logo
Ancient DNA shows genetic link between Egypt and Mesopotamia

Ancient DNA shows genetic link between Egypt and Mesopotamia

Yahoo02-07-2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ancient DNA has revealed a genetic link between the cultures of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to research published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a remarkably well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.
Four-fifths of the genome showed links to North Africa and the region around Egypt. But a fifth of the genome showed links to the area in the Middle East between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian civilization flourished.
'The finding is highly significant" because it 'is the first direct evidence of what has been hinted at' in prior work,' said Daniel Antoine, curator of Egypt and Sudan at the British Museum.
Earlier archeological evidence has shown trade links between Egypt and Mesopotamia, as well as similarities in pottery-making techniques and pictorial writing systems. While resemblances in dental structures suggested possible ancestral links, the new study clarifies the genetic ties.
The Nile River is 'likely to have acted as an ancient superhighway, facilitating the movement of not only cultures and ideas, but people,' said Antoine, who was not involved in the study.
The skeleton was found in an Egyptian tomb complex at the archaeological site of Nuwayrat, inside a chamber carved out from a rocky hillside. An analysis of wear and tear on the skeleton — and the presence of arthritis in specific joints — indicates the man was likely in his 60s and may have worked as a potter, said co-author and bioarchaeologist Joel Irish of Liverpool John Moores University.
The man lived just before or near the start of ancient Egypt's Old Kingdom, when Upper and Lower Egypt were unified as one state, leading to a period of relative political stability and cultural innovation — including the construction of the Giza pyramids.
'This is the time that centralized power allowed the formation of ancient Egypt as we know it,' said co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, a paleogeneticist at the University of Aberdeen.
At approximately the same time, Sumerian city-states took root in Mesopotamia and cuneiform emerged as a writing system.
Researchers said analysis of other ancient DNA samples is needed to obtain a clearer picture of the extent and timing of movements between the two cultural centers.
___
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Whoopsie, Humans Built So Many Dams That We Shifted the North Pole by 3 Feet
Whoopsie, Humans Built So Many Dams That We Shifted the North Pole by 3 Feet

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Whoopsie, Humans Built So Many Dams That We Shifted the North Pole by 3 Feet

Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: Humanity's impact on the planet is so immense that our engineered megastructures have altered the very rotation of the planet. A new study from Harvard University analyzes how dam building—primarily the two stages that spanned from 1835 to 2011—has caused the Earth's poles to move roughly three feet. In addition to changing the Earth's rotation, dams have caused a global decrease in water levels. Dams have long been one of humanity's greatest tools for controlling the world's water. The very first dams, constructed in ancient Mesopotamia, were used for many of the same purposes as they are today: water irrigation and flood control (though, a few centuries later, we now also use them to generate hydropower). But as the era of big dams truly got underway in the 19th and 20th centuries, we've also begun to learn about the unintended consequences of these dams. They drastically disturb natural ecosystems, negatively impact water quality, and exacerbate soil erosion—oh, and they've also altered the location of the Earth's poles. In a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists at Harvard University details their discovery that the rampant construction of dams from 1835 to 2011 has locked up so much water that the Earth's poles have moved slightly from their axial rotation. Because Earth's outermost layer rests upon another layer of liquid rock, a redistribution of mass on the surface—whether accomplished by glaciers during an ice age or by locking up water behind dams—it can influence the orientation of the Earth's poles. The authors describe the phenomenon like slapping a lump of clay on a basketball and spinning it. In an effort to maintain momentum, the ball adorned with clay will shift slightly toward the equator, which eventually impacts the poles in a process known as 'true polar wander.' Thankfully, Earth is not destined to end up like the planet Uranus, forever spinning on its side. Two centuries of frantic dam-building (about 7,000 of them in total) has only nudged the poles about three feet and caused a 0.83-inch drop in global sea levels. 'As we trap water behind dams, not only does it remove water from the oceans, thus leading to a global sea level fall, it also distributes mass in a different way around the world,' Harvard University graduate student Natasha Valencic, the lead author of the study, said in a press statement. 'We're not going to drop into a new ice age, because the pole moved by about a meter [or about three feet] in total, but it does have implications for sea level.' Interestingly, the movement of the poles also matches the history of industrialization. Between 1835 and 1954, a majority of dams were constructed in North America and Europe, moving the North Pole 8 inches to the 103rd meridian east. Once East Africa and Asia began constructing dams in the latter half of the 20th century, the poles moved once again—this time 22 inches toward the 117th meridian west, according to the authors. The most eye-popping example of dams' astronomical impact can be seen by analyzing the effects of China's Three Gorges Dam, the largest dam in the world. In 2005, NASA scientist Benjamin Fong Chao showed that when full, this mega-dam alone slowed the rotation of the Earth by 0.06 microseconds, or 60 billionths of a second. Dams aren't the only anthropomorphic force at work impacting the orientation of the Earth's poles, however. A 2023 study analyzed the impact of pumping groundwater from reservoirs, and estimated that between 1993 and 2010, net water loss amounted to roughly 2 trillion tons and caused a 4.36 centimeter shift every year. Humanity continues to impact our planet in a myriad of complex ways. Hopefully, the more we learn about these impacts, the more we can mitigate any negative impacts they may bring along with them. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?

