Ancient DNA shows genetic link between Egypt and Mesopotamia
Washington – Ancient DNA revealed a genetic link between the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The researchers sequered whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well -preserved skeleton found in a funeral pot sealed in an Egyptian tomb site dating between 4,495 and 4,880 years.
The four -fifths of the genome showed links with North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links with the Middle East region between the Tiger and Euphrates rivers, known as a fertile crescent, where the Mesopotamian civilization has prospered.
“The observation is very important” because it “is the first direct proof of what has been hinted” in previous work, “said Daniel Antoine, curator of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.
Anterior archaeological evidence has shown commercial links between Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as similarities in pottery manufacturing techniques and pictorial writing systems. While similarities in dental structures have suggested possible ancestral links, the new study clarifies genetic links.
The Nile is “likely to have acted as an old Surhigne route, facilitating the movement not only cultures and ideas, but also people,” said Antoine, who was not involved in the study.
The skeleton was found in a complex of Egyptian tombs on the archaeological site of Nuwayrat, inside a chamber carved with a rocky hill. An analysis of wear on the skeleton – and the presence of arthritis in specific articulations – indicates that man was probably in sixties and may have worked as a potter, said co -author and bioarchaeologist Joel Irish of the University of Liverpool John Moores.
Man lived just before or near the beginning of the ancient kingdom of ancient Egypt, when upper and lower Egypt was unified as a single state, leading to a period of relative political stability and cultural innovation – including the construction of the Giza pyramids.
“This is the moment when centralized power has enabled the training of ancient Egypt as we know it,” said co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, paleogetic at the University of Aberdeen.
About at the same time, the States of the Sumerian city took root in Mesopotamia and the cuneiform emerged as a writing system.
The researchers said that the analysis of other ancient DNA samples is necessary to obtain a clearer image of the extent and timing of movements between the two cultural centers.
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