Ancient Egyptians had surprising FOREGIN roots: Scientists sequence the DNA of a man who lived 4,800 years ago – revealing a genetic link to the Mesopotamia culture

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

It's widely considered one of the cradles of civilisation.
But a new study has revealed that people living in ancient Egypt may actually have had foreign roots.
Scientists have sequenced the DNA of a man who lived in ancient Egypt between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.
Their analysis reveals a genetic link to the Mesopotamia culture - a civilisation that flourished in ancient Iraq and the surrounding regions.
The team, from Liverpool John Moores University, was able extract DNA from the man's teeth, which had been preserved alongside his skeleton in a sealed funeral pot in Nuwayrat.
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.
'This suggests substantial genetic connections between ancient Egypt and the eastern Fertile Crescent,' said Adeline Morez Jacobs, lead author of the study.
Although based on a single genome, the findings offer unique insight into the genetic history of ancient Egyptians - a difficult task considering that Egypt's hot climate is not conducive to DNA preservation.
The researchers extracted DNA from the roots of two teeth, part of the man's skeletal remains that had been interred for millennia inside a large sealed ceramic vessel within a rock-cut tomb.
They then managed to sequence his whole genome, a first for any person who lived in ancient Egypt.
The man lived roughly 4,500-4,800 years ago, the researchers said, around the beginning of a period of prosperity and stability called the Old Kingdom, known for the construction of immense pyramids as monumental pharaonic tombs.
The ceramic vessel was excavated in 1902 at a site called Nuwayrat near the village of Beni Hassan, approximately 170 miles (270 km) south of Cairo.
The researchers said the man was about 60 years old when he died, and that aspects of his skeletal remains hinted at the possibility that he had worked as a potter.
The DNA showed that the man descended mostly from local populations, with about 80 per cent of his ancestry traced to Egypt or adjacent parts of North Africa.
But about 20 per cent of his ancestry was traced to a region of the ancient Near East called the Fertile Crescent that included Mesopotamia.
The findings build on the archaeological evidence of trade and cultural exchanges between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, a region spanning modern-day Iraq and parts of Iran and Syria.
During the third millennium BC, Egypt and Mesopotamia were at the vanguard of human civilization, with achievements in writing, architecture, art, religion and technology.
Egypt showed cultural connections with Mesopotamia, based on some shared artistic motifs, architecture and imports like lapis lazuli, the blue semiprecious stone, the researchers said.
The pottery wheel from Mesopotamia first appeared in Egypt at about the time the man lived, a period when the earliest pyramids began to spring up near modern-day Cairo, starting with the Step Pyramid of the pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara and later the Great Pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu at Giza.
About 90 per cent of the man's skeleton was preserved.
He stood about 5-foot-3 (1.59 meters) tall, with a slender build.
He also had conditions consistent with older age such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, as well as a large unhealed abscess from tooth infection.
'Ancient DNA recovery from Egyptian remains has been exceptionally challenging due to Egypt's hot climate that accelerates DNA degradation, with high temperatures breaking down genetic material over time compared to cooler, more stable environments,' study co-author Pontus Skoglund said.
'In this case, the individual's burial in a ceramic pot vessel within a rock-cut tomb likely contributed to the unusual DNA preservation for the region.'
The fact that his burial occurred before mummification became standard practice in Egypt may have helped avoid DNA degradation because his remains were spared elaborate preservation techniques.
Scientists have struggled to recover ancient Egyptian genomes, according to paleogeneticist and study co-author Linus Girdland Flink of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland.
One previous effort yielded partial genome sequencing of three individuals who lived some 1,500 years after the Nuwayrat man.
Given the track record, the researchers were surprised with their success in sequencing the man's genome.
'Yeah, it was a long shot,' Skoglund said.
The man may have worked as a potter or in a trade with similar movements because his bones had muscle markings from sitting for long periods with outstretched limbs.
'All indicators are consistent with movements and positions of a potter, as indicated in ancient Egyptian imagery,' said bioarcheologist and study co-author Joel Irish.
'He would have been of high status to have been buried in a rock-cut tomb.
'This conflicts with his hard physical life and conjecture that he was a potter, which would ordinarily have been working class. Perhaps he was an excellent potter.'
Mesopotamia is known as the 'cradle of civilization', but what made it so great?
A historical area of the Middle-East that spans most of what is now known as Iraq but also stretched to include parts of Syria and Turkey.
The term 'Mesopotamia' comes from Greek, meaning 'between two rivers'.
The two rivers that the name refers to are the Tigris river and the Euphrates.
Unlike many other empires (such as the Greeks and the Romans) Mesopotamia consisted of several different cultures and groups.
Mesopotamia should be more properly understood as a region that produced multiple empires and civilizations rather than any single civilization.
Mesopotamia is known as the 'cradle of civilization' primarily because of two developments: the invention of the 'city' as we know it today and the invention of writing.
Thought to be responsible for many early developments, it is also credited with the invention of the wheel.
They also gave the world the first mass domestication of animals, cultivated great swathes of land and invented tools and weaponry.
As well as these practical developments, the region saw the birth of wine, beer and demarcation of time into hours, minutes, and seconds.
It is thought that the fertile land between the two rivers allowed hunter-gathers a a comfortable existence which led to the agricultural revolution.
A common thread throughout the area was the equal treatment of women.