'Unexpected' Tutankhamun discovery after DNA results used to trace Boy King's family
The Boy King is one of Egypt's most iconic pharaohs after the discovery of his tomb in 1922.
Tutankhamun is one of Ancient Egypt's best-known pharaohs, despite his short reign. The Boy King is believed to have taken the throne around 1331 BCE, when he is thought to have been around eight or nine.
His time as pharaoh lasted less than a decade, but he is an iconic figure when we look back at that fascinating time period. Much of this is down to the incredible discovery of his tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922.
His legendary gold mask was among over 5,000 artefacts found in the tomb, almost entirely untouched by grave robbers. Carter's find gave the modern world an unprecedented insight into royal burial practices and the wealth of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty.
As technology develops, more and more is being learned about the era - and Tutankhamun himself. He is thought to be the son of Akhenaten, a pharaoh whose radical rule reshaped the Egyptian landscape.
He attempted to replace the traditional pantheon of gods with a single deity - Aten, the sun disk. This move to monotheism was a huge change to centuries of religious practice and was, unsurprisingly, met with resistance.
So much so that his son, Tutankhamun, reversed many of his father's spiritual reforms, under the guidance of senior advisors like Ay and Horemheb. He once again gave prominence to the old gods and moved the capital from Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna) back to Thebes.
He changed his birth name - Tutankhaten, 'Living image of Aten' - to Tutankhamun, 'Living image of Amun', in honour of the king of the gods, whose eminence he had restored among the people. It is thought that this push to traditional beliefs was most likely the work of a political elite seeking to bring about stability after Akhenaten's shake-ups.
Much of the Boy King's life and origins are still a mystery, however. Though a recent "unexpected" breakthrough may have given us a clearer picture about his family, The Express reports.
The BBC aired a documentary called Tutankhamun: The Truth Uncovered in 2014, which presented results from genetic analysis of royal mummies. This research was carried out by Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2010.
Scientists had used DNA to identify various members of Tutankhamun's immediate family, but they came upon something they were not prepared for. Narrator Dallas Campbel explained: “The DNA results identified the members of Tut’s family, but they also uncovered something completely unexpected when they compared the DNA of Tut’s father, Akhenaten, with the DNA of Tut’s mother.”
The researchers found that the pharaoh's parents were full siblings. Geneticist Dr Yehia Gad, one of the key researchers, explained: “They turned out that they’re brother and sister, which was a big surprise for us. A lot of incest happened... they didn’t like to let royal and non-royal blood mix, so they tried to keep it within the royal family.”
Inbreeding was not unusual in Egypt's royal lines, as pharaohs - considered living gods - often married within their families to preserve their divine bloodline, as they saw it. It may have been spiritually or politically advantageous at the time, modern science has shown that it dramatically increases the risk of physical deformities or inherited disease, due to a loss of genetic diversity.
And this may have impacted Tutankhamun himself. Further scans of the Boy King showed that he had a clubfoot, a cleft palate, necrosis in his left foot, and may have needed a walking stick, several of which were found in his tomb. Furthermore, his DNA indicated he had contracted malaria a number of times, which may have contributed to his early death at 18 or 19 years old.
Another enduring mystery is the identity of Tutankhamun’s mother. Egyptologists have long debated whether she was Queen Kiya, Queen Nefertiti, or a lesser-known figure referred to in mummy records as the “Younger Lady.”
While both Kiya and Nefertiti were known wives of Akhenaten, the DNA analysis concluded that the Younger Lady was his biological mother. However, this conclusion has not gone unchallenged.
Marc Gabolde, a respected French Egyptologist, proposed an alternative explanation in a 2022 lecture at Harvard University. He said: “The DNA of third-generation offspring between cousins can resemble the DNA of siblings. I believe that Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, but that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were cousins.”
If correct, this theory could explain the genetic data without requiring that Akhenaten and his wife were full siblings, suggesting instead that the appearance of close genetic matching could result from several generations of intermarriage among cousins.
Even a century after the discovery of his tomb, Tutankhamun continues to fascinate researchers and the public alike, not only because of his glittering burial treasures but also due to the insights he offers into dynastic politics, religious revolution, and the complex biology of royal inbreeding.
His legacy, now housed largely in the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, continues to reshape how we understand the glory - and the vulnerabilities - of Ancient Egypt’s most famous royal family.