News Flash: The Latest Test Results and Information!

[04/26/02] It's a GIRL!  News came today that "Butch" is actually a girl!  The DNA tests were run repeatedly to verify the gender -- to 99.9% accuracy rate.  So, now we can't call her "Butch" any more.  Any ideas for a new name?

[04/15/2002]  Word has come from the scientific community that the results from the carbon 14 dating of the mummy's tooth are in!  

It seems our "Butch" lived approximately 2,020 years ago (give or take 40 years).  That would put his life time during the reign of Cleopatra VII or close to 55 BC.  (That would be the Cleopatra and Marc Antony era.) 

The official data supplied by Alex Cherkinsky of Geochronolabs is "The 14C age is 2020+/- 40 years BP, del13C=-18.1%o."  It would seem our mummy lived closer to the +40 years end of the scale.

Because his cartonage is clearly Ptolomaic, he lived and died BEFORE the Roman invasion of Egypt in 30 BC.  Historians (Frank Yurco, Egyptologist) tell us that Egyptian style of mask and cartonage changed quickly following the Roman invasion.  So we can be assured that the dating is pretty reliable. 

We expect to receive more test results very soon!