Archaeologists uncover multistory buildings in once-thriving city lost to time
Archaeologists uncover multistory buildings in once-thriving city lost to time

Fox News

time2 days ago

  • Fox News

Archaeologists uncover multistory buildings in once-thriving city lost to time

Archaeologists recently uncovered multistory buildings from a lost Egyptian city in the Nile Delta, fostering new insights into urban life in antiquity. The ruins of the city – known in ancient times as Imet or Buto – are located at the site now called Tell el-Fara'in. The University of Manchester announced the discovery in a June 24 press release. Multiple excavations have taken place at the site in past decades, but the latest dig by British archaeologists revealed the presence of multiple multistory structures. The elevated dwellings were found thanks to a combination of remote sensing and satellite imagery technology, said the University of Manchester. The British archaeologists were joined by experts from the University of Sadat City in Cairo. The high-tech methods led researchers to notice clusters of "ancient mudbricks" before the excavation began. The university reported, "This approach led to the discovery of dense architectural remains, including substantial tower houses – multistory buildings supported by exceptionally thick foundation walls, which were designed to accommodate a growing population in an increasingly urbanized Delta region." University of Manchester lecturer Nicky Nielsen helped lead the excavation. In a statement, he dated the structures to the Ptolemaic Period, which began around 332 B.C. and ended in 30 B.C. "These tower houses are mainly found in the Nile Delta between the Late Period and the Roman era, and are rare elsewhere in Egypt," the Egyptologist said. "Their presence here shows that Imet was a thriving and densely built city with a complex urban infrastructure." Archaeologists also uncovered the remains of granaries, or buildings for storing grain, as well as a ceremonial road tied to the cult of Wadjet, the Ancient Egyptian cobra goddess. Animal enclosures were also observed during the excavation, as well as a series of additional buildings. "Imet is emerging as a key site for rethinking the archaeology of Late Period Egypt." "Elsewhere, excavators found a large building with a limestone plaster floor and massive pillars dating to the mid-Ptolemaic Period," the University of Manchester noted. "This building was built across the processional road, which once connected to the temple of Wadjet – the city's patron deity," the statement continued. "This ceremonial route appears to have fallen out of use by the mid-Ptolemaic period, offering insight into shifting religious landscapes in Ancient Egypt." Smaller artifacts were also uncovered by archaeologists. Pictures from the excavation show an ushabti (a small funerary figurine), a stone slab depicting the god Harpocrates and a bronze sistrum, or rattle, of Hathor, the goddess of music and joy. The excavation will help advance understanding of "the urban, religious and economic life of this city in the Nile Delta during the 4th century BC," according to university officials. "This discovery opens new doors to our understanding of daily life, spirituality and urban planning in the Delta," the statement concluded. "Imet is emerging as a key site for rethinking the archaeology of Late Period Egypt." Ancient Egypt has captivated archaeologists for centuries, and many finds from the millennia-old civilization are still being discovered today. In May, several tombs of high-ranking Ancient Egyptian officials were recently uncovered by local archaeologists, dating back to the era of the New Kingdom. A month earlier, a University of Pennsylvania professor spoke with Fox News Digital about unearthing the tomb of an unknown pharaoh near Abydos.

I Just Learned Why Humans Originally Kept Cats, And I'm Horrified
I Just Learned Why Humans Originally Kept Cats, And I'm Horrified

Yahoo

time4 days ago

  • Yahoo

I Just Learned Why Humans Originally Kept Cats, And I'm Horrified

When I announce that I'm not really a pet person (and especially that I don't particularly want a dog), people stare at me like I'm a criminal. But at least I'm not as vicious as the world's first cat owners. Recently, a study published in bioRxiv has called into question the timeline of cat ownership. Previously, scientists believed that cats became domesticated during the Neolithic period as African wildcats were drawn in by the cosy fires and abundance of food linked to farming, while humans welcomed their presence as they got rid of rodents. But not only does this new paper suggest that this timing is off (the authors put it at the 'first millennium BC' in Egypt), but it suggests the relationship believed to have existed between the first cat/human pairs was gorier than we thought. The scientists looked at ancient cat remains found in a variety of spots across Europe and North Africa, including a 9,500-year-old site in Cyprus. Though these had previously been believed to show domesticated cats, a combination of carbon dating, genetic testing, and bone research suggests they were actually wildcats. Their results suggest that the 'closening of human-cat relationships occurred more recently,' and appeared to have begun in Egypt for religious, and not practical, reasons. Cats, they explain, are linked to the Egyptian goddess Bastet, who first appeared with a lion's head, but was increasingly represented with the head of an African wildcat in later centuries. 'This transformation was coincident with the rise of cat sacrifice, whereby millions of free-ranging and specifically-reared cats were mummified as offerings to the goddess,' they wrote. As statues dedicated to Bastet tended to be in more arable areas, the rodent-killing benefits of cats may have proven useful to humans and 'provided the context for the tighter relationship between people and cats that led to the wildcat's domestication, motivated by their newly acquired divine status'. Still, the paper posits that we wanted them for sacrifices first; their more gentle and manageable traits were selected for easier handling. As if that wasn't horrific enough, it turns out Victorian-era Brits may have used those mummified cats for fertiliser. Speaking to BBC Science Focus, Dr Sean Doherty, the study's lead author, said: 'At temples dedicated to [Bastet], we find millions of mummified cats. 'There were so many that in the Victorian period, tonnes of them were brought back to Britain to be ground down and used for fertiliser.' TikTok Says These 2 Sounds Can Get Cats To Come To You ― Here's What The Experts Think So THAT's Why Cats Love Catnip So Much It Turns Out Cats Like Playing Catch Too – But Only On Their Terms

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store