VOA标准英语2010年-Cause of Death for Ancient Egypt's Kin

A 15 Feb 2010 photo of the golden mask of Egypt's famous King Tutankhamun displayed at the Egyptian museum in Cairo

The DNA¹ testing of several prominent Egyptian mummies has revealed the identities of the mother and the father of famous boy king Tutankhamun.  Egypt's head of antiquities², Zahi Hawass, says tests also revealed what killed Tut.

Egyptian antiquities chief Zahi Hawass says the results of two years of tests on famous Egyptian mummies show boy king Tutankhamun died of malaria³.

Speculation⁴ Tut was murdered was debunked⁵ by the exhaustive scientific investigation⁶.  Hawass says a series of CAT scans revealed damage to Tut's head was just part of the mummification process.

"The important thing is how King Tut died.  Everyone thought in the past that King Tut was murdered because of the blow on the back of the head.  But, the study of the CAT-scan machine proved that the blow at the back of the head was opened to put the liquid for mummification," he said.

Hawass emphasizes the mystery over King Tut's family tree began with questions about seven unidentified mummies at the Egyptian museum.

Egypt's top archaeologist Zahi Hawass talks to the media next to displayed mummy of King Tut's grandmother Queen Tiye, seen through glass case during a press conference at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, 17 Feb 2010

Hawass says the tests identified the mummies found in the tomb with King Tut as his father Akhenaten and his grandmother, Tiye.  A third mummy is thought to be King Tut's mother.

Researcher Albert Zink of the Institute for Mummies and the Iceman in Bolzano, Italy says the main conclusion of the lengthy⁷ DNA testing was to have pinned down the identities of Tut's parents:

"The main conclusion was that we identified the parents of Tutankhamun: the father which is actually Akhenaten and the mother, which is the younger lady mummy, which we do not know up to now whether she is Nefertiti or ...  one other person and we identified that he actually suffered from a severe form of malaria and maybe this could have caused death," said Zink.

Hawass points out King Tut was a sickly man, with a cleft⁸ palate and a club foot, which forced him to walk with a cane⁹.  He attributes Tut's health problems to genetic¹⁰ deformations¹¹ caused by the marriage of his father Akhenaten to his sister, the younger lady mummy, whose name is not known.

The findings of the Egyptian Mummy Project, which took two years to complete, are being published by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). 

Hawass tells VOA that two things in the study amazed him most:

"What really moved me the most: two things.  Number one is the discovery of Akhenaten's mummy and to find out that he has no Marfan's (syndrome), he had no deformities, he was a normal man," he said.  "He did not have features like you see in the statues ... features of a man and a woman; and the second thing is the cause of his death.  How did King Tut die?  That really amazed me a lot," Hawass said.

Some statues of Akhenaten and other Egyptian pharaohs of the 18th dynasty possess both male and female characteristics.  This, argues Hawass, was simply an attribute that was added to the statues to "confer fertility on the pharaohs," which were "thought to be gods." 

Although DNA testing revealed which mummies were the parents of King Tut, the remaining mystery involves the name of Tut's mother.  Hawass notes that archeologists must still pin down the name of the "younger lady" mummy which was genetically¹² found to be his mother.

 

1 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。

2 antiquities   

n.古老( antiquity的名词复数 )；古迹；古人们；古代的风俗习惯

参考例句：

• There is rest and healing in the contemplation of antiquities. 欣赏古物有休息和疗养之功。 来自辞典例句
• Bertha developed a fine enthusiasm for the antiquities of London. 伯沙对伦敦的古迹产生了很大的热情。 来自辞典例句

3 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

4 speculation   

n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机

参考例句：

• Her mind is occupied with speculation.她的头脑忙于思考。
• There is widespread speculation that he is going to resign.人们普遍推测他要辞职。

5 debunked   

v.揭穿真相，暴露( debunk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His theories have been debunked by recent research. 最近的研究揭穿了他的理论的真相。
• Some advertising slogans should be debunked. 某些夸大的广告用语应予揭露。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

8 cleft   

n.裂缝；adj.裂开的

参考例句：

• I hid the message in a cleft in the rock.我把情报藏在石块的裂缝里。
• He was cleft from his brother during the war.在战争期间，他与他的哥哥分离。

9 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

10 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

11 deformations   

损形( deformation的名词复数 )； 变形； 畸形； 破相

参考例句：

• It would make no difference if the bar deformations were totally inelastic. 如果杆的变形完全是非弹性变形时这也就没有什么区别了。
• Such readings can reveal longer-period deformations in the earth. 这种读数可以反映地球长周期的形变。

12 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物