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The Younger Lady
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The Younger Lady
The Younger Lady is the informal name given to an ancient Egyptian mummy discovered within tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") and 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Through DNA tests, this mummy was identified as the mother of the pharaoh Tutankhamun and a daughter of pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. Early speculation that this mummy was the remains of Nefertiti was argued to be incorrect, as nowhere is Nefertiti accorded the title "King's daughter" unless this mummy was in fact a cousin of Akhenaten and not a sister. Two Egyptologists, Zahi Hawass and Martin Bommas have suggested that she was Beketaten, the youngest daughter of Queen Tiye and Amenhotep III and the mother of Tutankhamun.
Other researchers voiced their skepticism towards this identification due to DNA degradation and the fact that inbreeding in the late 18th dynasty might have make some readings inconclusive, and proposed that the Younger Lady might have been one of Amenhotep III's and Tiye's granddaughters, rather than their daughter.
The mummy was found adjacent to two other mummies in KV35: a young boy who died at the approximate age of ten and is thought to be Webensenu, and an older woman, who has been identified as Tiye by the recent DNA studies on Tutankhamun's lineage. The three mummies were found together in a small antechamber of the tomb of Amenhotep II, lying naked, side-by-side, and unidentified. All three mummies had been extensively damaged by ancient tomb robbers.
Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith examined the mummy in his survey of the ancient royal mummies conducted at the beginning of the twentieth century. He immediately noted that the body was that of a woman, not a man as thought by Loret and later authors; this mistake he ascribed to the fact the mummy's head was shaved. The body was measured to be 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in) tall and he judged her to have been no older than twenty-five years at the time of death based on the degree of fusion of the iliac crest and her non-erupted wisdom teeth. CT scanning suggested an age of twenty-five to thirty-five years at death based on the condition of the epiphyseal union and the closure of the cranial sutures.
There is a small (3.8 by 3 centimetres (1.5 in × 1.2 in) oval-shaped hole in the front of the skull; this hole has sharp, beveled, and festooned edges. Additionally, bone fragments are seen inside the skull. This, together with lack of evidence for attempted healing or sclerosis indicate this is a postmortem injury. The skull cavity contains her shrunken and desiccated brain and dura mater; there is no evidence of embalming material within the cranial cavity. This is unusual, as all other late Eighteenth Dynasty mummies show some attempt to remove the brain. Linen packs were placed in front of the eyes, and subcutaneous packing is present in her right cheek and mid-face.
The Younger Lady has a gaping wound in the left side of her mouth and cheek. It was thought that this wound, which also destroyed part of the jaw, had been the result of the actions of tomb robbers, but examinations of the mummy in 2003 by a scientific team from the University of York under Joann Fletcher, and CT scanning as part of The Egyptian Mummy Project determined that the wound had happened prior to death. The injury involves her cheek, left maxillary sinus, alveolar process, and part of her jaw; it shows no evidence of healing. Furthermore, pieces of most of the woman's fractured facial bones are missing; a rolled embalming pack of resin-impregnated linen was placed on top of the wound and partly beneath the remaining skin, which lends further support to the idea that the injury took place prior to mummification. The researchers consider this injury to have been fatal, and the result of a heavy object striking the woman's face. Hawass considers the injury to be accidental, involving the woman receiving a strong kick from an animal, such as a horse, while Hermann Schögl suggested that she was killed in a chariot crash or accident. Ashraf Selim viewed the wound as too violent to be the result of an accident. In his opinion, the Lady had been injured in an act of deliberate violence. Julian Heath suggests that the wound was likely the result of an axe blow.
The woman has several missing teeth due to her facial injury, one of which is seen inside her mouth. The upper wisdom teeth are non-erupted; her teeth have no visible attrition, and no occlusal irregularities.
The front wall of the chest sustained major damage at the hands of ancient tomb robbers, creating a large hole. Her heart was left in place, and remains visible within the body. The diaphragm was not removed but had two holes made to allow removal of the lungs. Her internal organs were removed through an embalming incision measuring 56 by 135 millimetres (2.2 in × 5.3 in), located in the left inguinal region; the incision is oval-shaped and gaping. The torso was packed with both linen fibers smeared with resin, and linen packs treated with resin. One of the resin-treated linen packs was placed within the pelvis. The pelvic floor was noted to be widely open and smeared with resin. It was possibly used as a route to remove the viscera during the mummification process and is a possible example of perineal evisceration. There is a subcutaneous filling at the back of the right hip. The pelvis contains small postmortem fractures, and the legs have also been damaged; the front half of both feet are missing.
