First complete ancient Egyptian DNA genome reveals his occupation
In 1985, geneticists carried out a major archaeological breakthrough after having succeeded in extracting the partial DNA from the ancient Egyptian skeletal remains. Almost exactly four decades later, the researchers led to the first whole genome of an individual who lived in the midst of the first eras of civilization. The results are detailed in a study published on July 2 in the journal Nature.
Egyptologists have spent centuries to analyze mountains of archaeological materials covering thousands of years of history. But while experts now know a good part of ancient Egyptian life, they still very little understand the genetic composition of the population. The researchers have analyzed three samples genomically to date, but in each case, poor preservation of DNA has only led to partial sequences.
A tooth stored in the museum archives for over a century, however, changed. Archaeologists initially searched him (and its owner) around 1902 in Nuwayrat, a village at around 165 miles south of Cairo. Experts could not immediately glean a lot from the body, but dating to the radiocarbon revealed that the individual lived between 2855 and 2570 BCE. This placed it between the first dynastic periods and the ancient kingdom, an era when leaders supervised the first pyramidal construction projects, but before standardized mummification practices. This lack of mummification has probably contributed to the sustainable integrity of DNA, allowing researchers from Francis Crick Institute and John Moores University in Liverpool in the United Kingdom to finally extract its complete genomic information.
Their genetic analysis has linked 80% of its DNA to North Africa, while the remaining 20% ​​trace the Mesopotamian fertile crescent near the current Iraq. We still do not know if most of the Egyptians at the time shared similar ancestry. However, the food chemical signatures of the tooth indicate that man grew up in Egypt instead of migrating there. Further examinations from the global skeleton also indicate a hard working life.
“The marks on the skeleton are clues of the life and lifestyle of the individual – his siege bones are widened, his arms have shown evidence of a movement extended in both directions, and there is a substantial arthritis in the right foot,” explained the archaeologist of the University John Mooora of Liverpool and the study of the second author Joel Irish.
The Irish and his colleagues think that man has probably worked like a potter, polyarthritis of the feet corresponding to the use of a pottery wheel. This technology arrived in Egypt roughly at the same time it was alive.
“That said, his higher class burial is not planned for a potter, who would not normally receive such treatment,” added Irish. “Maybe he was exceptionally qualified or successful [enough] To advance its social status.
In the future, the team hopes that their realization is only the first of many similar DNA sequencing projects.
“Assembling all the indices of the DNA, bones and teeth of this individual allowed us to build a complete image,” said the first author of the study, Adeline Morez Jacobs. “We hope that future DNA samples of ancient Egypt can develop when this Western Asian movement has started precisely.”
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