Famous Sad Love Quotes: Up to 70% of British men are 'related' to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Up to 70% of British men are 'related' to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun

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Swiss company reconstructs King Tut's DNA profile from Discovery Chanel documentary
Results show he belonged to 'haplogroup' common to half of Western European men
Claims disputed by fellow geneticists

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 11:44 AM on 4th August 2011

A Swiss genetics company has claimed that up to 70 per cent of British men are related to the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Scientists at Zurich-based DNA genealogy centre, iGENEA, say they have reconstructed the DNA profile of the boy Pharaoh based on a film that was made for the Discovery Channel.

The results showed that 'King Tut' belonged to a genetic profile group, known as haplogroup R1b1a2, to which more than 50 per cent of all men in Western Europe belong, indicating that they share a common ancestor.

Notice any resemblance? Geneticists claim 70 per cent of British men are related to King Tutankhamun, pictured here in an official reconstruction

The Swiss genetics company claims to have reconstructed King Tut's DNA from a documentary made for the Discovery Channel

Any resemblance? Geneticists claim 70 per cent of British men are related to King Tutankhamun, pictured left as a reconstruction, and right, his sarcophagus

Offer: iGENEA's website advertises its service matching customers to King Tut to see if they are ancestors

Among modern-day Egyptians this haplogroup contingent is below 1 per cent, according to iGENEA.

'It was very interesting to discover that he belonged to a genetic group in Europe - there were many possible groups in Egypt that the DNA could have belonged to,' said Roman Scholz, director of the iGENEA Centre.

Around 70 per cent of Spanish and 60 per cent of French men also belong to the genetic group of the Pharaoh who ruled Egypt more than 3,000 years ago.

'We think the common ancestor lived in the Caucasus about 9,500 years ago,' said Scholz.

Code: Genetic information on King Tut which iGENEA says has shown the link between Tut and his descendants

Family home? The stone sarcophagus containing the mummy of King Tut in his underground tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings in Luxor, Egypt

Mummy's mummy: The remains of King Tut's mother which were studied in constructing Tut's DNA profile

TUTANKHAMUN: BOY KING

Although a totemic figure because of the stunning treasures he bequeathed, little is actually known about the life of Tutankhamun.

Tut lived from approximately 1341BC to 1323BC, and ruled from 1333BC until 1323BC.

He became Pharaoh of all Egypt when he was only nine years old, but it is not known exactly why.

His parentage is hotly disputed among scholars, with some arguing he was the son of the heretic king Akhenaten, who was married to Nefertiti - though she is not thought to be Tut's mother.

Another popular theory is that Tut was the half brother of Akhenaten, and son of the Pharaoh Amenophis III and his queen Tiye.

His name translates roughly as 'Living Image of Amun'; Amun being an Egyptian god.

He married his half-sister Ankhesenepatan and they had two daughters, both stillborn.

A 2010 National Geographic magazine article posited that Tut was the result of a incestuous relationship and, because of that, may have suffered from several genetic defects that contributed to his early death at 18.

It is estimated that the earliest migration of haplogroup R1b1a2 into Europe began with the spread of agriculture in 7,000 BC, according to iGENEA.

However, the geneticists were not sure how Tutankhamun's paternal lineage came to Egypt from its region of origin.

The centre is now using DNA testing to search for the closest living relatives of King Tut, offering people a refund on their on the cost of their personal genetics test ($179-$399) if they prove to be related.

'The offer has only been publicised for three days but we have already seen a lot of interest,' said Scholz.

However, the company has been criticised by the team that produced the documentary for the Discovery Channel, claiming they did not display enough information on screen for the iGENEA geneticists to carry out that task.

Carsten Pusch, a geneticist at the University of Tubingen in Germany, was part of the team that constructed King Tut's DNA from samples taken from his mummified remains, and those of his relatives.

Pusch said that iGENEA's claims are 'simply impossible' because they did not publish the data for Tut's Y-chomosome - found only in males - which would reveal his male descendants, and accused the company of a marketing gimmick.