{"id":22014,"date":"2015-12-21T09:52:13","date_gmt":"2015-12-21T09:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/egyptian-pharaoh-tutankhamun-s-wet-nurse-might\/"},"modified":"2015-12-21T09:51:45","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T09:51:45","slug":"egyptian-pharaoh-tutankhamun-s-wet-nurse-might","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/egyptian-pharaoh-tutankhamun-s-wet-nurse-might\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun’s wet nurse might have been his sister"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Carvings on the wall of the tomb of Maia, the boy king\u2019s wet nurse, have led archaeologists to suspect she may have been his sister Meritaten }<\/p>\n

Archaeologists believe Maia, Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun\u2019s wet nurse, may have actually been his sister Meritaten.
\nTomb raiders: what treasures could lurk inside Egypt’s lost chambers?
\nRead more<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Egyptian officials and French archaeologist Alain Zivie unveiled Maia\u2019s tomb to journalists ahead of its opening to the public next month.<\/p>\n

The tomb was discovered by Zivie in 1996 in Saqqara, a necropolis about 20km (12 miles) south of Cairo.<\/p>\n

Maia was the wet nurse of Tutankhamun, whose mummy was found in 1922 by renowned British Egyptologist Howard Carter in the Valley of Kings in Luxor along with a treasure trove of thousands of objects.<\/p>\n

DNA tests have proven that the pharaoh Akhenaten was the father of Tutankhamun. The identity of his mother has long been a mystery, although she is not believed to be Akhenaten\u2019s Queen Nefertiti. Some theories suggest the boy king\u2019s mother was one of his aunts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaia is none other than princess Meritaten, the sister or half-sister of Tutankhamun and the daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti,\u201d Zivie said.<\/p>\n

He said his conclusion was based on the carvings of Tutankhamun and Maia on the walls of Maia\u2019s tomb.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extraordinary thing is that they are very similar. They have the same chin, the eyes, the family traits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe carvings show Maia sitting on the royal throne and he is sitting on her\u201d, said Zivie, director of the French Archaeological Mission of Bubasteion.<\/p>\n

Similar carvings were in Akhenaten\u2019s tomb at the Tel el-Amarna archaeological site in modern-day Minya province where the pharaoh had his capital city, he said.<\/p>\n

A DNA analysis in 2010 revealed that Tutankhamun was the son of Akhenaten, who temporarily converted ancient Egypt to monotheism by imposing the cult of sun god Aton.<\/p>\n

The tomb of Akhenaten has carvings showing the death of princess Maketaten \u2013 the second daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Zivie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these scenes there is a woman who is breast-feeding a baby, and this woman shown as a wet nurse is princess Meritaten, the eldest daughter of Akhenaten,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The mummy of Meritaten has not been found, but antiquities minister Mamduh al-Damati said on Sunday it could be in a secret chamber in Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists are currently scanning Tutankhamun\u2019s tomb in the Valley of Kings after British archaeologist Nicholas Reeves claimed that it has a secret chamber.<\/p>\n

Reeves says the chamber could be the burial site of Nefertiti, whose mummy also has not been found.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these possibilities exist. Step by step we will be able to better understand the time of king Tutankhamun,\u201d Damati said.<\/p>\n

Tutankhamun died more than 3,000 years ago aged 19 in 1324 BC after reigning for nine years.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/figure>\n

Source:The Guardian: [Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun’s wet nurse might have been his sister->http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/culture\/2015\/dec\/21\/egyptian-pharaoh-tutankhamuns-wet-nurse-might-have-been-his-sister]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Carvings on the wall of the tomb of Maia, the boy king\u2019s wet nurse, have led archaeologists to suspect she may have been his sister Meritaten } Archaeologists believe Maia, Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun\u2019s wet nurse, may have actually been his sister Meritaten. Tomb raiders: what treasures could lurk inside Egypt’s lost chambers? Read more On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000070997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[234],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-22014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-the-guardian"],"bylines":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"contributors":[{"id":234,"name":"The Guardian","slug":"the-guardian","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":78}],"featured_image":{"id":2000070997,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton22014.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22014"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22014\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000070997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22014"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=22014"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=22014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}