by In a boring first, researchers sequenced the entire genome of an ancient Egyptian person and revealed unprecedented insights into the descent of a man who lived during the time the first pyramids were built.
The man, whose remains were found in a sealed clay pot in Nuwayrat, a village south of Cairo, lived 4500 and 4,800 years ago, which made his DNA the oldest old Egyptian sample that was still extracted, the oldest old Egyptian sample. The researchers came to the conclusion that 80% of his genetic material came from old people in North Africa, while 20% decreased to people in West Asia and in the Mesopotamia region.
Her results published on Wednesday in the Nature magazine offer new indications that there are old cultural connections between the ancient Egypt and societies within the fertile crescent moon, an area in which modern Iraq (once known as Mesopotamia), Iran and Jordan. While scientists suspected these connections, the only evidence was more archaeologically than genetic for them.
The scientists also studied the man’s skeleton to determine more about his identity and found extensive evidence of hard work over the course of a long life.
“If we put all information from the DNA, bones and teeth of this person, we have made it possible for us to create a comprehensive picture,” said Dr. Adeline Morez Jacobs, the control engineer, visited the Research Fellow at the English Liverpool John Moores University. “We hope that future DNA samples can expand from ancient Egypt when exactly this movement from West Asia began.”
Ceramics and other artifacts have proposed that Egyptians were and knowledge of the neighboring regions, but genetic evidence of how very different old civilizations were mixed were more difficult because conditions such as warmth and humidity quickly reduce the DNA. However, the remains of this man were unusually well preserved in her grave container, and the scientists were able to extract DNA from one of the teeth of the skeleton.
While the results only grasp the genetic background of a person, experts said that additional work could help to answer a permanent question for the descent of the first Egyptians who lived at the beginning of the longest -lasting known civilization.
A ceramic ship with the man’s remains was discovered in 1902. – Garang Museum of Archeology, University of Liverpool
Decode a DNA puzzle
The Swedish geneticist Svante Pääbo, who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2022 to sequence the first Neanderthal genome, made attempts at pioneer 40 years ago to extract and examine DNA from ancient Egyptian remains, but he could not sequence any genome. A poor DNA conservation consistently set an obstacle.
Since then, the genomes of three ancient Egyptian people have only been partially sequenced by researchers with “targeted sequencing” in order to concentrate on specific markers of interest in the DNA of the samples. The remains used in this work come from 787 BC. Chr. To 23 AD
Ultimately, it was improvements in technology in the past ten years that paved the way for the authors of the new study to finally sequence an entire old Egyptian genome.
“The technology that we used for this study is generally referred to as the” shotgun sequencing “, which means that we can sequence all of the teeth isolated DNA molecules and report across the entire genome,” wrote Coautor Dr. Linus Girdland-Flink, lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, in Scotland, in Scotland. “Our approach means that every future researcher can access the entire genome that we have published in order to find additional information. This also means that it is not necessary to return to this person in order to get an additional sample of bone or tooth material.”
The man who died in a time of the transition between Egypt of early dynastic and old kingdom was not mummified before the funeral because it was not yet a standard practice – and that was probably his DNA, the researchers said.
“It might have been a happy fact-we found the needle in the haystack,” said Girdland-Flina. “But I think we will see additional genomes that have been released from ancient Egypt in the coming years, possibly by people who were buried in ceramic pots.”
While Egypt’s overall climate is hot, the region has relatively stable temperatures, a key factor for long-term genetic preservation, said Girdland-Flina. This climate, the sound pot used for the funeral and the rock grave, which it placed in all, played a role to prevent the man of the man from deteriorating, he said.
The clay pot was found in a grave that was cut in the rocks in Nuwayrat south of Cairo. – Garang Museum of Archeology, University of Liverpool
Persecution of unique ancestors
For their analysis, the researchers took small rehearsals of the root tips of one of the men’s teeth. They analyzed the cement, a tooth fabric that blocks the teeth in the jaw because it is an excellent tool for DNA maintenance, said Girdland-Flina.
