Tutankhamun breakthrough after 'unexpected' DNA results emerge from tests on Boy King

Though he reigned for less than ten years, Tutankhamun, widely known as the Boy King, has become most famous pharaoh.

His enduring legacy owes much to the spectacular discovery of his tomb in 1922 by British Howard Carter, which revealed more than 5,000 artifacts-including his iconic gold mask-almost entirely untouched by tomb robbers.

The find provided an unprecedented window into royal burial practices and the wealth of Egypt's 18th Dynasty.

Tutankhamun took the throne around 1332 BCE, likely at the age of eight or nine, during a time of major social and religious upheaval.

He was the probable son of , the pharaoh who had radically reshaped Egypt's religious landscape by attempting to replace its traditional pantheon with the worship of a single deity: the sun disk Aten. This controversial experiment in monotheism disrupted centuries of spiritual practice and was met with resistance.

During his short reign, Tutankhamun-guided by senior and Horemheb-reversed many of his father's reforms. He restored the old gods to prominence, particularly Amun, the king of the gods, and moved the capital from Akhetaten (modern-day Amarna) back to Thebes. His birth name, Tutankhaten ("Living Image of Aten"), was changed to Tutankhamun ("Living Image of Amun") in a symbolic reaffirmation of traditional beliefs. These efforts were likely less the vision of a young ruler and more the work of a political elite seeking to reestablish stability.

Yet despite these restorations, much about Tutankhamun's life-especially his family origins-remains shrouded in mystery. A significant breakthrough came with the BBC documentary, '', which presented results from an extensive genetic analysis of royal mummies conducted by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. This research had originally been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in 2010.

Narrator Dallas Campbell explained in the documentary that scientists had been able to use DNA to identify several members of Tutankhamun's immediate family. But the analysis revealed something unexpected: "The DNA results identified the members of Tut's family," said Campbell, "but they also uncovered something completely unexpected when they compared the DNA of Tut's father, Akhenaten, with the DNA of Tut's mother."

The researchers discovered that Tutankhamun's parents were full siblings, an astonishing revelation. Geneticist Dr Yehia Gad, one of the key researchers, explained: "They turned out that they're brother and sister, which was a big surprise for us. A lot of incest happened... they didn't like to let royal and non-royal blood mix, so they tried to keep it within the royal family."

This kind of inbreeding was not unusual in Egypt's royal lineages. Pharaohs were considered to be living gods, and to preserve the divine nature of their bloodline, they frequently married within the family, often to siblings or close relatives. While this practice may have been viewed as spiritually or politically advantageous at the time, modern genetics shows that inbreeding dramatically increases the risk of inherited diseases and physical deformities due to a loss of genetic diversity.

Tutankhamun himself may have suffered the consequences of this dynastic strategy. CT scans and further analysis of his remains revealed that he had a clubfoot, a cleft palate, necrosis in his left foot, and may have needed a walking stick, several of which were found in his tomb. In addition, DNA testing indicated he had contracted malaria multiple times, which, when combined with his other conditions, may have contributed to his early death at around 18 or 19 years old.

Another enduring mystery is the identity of Tutankhamun's mother. Egyptologists have long debated whether she was Queen Kiya, Queen Nefertiti, or a lesser-known figure referred to in mummy records as the "Younger Lady." While both Kiya and Nefertiti were known wives of Akhenaten, the DNA analysis concluded that the Younger Lady was his biological mother.

However, this conclusion has not gone unchallenged. Marc Gabolde, a respected French Egyptologist, proposed an alternative explanation in a 2022 lecture at Harvard University.

"The DNA of third-generation offspring between cousins can resemble the DNA of siblings," he said. "I believe that Tutankhamun is the son of Akhenaten and Nefertiti, but that Akhenaten and Nefertiti were cousins."

If correct, this theory could explain the genetic data without requiring that Akhenaten and his wife were full siblings, suggesting instead that the appearance of close genetic matching could result from several generations of intermarriage among cousins.

Even a century after the discovery of his tomb, Tutankhamun continues to fascinate researchers and the public alike, not only because of his glittering burial treasures but also due to the insights he offers into dynastic politics, religious revolution, and the complex biology of royal inbreeding. His legacy, now housed largely in , continues to reshape how we understand the splendor-and the vulnerabilities-of ancient Egypt's most storied royal family.