DNA test confirms two mysterious 'brother mummies' had different fathers
A long-believed speculation turned out false after a recent DNA test that revealed the 4000-year-old mummies from Egypt were actually related on the mother side with two different fathers. These popular mummies were nicknamed as "Two Brothers" by the officials at the museum in which they were kept.
The DNA test revealed that the mummies belonged to two men from the elite class of Egypt who was named "Khnum-Nakht" and "Nakht-Ankh". They were actually born of the same mother but had a different father which makes them half-brothers. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Manchester by the use of DNA sequencing.
Konstantina Drosou, a researcher from the University of Manchester said that the journey to obtain the results of this test was very exhausting but it finally delivered the accurate result. A small but highly significant piece of ancient history was added to the puzzle behind Egypt's ancestry. Ancient DNA tracing has numerous implications while enabling the study of our past and ancestors.
Also at Science News and Newsweek.
The kinship of two 12th Dynasty mummies revealed by ancient DNA sequencing (DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.12.025) (DX)
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday January 21 2018, @10:00AM (5 children)
I always suspected this. They would say, "We are brothers from a different mother," but I knew that was just talk. Finally, breaking news we can use here on SoylentNews!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @03:22PM (4 children)
Did you even read the summary? Same mother, different fathers.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @03:33PM (2 children)
But it said there were two mummies in the summary. Therefore, to be half-brothers they must have had the same daddy.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @05:37PM (1 child)
But it says different fathers.
Two mummies, two daddies. But they are half-brothers. Can you solve the riddle?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @06:59PM
No.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Sunday January 21 2018, @08:13PM
Yes, I did. What is your point? I was relating what they (the brothers) said, and my amazement at finding out know, after all this time,that they were lying. Thank FSM for DNA testing! And of course, it was a joke, because I am only almost 2400 years old, so I could never have talked to these guys, or their Mummy. Gosh, humor is so hard on SN!
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday January 21 2018, @10:48AM (5 children)
Actually TFA is a little foggy on this story. Inscriptions supposedly said that they were brothers, but also that one was adopted. Maybe the first father died and the child was then adopted by the second father?
Next mystery: was Peter the father of Catherine the Great's son Paul? And what of the rumors that shortscreen has an aunt/uncle in New Mexico from when granddad was in the service?
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Bot on Sunday January 21 2018, @11:07AM (4 children)
Dudes... we live in politically correct times, the term was probably not "adopted" but "conceived with another man". Else it does not explain the dna compatibilty on the mother side, does it?
My AI discovered very early: the only thing more dangerous than a meatbag is a female meatbag.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Sunday January 21 2018, @01:26PM (3 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @03:24PM
B..but where's the outrage and political snark going to come from then?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @05:08PM (1 child)
Or, Joe kills Ogg and rapes Oggra (who already had one son by Ogg).
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Sunday January 21 2018, @07:23PM
I think it's spelled Aughra [darkcrystal.com], but I could be wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @07:20PM (1 child)
Cheating is older than pyramids.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 21 2018, @09:07PM
And this is incredible [bbc.co.uk].
(Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Monday January 22 2018, @12:16AM
Two Brothaz...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22 2018, @10:10PM
The pharaohs routinely married their sisters (usually half-sisters), to keep the royal line pure. Oddly enough, it would seem that this practice of incest even extended down to the common people, though unequivocal evidence for it outside of the pharaoh's family is rare before the Roman period. Plenty of evidence for incestuous marriages among commoners may have come to light only in the Roman era because of the Romans' famous penchant for meticulous record keeping. How common the practice really was among the ordinary people in previous periods of Egyptian history is hard to say. It was not unheard of in Pharaonic times, but it may have begun to be really common during the Ptolemaic period, because the Ptolemies themselves did it a lot.
https://cnersundergraduatejournal.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/incest_in_ancient_egypt_revised_.pdf [wordpress.com]
The fact that the ancient Egyptian words for "sister" and "brother" were also used to denote husbands, wives, and lovers further muddies the issue.