Of the seven DNA extracts taken from the tooth, two were preserved enough to be sequenced. Then the scientists compared the old Egyptian genome with those of more than 3,000 modern people and 805 old individuals, according to the authors of the study.
Chemical signals described isotopes in the man’s ravages information about the surroundings in which he grew up, and the diet that he consumed as a child with increasing teeth. The results agreed with a childhood that was spent in the hot, dry climate of the Nil Valley and used wheat, barley, animal protein and plants in connection with Egypt.
But 20% of the man’s ancestors best fits together with older genomes from Mesopotamia, which indicates that the movement of people in Egypt could have been quite essential at some point, Girdland-Flein.
The dental anthropologist and studies co -author Joel Irish also accepted forensic measurements of the teeth and the cranium of the man, who best matched a West Asian person. Irish is a professor at the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences of the Liverpool John Moores University.
The study gives an insight into a crucial time and a crucial place where, according to Iosif Lazaridis, a research assistant in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, there has still been no rehearsals. Lazaridis was not involved in the new study, but has to go to old DNA samples from Mesopotamia and the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean area, to which modern Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian areas, Jordan and parts of Turkey.
The remains are now kept in the Liverpool World Museum. – Garang Museum of Archeology, University of Liverpool
The researchers have long asked whether the Egyptians were native North Africans or Levantine from the beginning, Lazaridis said.
“This sample tells us that in Egypt it was mainly in the origin of North African in Egypt in Egypt, but with a certain contribution to ancestors from Mesopotamia,” said Lazaridis. “This makes it geographically fully and completely sensible.”
Lazaridis said he hoped that the beginning was more to Egypt and suggested that mumification in the preservation of soft tissue in mummies in the preservation of the chemical treatments used in the mumification process were not ideal for old DNA maintenance.
“I think it is now shown that it is feasible to extract people from people from the beginning of Egyptian civilization, and the genetic history of Egypt can now be written,” he said.
A mysterious burial
By studying the man’s skeleton, the team found that he was a little more than 5 feet tall and between 44 and 64 years old, probably closer to the end of this area – “which is incredibly old for this time, probably like the 80s today,” said Irish.
The genetic analysis suggests that he had brown eyes and hair and dark skin. And his bones told a different story: just how hard he worked in life, which in contradiction to the ceremonic way, how he was buried within the ceramic ship, seems to be in contradiction to the deeds.
Signs of arthritis and osteoporosis showed up in his bones, while characteristics in the back of his skull and vertebra show that he looked down and leaned forward for a large part of his life, said Irish. Muscle markings show that he holds his arms in front of him for a long time and wore heavy materials. The seat bones of his pelvis were also incredibly inflated, which occurs when someone sits on a hard surface for decades. There were also signs of essential arthritis in his right foot.
Irish looked at the ancient Egyptian pictures of different professions, including pottery weapons, masonry, soldering, agriculture and weaving to find out how the man could have spent his time.
“Although evidence indicates ceramics, including the use of a pottery wheel that arrived in Egypt at about the same time,” said Irish. “Nevertheless, his funeral with a higher class is not to be expected for a potter who would normally not receive such treatment. Perhaps he was exceptionally clever or successful to drive his social status forward.”
Before the ceramic and writing systems between cultures were shared, domesticated plants and animals spread in the sixth millennium BC. Now the team of studies is wondering whether human migrations were also part of this shift. Additional old genomes from Egypt, Africa and the fertile crescent moon could provide answers about who lived where and when.
“This is only part of the puzzle that is a human genetic variation: anyone who has ever lived and your genome-represented a unique piece in this puzzle,” said Girdland-Flein in an email. “While we will never be able to sequence the genome of everyone, I hope that we can collect enough different samples from all over the world to reconstruct the key events in the history of mankind that we have shaped today.”
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