Posted Tuesday, February 16, 2010 11:42 AM
Begley: King Tut's DNA Reveals a More Manly Pharaoh
Sharon Begley
Ben Curtis / AP-pool King Tut, removed from his sarcophagus, in 2007. A study being published this afternoon trumpets an analysis supposedly revealing how the boy pharaoh, King Tutankhamen, died. Both results emerge from what the researchers call "molecular Egyptology," in this case an analysis of DNA extracted from the bones of 11 royal mummies of the New Kingdom. The scientists took two to four DNA samples from each mummy, including Tut, who died at age 19 in about 1324 B.C., the 10th year of his reign. Comparing the genetic fingerprints allowed them to identify one previously unknown mummy as Queen Tiye, mother of the pharaoh Akhenaten and grandmother of Tutankhamen, another as Akhenaten (Tut's father) himself, and a third as Tutankhamen's mother, the researchers are reporting in tomorrow's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The DNA analysis also turned up genes specific to Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria parasite, in Tut and three other mummies. The scientists, led by the colorful and controversial Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, infer that Tut suffered from avascular bone necrosis, a condition in which poor blood supply weakens or destroys an area of bone, plus malaria—a fatal combination. Tut's tomb contained canes and what the scientists call "an afterlife pharmacy," supporting the idea that he suffered from a condition that hobbled him. More interesting are the conclusions about the mummies' appearance in life. Depictions of Tut and other royalty from this period show them as somewhat feminized, or at least androgynous. That led to speculation that the royal family tree was riddled with a hormonal disease that caused gynecomastia (excessive breast development in men), or Marfan syndrome, which causes patients to be tall and thin, with slender, graceful, tapering fingers—like several of the royals. The feminized depictions are therefore likely to be what the researchers call "a royally decreed style most probably related to the religious reforms of Akhenaten. It is unlikely that either Tutankhamen or Akhenaten actually displayed a significantly bizarre or feminine physique." In other words, the faces and forms so familiar to museumgoers and amateur Egyptologists may be no more than artistic license.
Avascular necrosis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Avascular necrosis (also osteonecrosis, aseptic necrosis, ischemic bone necrosis[1], and AVN) is a disease resulting from the temporary or permanent loss of the blood supply to an area of bone.[1] Without blood, the bone tissue dies and the bone collapses.[1] If avascular necrosis involves the bones of a joint, it often leads to destruction of the joint articular surfaces (see Osteochondritis dissecans).



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1. Que tipo de texto é esse? (resposta embasada teoricamente = pesquisa)

2. Quantas palavras cognatas (não repetidas) há no texto?

3. Qual o assunto geral do texto?

4. Qual o assunto específico do texto? (que nova informação é trazida?)

5. O que é "Egiptologia molecular"?

6. Como foi feito esse procedimento (Egiptologia molecular) na família real egípcia?

7. O que revelou o estudo?

8. Quais provas materiais reforçaram a hipótese dos estudiosos?

9. Qual a discrepância entre as ilustrações conhecidas da família real e o resultado dos estudos?

10. Qual a hipótese para a forma como ilustravam a família real?

11. Anote, em seu caderno, todos os "Personal Pronouns", "Possessive Adjectives", "Demonstrative Pronouns", "Object Pronouns" e "Possessive Pronouns" que puder encontrar, distribuindo-os em colunas, de acordo com sua classificação.