a "ka" (creatures, plants, heavenly bodies, and awesome substances likewise have "ka" (plural ka)). 

The hieroglyphic image for "ka" communicates the demonstration of grasping, and it is an action word showing the presence of a feeling of affection, sympathy and kindness that goes with the transmission of the "ka" energy from the awesome substance that encompasses everything known to mankind and gives it life energy 

The "ka" is the thing that sustains the actual body and is liable for its development. Consequently, the "ka" in Egyptian strict way of thinking is especially connected with food, where the plural type of "ka" - which is kao - is utilized to indicate nourishments. 

In the substance of the pyramids (text No. 789) came these expressions that tended to the ruler of Egypt, saying: "When you decontaminate your body, your mug cleans itself ... that your mummy sits with you and eats bread with you generally and for eternity." 

So the ka is the grandiose power answerable for food, and it is the material body that safeguards the actual body during an individual's life on earth. The actual body lives as long as the ka is appended to it, and when the ka is isolated from it, demise happens and the actual body loses its imperativeness and starts to disintegrate. To its essential components. 

The actual body kicks the bucket, however the ka doesn't pass on, but instead moves to the dowat (the hidden world) where it lives there and gets contributions of bread, brew and different nourishments that are put in the burial places and offered as penances for the dead. 

When considering the idea of "ka" in Egyptian strict way of thinking, we find that the implications of "ka" are not restricted to the fundamental energy that sustains the actual body. 

A similar word is additionally used to mean bull, and it is likewise composed with a similar hieroglyphic image, which is the arms raised up, which demonstrates the demonstration of grasping .... What's more, the bull in old Egypt is an image of the astronomical power that re-embeds the seed of life in the belly of the inestimable mother. 

The antiquated Egyptians and different occupants of old civic establishments dominated in utilizing similar sounding word usage to communicate the connection among astronomical and otherworldly ideas and things having a place with the material world. 

One of the most clear instances of this is the utilization of "ka" to indicate the bull, which is an image of virility, and furthermore to signify the illustrious "ka", which means the essential body of the lord (or the associate). 

The ruler is depicted as a "solid bull", a portrayal regularly referenced in the Hourly title of the rulers of Egypt, particularly in the time of the cutting edge state. Along these lines, the Hourly title is some of the time called "the title of the Ka", and this title shows up as a rule composed over the "Ka" sign, which is In the type of arms raised up 

"Ka-mut-f" (the bull of its mom) is written in pictographs utilizing three images: an image as a bull, an image as the indication of the "ka" (arms raised up) and an image as a female falcon which gives the phonetic estimation of the syllable "demise" . 

Both the bull and the ka go into the development of the name Ka Mutif (its mom's bull), which implies that its job isn't simply restricted to planting a seed of new life toward the finish of the enormous cycles, yet in addition has a part in food. 

This relationship is especially apparent in the collect celebration, as recorded by the Egyptian craftsman on the dividers of the Temple of Habu, where the ceremonies connected the food cycle that closes with the reap of the planting and the transmission of the Egyptian regal tradition starting with one age then onto the next ... In the reap celebration, the spirits of progenitors are evoked through their sculptures and pictures. . 

Quite possibly the main obligations of the ruler in old Egypt is to guarantee the ripeness of the land so the individuals can discover enough food ... To accomplish this, the lord needed to play out certain strict ceremonies on the reap celebration, where the spirits of the precursors would impart to him (implying that the entire imperial line was a significant component in the ripeness customs. Also, gather feasts). 

The idea of "ka" incorporates both the food and the spirits of the predecessors who left to the next world however didn't separate from our reality on the grounds that the energy of life and ripeness is moved from the other world to us through them. Soul domain. 

The precursors are in a condition of perpetual presence in our reality through the ruler. They live inside 

him, uphold him, and take an interest with him in decision Egypt.

discover

The discovery of a cache of sealed coffins in Saqqara The collection of more than 13 intact and sealed coffins has been found, which is the first step towards a huge discovery that will be announced soon at the site, according to the Ministry of Antiquities

It was found inside a hole 11 meters deep, where three closed ports were also found. The statement added that these coffins are 2,500 years old and still retain some of the original colors.

The coffins were found stacked on top of each other, and initial studies indicate that the coffins are completely closed and have not been opened since their burial, and it is likely that more will be found at the same site.

Queen Nefertiti

The incomplete quartz head of Queen Nefertiti, wife of King Akhenaten, was part of a composite statue in which each element was carved separately to be grouped later into a single statue.

Like the rest of the Akhenaten family, the head depicts the queen according to the Amarna art style.

The modern state

Eighteenth Dynasty

The Amarna era

Akhenaten era

About 1353 - 1336 BC

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo

The costs of mummification

The costs of mummification were not simple, the process itself varies its cost from one person to another, as well as the external appearance of the mummy, and the quality of materials used in the mummy from others, all of this is measured by the status and wealth of the deceased, and funerary objects designed for people with different levels of wealth when they were alive, or One of the family.

There were at least strategies available for those who were planning a cemetery, some of whom could replace, imitate, merge, reuse and replace expensive materials with cheaper ones, for example use porcelain made of sand instead of more expensive gold, or a mummy mask of clay can be painted yellow. To imitate gold, especially with expensive coffins, there was a separate cartonnage (mask) that was placed on the mummy, and it was shaped like the normal size of the deceased and wore daily clothes and placed directly on the mummy to save money

These economics methods reveal immense creativity among those who did not have the means to furnish a tomb according to elite standards ... While the craftsmanship and extravagant materials used for the wealthy inspire admiration for their exceptional beauty, the things designed for the common person have a modest and eloquent presence in their own right.