A family resemblance to King Tut.

A family resemblance to King Tut

A controversial Egyptian mummy has now been identified as the half-brother of King Tutankhamen, who lived at about 1358 BC. The finding was achieved through the use of a technique usually employed to measure craniofacial bones in patients undergoing orthodontic treatment. James E. Harris and his colleagues at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo used a laser beam to determine the orientation of the poorly preserved mummy's skull, and then they applied cephalometry, a precise X-ray technique that does not damage mummies.

From the resultant skull measurements, the investigators produced computer drawings of the skull that permit statistical comparison of craniofacial characteristics of mummies. They determined that a previous skull description was incorrect. Harris and his colleagues concluded that the mummy was of a middle-aged, slight male who showed similarities to Tutankhamen. The computer reconstruction shows that the skull resembles funerary artifacts and sculpture depicting Tutankhamen's half-brother Smenkhare.

The mummy came from a tomb thought to belong to members of the royal family of the dynasty ending with Tut. Some previous analyses had concluded the mummy was Smenkhare, another member of the royal family or an unidentified young female.