Scientists have sequenced the oldest and most complete genome from ancient Egypt — and the DNA reveals that a man who lived 5,000 years ago had roots in both Mesopotamia and North Africa, a new study finds.
https://www.livescience.com/archaeology ... esopotamia
The individual's body was first recovered from a tomb in Nuwayrat, in Upper Egypt, in 1902. The team then compared the man's genome against a database of 4,000 other people's DNA — 3,233 people from the present day, and 805 ancient people.
The profile is 80% Mahgrib (north African), 20% levant (near middle eastern) and 0% Subsaharan African is somewhat surprising given the current location of the tomb is Nubia in upper Egypt whose current population is predominantly subsaharan African.
Despite this scientific breakthrough, and perhaps due to current political sensitivities, Sally Wasef, a palaeogeneticist at Queensland University of Technology, said that while the researchers' DNA extraction was sound, she thought they might have drawn too many conclusions from their ancestry analysis. "It's just one individual that has been moved outside of Egypt." there was still plenty of well-preserved DNA from other mummies found in ancient Egyptian tombs.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/202 ... /105478316
05 Jul 2025, 11:24 pm
