Researchers Sequence Whole Genome of Ancient Egyptian
An international team of scientists sequered all the genome of an adult Egyptian man who lived over 4,500 years ago – a few centuries after Egyptian unification, punching on the first dynastic periods and the ancient kingdom.
Nebamun drives out in the marshes with his wife and daughter, who is part of a wall painting from the tomb of Nebamun, Thebes, New Kingdom, 1350 BC. Image credit: Werner Forman Archive / Bridgeman Images.
“Forty years have passed since the first pioneering attempts to recover the DNA of mummies without a successful sequencing of a former Egyptian genome,” said the author co-present, Dr. Pontus Skoglund, researcher at Francis Crick Institute.
“Ancient Egypt is a place of extraordinary written history and archeology, but a difficult preservation of DNA has ceased only no genomic file of ancestry at the beginning of Egypt has been available for comparison.”
“Based on this previous research, new and powerful genetic techniques allowed us to cross these technical limits and exclude contaminating DNA, providing the first genetic evidence of potential movements of people in Egypt at present.”
In the study, the researchers extracted and sequenced the DNA of the tooth of an individual from Nuwayrat, a village 265 km south of Cairo.
By analyzing its genetic code, they showed that most of its ancestors were mapped to former individuals who lived in North Africa.
The remaining 20% of its ancestry could be attributed to ancient people who lived in the fertile crescent, in particular an area called Mesopotamia (almost modern Iraq).
This observation is genetic proof that people moved into Egypt and mixed with local populations at that time, which was previously visible only in archaeological artefacts.
However, scientists warn that many other sequences of individual genomes would be necessary to fully understand the variation in ancestry in Egypt at the time.
By studying chemical signals in his teeth concerning food and the environment, they showed that the individual had probably grew up in Egypt.
They then used evidence of his skeleton to estimate sex, age, size and information on ancestry and lifestyle.
These signs suggested that he could have worked as a potter or in a profession requiring comparable movements, because his bones had muscle marks to sit for long periods with tense limbs.
“Assembling all the indices of the DNA, bones and teeth of this individual allowed us to build a complete image,” said the first author, Dr Adeline Morez Jacobs, researcher at the University of Liverpool John Moores.
“We hope that future DNA samples of ancient Egypt can develop when this Western Asian movement has started precisely.”
“This person was on an extraordinary trip,” said Co-annior, Dr. Linus Girdland Flink, also from John Moores University in Liverpool.
“He lived and died during a critical period of change in ancient Egypt, and his skeleton was searched in 1902 and made a donation to the World Museum Liverpool, where he then survived the bombing during the Blitz which destroyed most of the human remains in their collection.”
“We were now able to tell a part of the story of the individual, noting that some of his ancestors came from the fertile croissant, highlighting the mixture between groups at the moment.”
“The marks on the skeleton are clues of the life and lifestyle of the individual – his siege bones are widened, his arms have shown proof of movement extended in both directions, and there is a substantial arthritis in the right foot,” said the professor of the University of Liverpool John Mooores, Joel Irish, co -author of the study.
“Although it is circumstantial, these clues point to pottery, including the use of a pottery wheel, which arrived in Egypt at the same time.”
“That said, his higher class burial is not expected for a potter, who would not normally receive such treatment.”
“Maybe he was exceptionally qualified or has managed to advance his social status.”
The study was published in the journal Nature.
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A. MOREZ Jacobs and al. Ancestry of the whole genome of an ancient Egyptian kingdom. NaturePosted on July 2, 2025; DOI: 10.1038 / S41586-025-09195-5
