Scientists Have Sequenced an Ancient Egyptian Skeleton's Entire Genome for the Very First Time. Here's What They Found

During the third millennium B.C.E., a man was buried in a sealed ceramic pot in the Egyptian village of Nuwayrat. Now, using one of his teeth, researchers have sequenced his DNA. Their analysis, which was published this month in the journal Nature, marks the first whole genome belonging to an ancient Egyptian.

According to a statement from the Francis Crick Institute in London, the man lived around 4,500 to 4,800 years ago during Egypt’s Old Kingdom period, around the time Egypt’s first pyramids were built.

“It’s exciting that we can get genomes from this place and time,” co-author Pontus Skoglund, who leads the ancient genomics lab at the Francis Crick Institute, tells the Guardian’s Ian Sample. “It’s only one individual, but it provides a valuable first glimpse into the ancestry of an early Egyptian in the Old Kingdom.”

The analysis revealed that the man descended primarily from inhabitants of North Africa. However, about 20 percent of his ancestry came from the Fertile Crescent, the region in the Middle East that includes Mesopotamia.

Historians have long assumed that communities in Egypt and Mesopotamia interacted through trade and cultural exchange. But because genetic material is rarely well-preserved enough to analyze, finding proof of this exchange has been difficult, per the statement.

“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,” Skoglund explains to Reuters’ Will Dunham.

This particular man’s remains may have been preserved due to the unique nature of his burial. Discovered in 1902, his bones were sealed inside a ceramic vessel placed in a rock-cut tomb in Nuwayrat, an archaeological site located about 170 miles south of Cairo. The man died before artificial mummification became widespread in Egypt, according to the statement.

“A major problem with previous attempts was that samples were mummified, which contaminates DNA,” Harald Ringbauer, a population geneticist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany who wasn’t involved with the study, tells Deutsche Welle’s Fred Schwaller. “Here, with a normal burial, the DNA was well-preserved. This makes it special.”

The analysis revealed that the skeleton belonged to a five-foot-two man. When he died between the ages of 44 and 64, he had osteoarthritis in most of his joints. Markers of stress on the bones suggest that he “experienced an extended period of physical labor, seemingly in contrast to his high-status tomb burial,” write the researchers.

“His seat bones are expanded in size, his arms showed evidence of extensive movement back and forth and there’s substantial arthritis in just the right foot,” says co-author Joel Irish, a bioarchaeologist at Liverpool John Moores University in England, in the statement. “Though circumstantial, these clues point towards pottery, including use of a pottery wheel, which arrived in Egypt around the same time.”

The man’s likely profession confused the researchers. During this period, rock-cut tombs were usually reserved for elites, who weren’t typically engaged in hard manual labor. “He was put in a relatively high-class tomb, and not any old person ends up in a rock-cut tomb,” Irish says to the Guardian. “Maybe he was a super good potter and ended up in someone’s favor.”

Assuming this man wasn’t a member of the elite, his burial could provide researchers with uniquely valuable insights into everyday Egyptians’ lives. In contrast, studying gene pools connected to royal dynasties, which were known for inbreeding, can come with limitations, Yehia Gad, an emeritus scholar of molecular genetics at the National Research Center in Egypt who wasn’t involved with the study, tells the Washington Post’s Kasha Patel in an email.

“Extending genomic investigation to lower classes of the ancient Egyptian society will definitely enlighten us on the various life aspects of the ordinary ancient Egyptians,” he adds.