\n The scientists also studied the man\u2019s skeleton to determine more about his identity and found extensive evidence of hard labor over the course of a long life.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cPiecing together all the clues from this individual\u2019s DNA, bones and teeth have allowed us to build a comprehensive picture,\u201d said lead study author Dr. Adeline Morez Jacobs, visiting research fellow at England\u2019s Liverpool John Moores University, in a statement. \u201cWe hope that future DNA samples from ancient Egypt can expand on when precisely this movement from West Asia started.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Pottery and other artifacts have suggested that Egyptians may have traded goods and knowledge across neighboring regions, but genetic evidence of just how closely different ancient civilizations mingled has been harder to pin down because conditions such as heat and humidity quickly degrade DNA, according to the study authors. This man\u2019s remains, however, were unusually well-preserved in their burial container, and the scientists were able to extract DNA from one of the skeleton\u2019s teeth.\n <\/p>\n
\n While the findings only capture the genetic background of one person, experts said additional work could help answer an enduring question about the ancestry of the first Egyptians who lived at the beginning of the longest-lasting known civilization.\n <\/p>\n
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\n Swedish geneticist Svante P\u00e4\u00e4bo, who won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2022<\/a> for sequencing the first Neanderthal genome, made pioneering attempts<\/a> 40 years ago to extract and study DNA from ancient Egyptian remains, but he was unable to sequence a genome. Poor DNA preservation consistently posed an obstacle.\n <\/p>\n \n Since then, the genomes of three ancient Egyptian people have been only partially sequenced<\/a> by researchers <\/strong>using \u201ctarget-enriched sequencing\u201d to focus on specific markers of interest in the specimens\u2019 DNA. The remains used in that work date back to a more recent time in Egyptian history, from 787 BC to AD 23.\n <\/p>\n \n It was ultimately improvements in technology over the past decade that paved the way for the authors of the new study to finally sequence an entire ancient Egyptian genome.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cThe technique we used for this study is generally referred to as \u2018shotgun sequencing,\u2019 which means we sequence all DNA molecules isolated from the teeth, giving us coverage across the whole genome,\u201d wrote study coauthor Dr. Linus Girdland-Flink, a lecturer in biomolecular archaeology at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, in an email. \u201cOur approach means that any future researcher can access the whole genome we published to find additional information. This also means there is no need to return to this individual for additional sampling of bone or tooth material.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n The man, who died during a time of transition between Egypt\u2019s Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom periods, was not mummified before burial because it was not yet standard practice \u2014 and that likely preserved his DNA, the researchers said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt may have been a lucky circumstance \u2014 perhaps we found the needle in the haystack,\u201d Girdland-Flink said. \u201cBut I think we will see additional genomes published from ancient Egypt over the coming years, possibly from individuals buried in ceramic pots.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n While Egypt\u2019s overall climate is hot, the region has relatively stable temperatures, a key factor for long-term genetic preservation, Girdland-Flink said. That climate, the clay pot used for burial and the rock tomb it was placed in all played a role in preventing the man\u2019s DNA from deteriorating, he said.\n <\/p>\n \n For their analysis, the researchers took small samples of the root tips of one of the man\u2019s teeth. They analyzed the cementum, a dental tissue that locks the teeth into the jaw, because it is an excellent tool for DNA preservation, Girdland-Flink said.\n <\/p>\n \n Of the seven DNA extracts taken from the tooth, two were preserved enough to be sequenced. Then, the scientists compared the ancient Egyptian genome with those of more than 3,000 modern people and 805 ancient individuals, according to the study authors.\n <\/p>\n \n Chemical signals called isotopes in the man\u2019s tooth recorded information about the environment where he grew up and the diet he consumed as a child as his teeth grew. The results were consistent with a childhood spent in the hot, dry climate of the Nile Valley, consuming wheat, barley, animal protein and plants associated with Egypt.\n <\/p>\n \n But 20% of the man\u2019s ancestry best matches older genomes from Mesopotamia, suggesting that the movement of people into Egypt at some point may have been fairly substantial, Girdland-Flink.\n <\/p>\n \n Dental anthropologist and study coauthor Joel Irish also took forensic measurements of the man\u2019s teeth and cranium, which matched best with a Western Asian individual. Irish is a professor in the School of Biological and Environmental Sciences at Liverpool John Moores University.\n <\/p>\n \n The study provides a glimpse into a crucial time and place for which there haven\u2019t been samples before, according to Iosif Lazaridis, a research associate in the department of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University. Lazaridis was not involved with the new study but has done research on ancient DNA samples from Mesopotamia<\/a> and the Levant, the eastern Mediterranean area that includes modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and parts of Turkey.\n <\/p>\n \n Researchers have long questioned whether the Egyptians from the beginnings of the Dynastic civilization were indigenous North Africans or Levantine, Lazaridis said.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWhat this sample does tell us is that at such an early date there were people in Egypt that were mostly North African in ancestry, but with some contribution of ancestry from Mesopotamia,\u201d Lazaridis said. \u201cThis makes perfect sense geographically.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n Lazaridis said he hopes it\u2019s the beginning of more research on Egypt, acknowledging that while mummification helped preserve soft tissue in mummies, the chemical treatments used in the mummification process were not ideal for ancient DNA preservation.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI think it is now shown that it is feasible to extract DNA from people from the beginnings of Egyptian civilization and the genetic history of Egypt can now begin to be written,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n By studying the man\u2019s skeleton, the team was able to determine that he was just over 5 feet tall and between 44 and 64 years old, likely closer to the end of that range \u2014 \u201cwhich is incredibly old for that time period, probably like 80s would be today,\u201d Irish said.\n <\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tomb.jpg\")
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