Egyptian mummy brothers’ DNA test reveals different fathers but same mother

Science has its own wonders, so much so that even after 4000 years a secret is revealed.

Yes, with the given liberal living standards and societal norms of Egypt where an Egyptian woman had more rights than men.

The DNA test of Egyptian brothers named Nakht-Ankh and Khnum-Nakht whose coffins are at display at The Manchester Museum since 1908. These two coffins survived the ransack being done by tomb raiders.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions seem to reveal them as sons of a woman named Khnum-aa and an unnamed governor.

For instance, Margaret Murray and her colleagues, who studied the mummies when they were brought to the University of Manchester in 1908, concluded that the two were not related after studying the anatomy of the mummies' skulls and bodies. 

In the 1970s, an examination of the mummies' skin pigmentation led researchers to the same conclusion. 

Research carried out by the Journal of Archaeological Science has come up with the conclusion that while the Y chromosome of the two brothers are from Khnum-aa, what is baffling is that, the study also reveals that the two had different fathers.  

“Who could have thought that an Egyptian women during those times could adopt children, own property, marry whoever they want and get divorce, bring legal action to court,” says famous Egyptologist Barbara Watterson.

"All landed property descended in the female line, from mother to daughter, on the assumption, perhaps, that maternity is a matter of fact, paternity a matter of opinion," Watterson states.