Body may be that of ancient Egyptian queen

CAIRO, Egypt — The long-overlooked mummy of an obese woman, who likely suffered from diabetes and liver cancer, has been identified as Queen Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most powerful female pharaoh, Egyptian archaeologists said Wednesday.

A single tooth was key to solving one of the greatest mysteries of ancient Egypt, said Zahi Hawass, the country's antiquities chief.

If fully confirmed — DNA tests are continuing — the discovery could be the most significant find since archaeologists discovered King Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922, experts say.

Hatshepsut ruled for 20 years in the 15th century B.C., dressing like a man and wearing a fake beard. A monumental builder, she wielded more power than two other famous ancient Egyptian women, Cleopatra and Nefertiti. But when she died, all traces of her mysteriously disappeared.

In 1903, a mummy was found on the ground next to the sarcophagus holding the mummy of the queen's wet nurse in a tomb in the Valley of Kings burial ground in Luxor. For decades, that mummy was left unidentified and was thought to be insignificant.

"I think it is very cool," said archaeologist Donald Ryan of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash., who rediscovered the mummy in 1989 but was not involved in the current study. The evidence "is very persuasive," he said.

Two months ago, the unidentified mummy was brought from Luxor to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo for DNA testing. Hawass said his first clue that it could be the lost queen was the position of the left hand on her chest — a traditional sign of royalty in ancient Egypt.

Experts then made a stunning match. A tooth found in a relic box displaying Hatshepsut's insignia and containing embalmed organs fit a gap in the mummy's jaw. DNA testing also has shown similarities between the mummy and the mummy of Hatshepsut's grandmother, which was identified previously.

"We are 100 percent certain" the mummy belongs to Hatshepsut, Hawass told The Associated Press.

Hawass said the mummy suggested the woman was obese, probably suffered from diabetes, had liver cancer and died in her 50s.

Hatshepsut is believed to have stolen the throne from her young stepson, Thutmose III, who scratched her name from stone records in revenge after her death.

Her two-decade rule was the longest among ancient Egyptian queens, at a time of the New Kingdom's "golden age." She is said to have amassed enormous wealth, channeling it into building projects, and launched military campaigns as far away as the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq, and Nubia in what is now Sudan.

Ahead of Wednesday's announcement, molecular biologist Scott Woodward, director of the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation in Salt Lake City, was cautious.

"It's a very difficult process to obtain DNA from a mummy," said Woodward, who has done such DNA research.