National geography: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/tut-dna/tut-family-tree
I bought the National Geography magazine for reading practice. While reading, I found a really interesting article about King Tut. Instead talking more about his life, here I am going to focus on the royal family marriage system.
According to the article, Tut’s left foot was clubbed. Also there are 130 partial or whole sticks in Tut’s tomb. It was not for King Tut who held a cane which represented the power or authority, but clearly a walking stick which King Tut needed for walking. In otehr word, King Tut suffered from this diease, or we should say, handicap.
Scientists infer that it may cause by family marriage. Tut’s father and mother was full brother and sister, and they married each other in order to leep political and economical advantages. Unfortunately, this could result in a dangerous consequence. It can leave their children to a variety of genetic defects by marrying a sibling because it will likely pass on twin copies of hramful genes. Scientists also suspect his cleft palate which may be another congenital defect.
King Tut is not the only case. Some loyal families was also detected this sort of problem. It was the evidence that overlapping genes can backfire. But marrying family members seems the only way to ensure the authority of riches, priviledge, and powers.
The solution? Well, some of the loyal families had as many as 70 kids in order to choose one kid who had no inborn disease. Moreover, royal wealth can also be a really help for medical conditions. Anyway, in order to keep the power and status, this will be a continuing story…
太初 