Applied Biosystems Group on Wednesday said it is establishing the first laboratory in Egypt dedicated to testing ancient DNA samples.

The Foster City subsidiary of Applera Corp. said it is collaborating on the lab with the Discovery Channel and Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The laboratory, which is located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, began testing samples from ancient royal mummies from the 18th Dynasty in April as part of a project to identify the mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most famous female pharaoh.

The primary purpose of the new DNA laboratory is to assist in the identification of this and other mummies that have been removed from their original tombs, and to clarify familial relationships within and between Egypt's ancient dynasties.

This is the first time DNA testing has been used to try to identify an ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

"By providing this technology to Egypt, Applied Biosystems is helping to advance science and bring our dead pharaohs back to life," said Zahi Hawass, secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities...

Applied Biosystems plans DNA lab in Egypt to study mummies, Biz Journals via MSN Money, USA, June 27, 2007.

Secretary General of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass announced and unveiled today, in an international press conference at Cairo's Egyptian Museum, a 3,500-year-old mummy now positively identified as Hatshepsut, one of history's few female pharaohs. Using computed tomography (CT) scanning and ongoing DNA testing, Dr. Hawass solved the mystery of what happened to one of ancient Egypt's most powerful and successful rulers. Dr. Hawass's odyssey of archaeological and scientific adventure has been documented in Discovery Channel's SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN, which premieres worldwide Sunday, July 15, 2007, at 9 PM (ET/PT).

The investigative journey of Dr. Hawass and his team leads them through the massive crypts beneath Egypt and into the depths of the Egyptian Museum. Using knowledge of royal Egyptian mummification and clues from two known tombs linked to Hatshepsut, the team narrows their search for Hatshepsut to just four mummies from thousands of unidentified corpses.

CT scanning allows the scientists to link distinct physical traits of the four mummies to those of Hatshepsut's known relatives. The search further narrows to two possibilities — both from the tomb of Hatshepsut's wet nurse — but the final clue lies within a canopic box inscribed with the female pharaoh's name. A scan of the box finds a tooth that, when measured, perfectly matches a missing upper molar in one of the two mummies.

"SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN brings archaeology alive for viewers. Only Discovery Channel can provide a context for and continually immerse viewers in these important moments of scientific discovery," said Jane Root, president and general manager, Discovery Channel and The Science Channel. "We are proud to be part of this significant find, and commend Dr. Hawass and his team for their hard work and dedication..."

Discovery Channel's SECRETS OF EGYPT'S LOST QUEEN, Discovery Channel via Newswire, Canada, June 27, 2007.

A single tooth has clinched the identification of an ancient mummy as that of Queen Hatshepsut, who ruled Egypt about 3,500 years ago, the country's chief archaeologist said on Wednesday.

The right mummy turned out to be that of a fat woman in her 50s who had rotten teeth and died of bone cancer, Zahi Hawass told a news conference to announce the identification...

But the decisive evidence was a molar in a wooden box inscribed with the queen's name...

Orthodontics professor Yehya Zakariya checked all the mummies which might be Hatshepsut's and found that the tooth was a perfect fit in a gap in the upper jaw of the fat woman.

"The identification of the tooth with the jaw can show this is Hatshepsut," Hawass said. "A tooth is like a fingerprint."

"It is 100 percent definitive...

The team examining the mummy are also doing DNA tests and preliminary results show similarities between its DNA and that of Ahmose Nefertari, the wife of the founder of the 18th dynasty and a probable ancestor of Hatshepsut's...

Asked why he would not wait for more complete DNA analysis, Hawass said: "You do not need anything else (other than the tooth) ... And we do have a definite answer now on the similarity between Hatshepsut and the grandmother, Ahmose Nefertari."

One Egyptologist, who asked not to be named, said not all archaeologists were confident the identification was watertight...

The New York Times quoted Kathryn Bard, an Egyptologist at Boston University, as saying: "You have to be so careful in reaching conclusions from such data..."

Click on the image above for more pictures on the Yahoo! News Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow.

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, Jonathan Wright, Reuters AlertNet, USA, June 27, 2007.

Egypt Unveils Mummy Discovery

DNA bone samples taken from the mummy's pelvic bone and femur are being compared to the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut's grandmother, Ahmose Nefertari, said Egyptian molecular geneticist Yehia Zakaria Gad, who was part of Hawass' team.

While scientists are still matching those mitochondrial DNA sequences, Gad said Wednesday that preliminary results were "very encouraging."

