The first ancient Egyptian genome is here, and it changes everything we know
The man, who lived 4,500 to 4,800 years ago during the oldest Pyramids, was discovered in a sealed clay container near Nuwayrat in the south of Cairo. Now the remains of Liverpool’s World Museum were unearthed in 1902, but recently he gave enough DNA for analysis. Genetic analysis indicates that brown eyes, dark hair and dark skin.
The findings published in nature show that approximately 80 percent of their ancestors come from the former North Africans, and about 20 percent of the extension of the West Asia and Mesopotamia (Modern Iraq and Iran). Researchers say this is the first genetic evidence of the population movement among these regions, which have been suspected of long -term archaeological findings.
Liverpool John Moorez University Chief writer and visitor Dr Adeline Morez Jacobs said, bringing together all the clues from the DNA, bones and teeth of this individual, allowing us to create a comprehensive picture, ”he said. “We hope that when this movement from West Asia begins, future DNA samples can expand from ancient Egypt.”
A breakthrough
Egypt’s warm climate often destroys the genetic material, annoying decimal years of research. The Nobel Prize -winning Svante Pääbo’s first initiative in the 1980s failed. However, the progress in sequence technology and the unusual protection of the dental cement of this man, a tissue that locks teeth into the chin, made it possible.
Scientists, to restructure the genome, read every DNA trailer in the sample and used a technique called a rifle array. Dr. Aberdeen University. Linus Our approach means that any future researcher can access all the genome we have published, Linus Girdland-Flink said.
Tips of a life living in labor
The judicial analysis shows that the man is slightly above 5FT and is extremely old for time between 44 and 64 years of age. The skeleton indicates that there is a pelvic abrasion from long hours sitting on muscle marks and hard surfaces from removing heavy loads.
These signs suggest that Pottery Wheels could be a potist, although the relatively high status grave gives clues in a respected craftsman, with the period when Pottery Wheels came to Egypt.
Experts say that the Discovery pointed to the beginning of the genetic history of Egypt, and how old people move, mix and shape one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