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The Younger Lady
The Younger Lady is the informal name given to an ancient Egyptian mummy discovered within tomb KV35 in the Valley of the Kings by archaeologist Victor Loret in 1898. The mummy also has been given the designation KV35YL ("YL" for "Younger Lady") and 61072, and currently resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Through DNA tests, this mummy was identified as the mother of the pharaoh Tutankhamun and a daughter of pharaoh Amenhotep III and his Great Royal Wife Tiye. Early speculation that this mummy was the remains of Nefertiti was argued to be incorrect, as nowhere is Nefertiti accorded the title "King's daughter" unless this mummy was in fact a cousin of Akhenaten and not a sister. Two Egyptologists, Zahi Hawass and Martin Bommas have suggested that she was Beketaten, the youngest daughter of Queen Tiye and Amenhotep III and the mother of Tutankhamun.
Other researchers voiced their skepticism towards this identification due to DNA degradation and the fact that inbreeding in the late 18th dynasty might have make some readings inconclusive, and proposed that the Younger Lady might have been one of Amenhotep III's and Tiye's granddaughters, rather than their daughter.
The mummy was found adjacent to two other mummies in KV35: a young boy who died at the approximate age of ten and is thought to be Webensenu, and an older woman, who has been identified as Tiye by the recent DNA studies on Tutankhamun's lineage. The three mummies were found together in a small antechamber of the tomb of Amenhotep II, lying naked, side-by-side, and unidentified. All three mummies had been extensively damaged by ancient tomb robbers.
Dr. Grafton Elliot Smith examined the mummy in his survey of the ancient royal mummies conducted at the beginning of the twentieth century. He immediately noted that the body was that of a woman, not a man as thought by Loret and later authors; this mistake he ascribed to the fact the mummy's head was shaved. The body was measured to be 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in) tall and he judged her to have been no older than twenty-five years at the time of death based on the degree of fusion of the iliac crest and her non-erupted wisdom teeth. CT scanning suggested an age of twenty-five to thirty-five years at death based on the condition of the epiphyseal union and the closure of the cranial sutures.
There is a small (3.8 by 3 centimetres (1.5 in × 1.2 in) oval-shaped hole in the front of the skull; this hole has sharp, beveled, and festooned edges. Additionally, bone fragments are seen inside the skull. This, together with lack of evidence for attempted healing or sclerosis indicate this is a postmortem injury. The skull cavity contains her shrunken and desiccated brain and dura mater; there is no evidence of embalming material within the cranial cavity. This is unusual, as all other late Eighteenth Dynasty mummies show some attempt to remove the brain. Linen packs were placed in front of the eyes, and subcutaneous packing is present in her right cheek and mid-face.
The Younger Lady has a gaping wound in the left side of her mouth and cheek. It was thought that this wound, which also destroyed part of the jaw, had been the result of the actions of tomb robbers, but examinations of the mummy in 2003 by a scientific team from the University of York under Joann Fletcher, and CT scanning as part of The Egyptian Mummy Project determined that the wound had happened prior to death. The injury involves her cheek, left maxillary sinus, alveolar process, and part of her jaw; it shows no evidence of healing. Furthermore, pieces of most of the woman's fractured facial bones are missing; a rolled embalming pack of resin-impregnated linen was placed on top of the wound and partly beneath the remaining skin, which lends further support to the idea that the injury took place prior to mummification. The researchers consider this injury to have been fatal, and the result of a heavy object striking the woman's face. Hawass considers the injury to be accidental, involving the woman receiving a strong kick from an animal, such as a horse, while Hermann Schögl suggested that she was killed in a chariot crash or accident. Ashraf Selim viewed the wound as too violent to be the result of an accident. In his opinion, the Lady had been injured in an act of deliberate violence. Julian Heath suggests that the wound was likely the result of an axe blow.
The woman has several missing teeth due to her facial injury, one of which is seen inside her mouth. The upper wisdom teeth are non-erupted; her teeth have no visible attrition, and no occlusal irregularities.
The front wall of the chest sustained major damage at the hands of ancient tomb robbers, creating a large hole. Her heart was left in place, and remains visible within the body. The diaphragm was not removed but had two holes made to allow removal of the lungs. Her internal organs were removed through an embalming incision measuring 56 by 135 millimetres (2.2 in × 5.3 in), located in the left inguinal region; the incision is oval-shaped and gaping. The torso was packed with both linen fibers smeared with resin, and linen packs treated with resin. One of the resin-treated linen packs was placed within the pelvis. The pelvic floor was noted to be widely open and smeared with resin. It was possibly used as a route to remove the viscera during the mummification process and is a possible example of perineal evisceration. There is a subcutaneous filling at the back of the right hip. The pelvis contains small postmortem fractures, and the legs have also been damaged; the front half of both feet are missing.
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