A group of archaeologists has identified a pair of mummified knees exhibited at the Egyptian Museum in Turin in Italy as belonging to Egyptian queen Nefertari, the favourite wife of Pharaoh Ramses II.
The scientists, whose study is published in the journal PLOS One, concluded that the mummified knees most likely belonged to Queen Nefertari.
England's University of York reports the researchers found that the knees, discovered by Italian archaeologists in 1904 from a Valley of the Queens' tomb in Egypt, are from an adult woman in her early 40s.
The chemical analysis corroborated that the materials used to embalm them fit the Egyptian mummification methods of the 13th century BC, which, along with other clues, indicate that they belong to Nefertari.
The Queen belonged to the Egyptian Dynasty XIX and was the favourite royal spouse of Ramses II, regarded as the greatest and most powerful pharaoh of ancient Egypt.
