An ancient Egyptian’s complete genome has been read for the first time

For the first time, the complete genome of a person from ancient Egypt was sequenced. DNA was collected in the remains of an older man, perhaps a potter, who lived over 4,500 years ago.

The former Egyptian inherited the fifth of his DNA of ancestors living in the fertile crescent in the Middle East, more than 1000 kilometers in eastern Egypt. This suggests that societies in Egypt and Mesopotamia were linked, despite their distance.

The body was searched in the early 1900s in Nuwayrat, a necropolis near Beni Hasan in Egypt. It was found in a pottery container, which had been placed in a cut tomb. Today, the remains are kept at the World Museum in Liverpool, in the United Kingdom.

“We could actually directly the radiocarbon date the remains of this individual,” said Adeline Morez Jacobs at John Moores University in Liverpool. He died between 2855 and 2570 BC. This means that he lived early enough in the history of ancient Egypt, which extended between 3150 and 30 before JC.

The skeleton and DNA both showed that the individual was a man. Based on human arthritis and other signs, it was estimated between 44 and 64 years old – probably on the older side. “He is probably in the sixties at the time of death, which is incredibly old for this period,” explains Joel Irish, also at the University of Liverpool John Moores.

The social position of man is not clear. “He was in what would have been a burial in the upper class,” said Irish. But his skeleton shows that he had a physical and hard life. Based on specific damage, he spent a lot of time looking down, leaning forward and holding his arms in front of him, explains Irish. He also sat for long periods on hard surfaces. Based on preserved images of different Egyptian professions, researchers think that its most likely occupation was a potter.

Using samples from the roots of its teeth, the team was able to sequence the entire genome of man. Previously, it was only possible to obtain partial genomes from three former Egyptians, who lived more than 1000 years more recently.

“We have so little genetic sequencing of ancient Egypt,” said Shirly Ben-Dor Evian at the University of Haifa in Israel.

Indeed, the warm climate of the region degrades DNA faster. “It’s too hot,” said Pontus Skoglund, member of the team, at the Francis Crick Institute in London, who calls for sequencing “a long blow”.

“We hypothesized that the burial of the pot, in combination with the tomb of the rock in which the burial of the pot was placed, provided a stable environment,” explains Linus Girdland-Flink at the University of Aberdeen in the United Kingdom.

About 80% of the genetic ancestry of man was North African, as we would expect. But the remaining 20% ​​paired by people from the eastern fertile crescent, a geographical area that includes current Iraq, western Iran and certain parts of Syria and Turkey.

There are several possible explanations, explains Ben-Dor Evian. “I think explorers have always been one thing,” she said. In addition, long after agriculture has become commonplace, “there were always populations who continued to be nomadic or semi-nomadic,” she said. These peoples can have transported DNA between the fertile crescent and Egypt.

Archaeologists have already found links between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. “There were a lot of cultural ties with Mesopotamia on the basis of sharing artistic motifs,” explains the Irish, and goods like Lapis Lazuli were exchanged.

There could even be implications for the origin of writing. “The first writing systems appeared almost contemporary in the two regions,” explains MOREZ Jacobs: Cuneiform in Mesopotamia and Egyptian hieroglyphs just 300 years later.

“Was it a local invention of writing in both places, [or] Did they affect each other in a way? »Ask Ben-Dor Evian.