Ancient Egypt Mummies Reveal Incest Among Pharaohs; Body Height Shows They Married Their Siblings

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A new research reveals that pharaohs may have married their own siblings and cousins in ancient Egypt. The research was published in American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Marrying into their own families was widely followed by the ancient Egyptian royalty as they believe it to be a way of preserving their sacred bloodline. The pharaohs believe that they have the blood of the gods, so inbreeding was a way to keep their blood pure, according to Discovery News.

Since destroying the mummies' tissues are out of the question, scientists used body height to conduct their research. The research, led by Frank Rühli, director of the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich, analyzed the height variations of 259 ancient royal and commoner Egyptian mummies.

"It is actually one of the largest collections of body height of ancient Egyptians and spans all major periods of their history," Rühli said.

According to the scientists, inbreeding was manifested as they observed that pharaohs have less varying heights than men who were considered commoners at that time.

The average height of the pharaohs was at 166 centimeters (5'4" ft.), while the queens and princesses had an average height of 156.7 centimeters (5'1" ft.).  Meanwhile, the general population had a varying height range of 161 centimeters (5'2" ft.) to 169.6 centimeters (5'5" ft.) in males and 55.6 centimeters (5'1" ft.) to 159.5 centimeters (5'2" ft.) in females.

The scientists found out that King Amenhotep I, who stood at 165 cm, had the highest score in the incest scale.

"The study shows some evidence for consanguineous (incestuous) marriages in a reliable, non-invasive way," said Professor Barry Borgin of UK's Loughborough University via Discovery News.

He used the same technique and achieved the same results on living Guatemala boys and girls ages 5 to 14 years old.

"The height variation was reduced in the children from very wealthy families and very, very poor families compared with more middle-to-low income families," Bogin said.

The height variation was due to the homogenous environments in the extremely wealthy and poor. Those who belong in the middle classes had a more fluctuating environment.

"Average height and height variation reflect very nicely the quality of the environment. So, the very good environment of the royal men might be another reason why their height variation is reduced compared with commoners," Bogin explained.

In an article by Ancient Origins, inbreeding was found to have resulted in impairments especially in King Tutankhamun, whose parents were brother and sister.

When the boy king was born, he suffered from a cleft palate, feminine hips, a severe overbite and a club foot.

Tutankhamun married his half-sister, Ankhesenamun, at a very early age and their children were believed to have also suffered from genetic impairments. At Tutankhamun's tomb, mummified remains of stillborn infants were found and those children were believed to be theirs.