Mummy of Egypt's
first female pharaoh found

A tooth found in a relic box has led archaeologists to identify a long-ignored mummy as being Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh-- essentially one of the most significant finds since King Tutankhamun's tomb, reports the Jerusalem Post. The mummy has been identified as Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled for two decades in the 15th century B.C. Hatshepsut was the first woman to rule Egypt as a pharaoh. When she took the throne, she began to dress as a man and wore a fake beard. She was even sometimes referred to as "he" even though it was public knowledge she was a woman. After her death, all records of her vanished, including her mummy. The Jerusalem Post reported that a mummy was discovered in 1903 lying on the ground next to an sarcophagus in the Valley of Kings burial ground in Luxor. For decades the mummy was written off as unidentifiable and left untouched.

However, two months ago the unidentified mummy was subjected to DNA testing. Experts then made a stunning match: a tooth that had been found in a relic box displaying Hatshepsut's insignia and containing embalmed organs fit a gap in the mummy's jaw. "We are 100% certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Zahi Hawass, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, told the Post. It is believed that Hatshepsut snatched the throne from her stepson, Thutmose III, who later removed her from records out of spite. (The Advocate)