Hawass also said that a molar tooth found in a jar with some of the queen's embalmed organs perfectly matched the mummy.

"We are 100 percent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Hawass [said]...

Tooth clinches identification of Egyptian queen, Katarina Kratovac, AP via Time, New York, USA, June 27, 2007.

Previously:

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, June 27, 2007.

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass told a packed press conference in Cairo that one of two mummies found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor about a century ago had been identified as Hatshepsut.

In 1903, archaeologist Howard Carter ... had discovered two sarcophagi in a tomb known as KV60 in the Theban necropolis, the Valley of the Kings in Luxor.

One apparently contained the mummy of Hatshepsut's wet nurse Sitre-In and the other of an unknown female...

Discovery Channel, which is to air a documentary about the find next month, said Hawass was able to narrow the search for Hatshepsut down to the two mummies discovered by Carter in 1903.

He used CT scans to produce detailed 3D images and link distinct physical traits of one of the mummies to that of her ancestors.

According to the channel, a box that contained the tooth was inscribed with the female pharaoh's name and a scan of the box found that the tooth "matched within a fraction of a millimetre the space of the missing molar in the mouth of the mummy."

American Egyptologist Elizabeth Thomas had first suggested years ago that the second mummy in the tomb belonged to the Hatshepsut, because her hand was resting on her chest, a position reserved for monarchs.

Discovery said a team of archaeologists would now carry out DNA testing on the 3,000 year-old mummy to confirm her identity...

Click on the image above for more pictures on the Yahoo! News Anthropology & Archaeology slideshow.

Tooth leads Egypt to Hatshepsut mummy, AFP via Yahoo! News, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Unravelling a mummy from inside out, Thomas H. Maugh II, Los Angeles Times, California, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Pharaoh Queen's remains identified, AAP via The West Australian, Australia, USA, June 27, 2007.

cf. Hatshepsut's mummy identified, Egypt's culture minister says, DPA via Earth Times, June 27, 2007.

Previously:

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, June 27, 2007.

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.

A single tooth and some DNA clues appear to have solved the mystery of the lost mummy of Hatshepsut, one of the great queens of ancient Egypt, who reigned in the 15th century B.C.

Hawass said the identification of the well-preserved mummy as Hatshepsut was made a few weeks ago when a CT scan of a wooden box associated with the queen revealed a tooth. The tooth, he said, "fits exactly" into the jaw socket and broken root of the mummy of an obese woman originally found in Tomb 60 at the Valley of the Kings, the necropolis for royalty in the New Kingdom before and after Hatshepsut's reign.

"We therefore have scientific proof that this is the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut," Hawass concluded, citing primarily the tooth but also current DNA analysis suggesting a family relationship between the obese woman and Ahmose Nefertari, the matriarch of 18th dynasty royalty...

The last of these examined objects was a wooden box bearing the name Hatshepsut. The box had been recovered from yet another tomb.

The container held some of the viscera removed from the body during embalming. Everything associated with a royal body or its mummification was carefully and ritually preserved. Late one night recently, the box was subjected to the CT scan.

"It turned out that this box held the key to the riddle," Hawass said.

The images revealed a well-preserved liver and the tooth. A dentist, Dr. Galal el-Beheri of Cairo University, was called in. He studied the images of the mummy collection, and the tooth seemed to belong to the obese mummy...

Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, John Noble Wilford, International Herald Tribune, France, June 27, 2007...

Queen Hatshepsut saga deepens

Hawass, who heads Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, led the search for Hatshepsut, setting up a DNA lab in the process with an international team of scientists.

The study was funded by the US Discovery cable television channel which is to broadcast an exclusive documentary on it in July...

US molecular biologist Scott Woodward was cautious ahead of the announcement.

"It's a very difficult process to obtain DNA from a mummy," said Woodward, who has done DNA research on mummies. "To make a claim as to a relationship, you need other individuals from which you have obtained DNA, to make a comparison between the DNA sequences."

Such DNA material would typically come from parents or grandparents. With female mummies, the most common type of DNA to look for is the mitochondrial DNA that reveals maternal lineage, said Woodward...

Both of these article pre-date the announcement. As you can see the second article assumes the DNA comparison would have to come from another mummy and appears unaware of the tooth found 'in context'.

More on the announcement next...

cf. Tooth may have solved mummy mystery, Katarina Kratovac, Independent Online, South Africa, June 27, 2007...

Previously:

Egyptologists think they have Hatshepsut's mummy, June 26, 2007.