StarDestroyer.Net BBS

DNA from ancient Egyptian mummies reveals their ancestry

Ancient Egyptians were an archaeologist's dream. They left behind intricate coffins, massive pyramids and gorgeous hieroglyphs, the pictorial writing code cracked in 1799. Egyptians recorded tales of royalty and gods. They jotted down life's miscellanies, too, as humdrum as beer recipes and doctor's notes.

But there was one persistent hole in ancient Egyptian identity: their chromosomes. Cool, dry permafrost can preserve prehistoric DNA like a natural freezer, but Egypt is a gene incinerator. The region is hot. Within the mummies' tombs, where scientists would hope to find genetic samples, humidity wrecked their DNA. What's more, soda ash and other chemicals used by Egyptian embalmers damaged genetic material.

A study led by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Tubingen in Germany managed to plug some of those genetic gaps. Researchers wrung genetic material from 151 Egyptian mummies, radiocarbon dated between Egypt's New Kingdom (the oldest at 1388 B.C.) to the Roman Period (the youngest at 426 A.D.), as reported Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

Johannes Krause, a University of Tubingen paleogeneticist and an author of the study, said the major finding was that “for 1,300 years, we see complete genetic continuity.” Despite repeated conquests of Egypt, by Alexander the Great, Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Assyrians — the list goes on — ancient Egyptians showed little genetic change. “The other big surprise,” Krause said, “was we didn't find much sub-Saharan African ancestry.”

The remains came from Abusir el-Meleq, an ancient Nile community in the middle of Egypt. From the mummies the scientists extracted bone, teeth and soft tissue samples. (Although Egyptian embalmers removed the brains of the deceased, the scientists wrote that “in most cases, non-macerated mummy heads still have much of their soft tissue preserved.”)

The hard samples yielded the most DNA, perhaps because the teeth and bones were protected by soft tissue or because the embalming processes left tougher material intact. After preparing the samples in a sterilized room in Germany, the researchers bathed the samples in UV radiation for an hour to minimize contamination.

Ancient Egyptians were closely related to people who lived along the eastern Mediterranean, the analysis showed. They also shared genetic material with residents of the Turkish peninsula at the time and Europe.

Given Egypt's location at the intersection of Africa, Europe and Asia, and the influx of foreign rulers, Krause said he was surprised at how stable the genetics seemed to be over this period. The scientists were particularly interested in the change in ruling class at the turn of the first millennium. First came the Hellenistic dynasty, in the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s conquests, from 332 B.C. to 30 B.C., and then Roman rule from 30 B.C. to about 400 A.D. And yet the genetics of the Abusir el-Meleq community appeared to be unperturbed by shifting politics.

The scientists compared these ancient genetics with those of 100 modern Egyptians and 125 modern Ethiopians that had been previously analyzed. If you ask Egyptians, they'll say that they have become more European recently, Krause said. “We see exactly the opposite,” he said.

It was not until relatively recently in Egypt's long history that sub-Saharan genetic influences became more pronounced. “In the last 1,500 years, Egypt became more African, if you want,” Krause said.

In their paper, the researchers acknowledged that “all our genetic data were obtained from a single site in Middle Egypt and may not be representative for all of ancient Egypt.” In the south of Egypt, the authors wrote, sub-Saharan influences may have been stronger.

This study left two gaps in the Egyptian timeline that Krause wants to fill, he said. It is not clear when the African gene flow, present in modern Egyptians, occurred. Nor could the study determine the origin of the Egyptians. “The other big question is, 'Where did the ancient Egyptians come from?' ” Krause said. To answer that, scientists will have to find genomes “back further in time, in prehistory.

mr friendly guy wrote:I heard about this as well. But what is Egyptsearch?

Elheru Aran wrote:Regrettably they can still nitpick that the DNA only goes as far back as the New Kingdom, and claim that the *original* Old Kingdom Egyptians were still African...

also it's possible to speciously claim that the population sampled was not representative of the Egyptian people, but the article doesn't really elaborate other than noting that the mummies all came from a single community.

Broomstick wrote:The [insert] supremacists are a bunch of racist nutballs - they can't be content with the legitimate contributions of [insert] to history and world culture, they have to go around appropriating other peoples' history, too.

Broomstick wrote:So...basically the Egyptians are a group that's been somewhat distinct for a long time, with a bit of admixture from neighbors but largely their own thing? You mean, basically what I asserted way back in the days of idiots arguing their sub-Saharan ancestry around here?

The African supremacists are a bunch of racist nutballs - they can't be content with the legitimate contributions of sub-Saharan Africans to history and world culture, they have to go around appropriating other peoples' history, too.

Broomstick wrote:I confess I don't quite get it. I mean, sure, I'm curious about my own ethnic origins and how they relate to history but I don't get a special tingling because of what my ancestors did or didn't do.

I confess I don't quite get it. I mean, sure, I'm curious about my own ethnic origins and how they relate to history but I don't get a special tingling because of what my ancestors did or didn't do.

I'm going to assume that your ancestors didn't suffer 300 years of slavery?

I think that is what it mostly is though.

cadbrowser wrote:

Broomstick wrote:I confess I don't quite get it. I mean, sure, I'm curious about my own ethnic origins and how they relate to history but I don't get a special tingling because of what my ancestors did or didn't do.

I'm going to assume that your ancestors didn't suffer 300 years of slavery?

I think that is what it mostly is though. They want something grandiose to offset "that" aspect of their heritage. It's as if they act like they are expected to be handed something on a silver platter. At least that's what I take from all of the "Egyptians are BLACK" thing that invested this board some time ago.

Zixinus wrote:

I confess I don't quite get it. I mean, sure, I'm curious about my own ethnic origins and how they relate to history but I don't get a special tingling because of what my ancestors did or didn't do.

That is because you have enough independent identity (and achievements) that you don't need to grab for your ancestry for support for ego. When you are lacking independent archivement, something that young people are prone to, they reach into their ancestry. And when their actual ancestry is ungloriously common, such as having common people with common jobs or not having detailed ancestral history, it goes into more vague ancestry.

Broomstick wrote:The kola nut, providing the "cola" flavor to popular beverages world wide is African.

Formless wrote:

Broomstick wrote:The kola nut, providing the "cola" flavor to popular beverages world wide is African.

Actually... there are recipes for cola out there, and most of them contain zero cola nut. The real primary flavor is orange juice, one other citrus fruit (lemon, lime, or both), and spices like coriander, nutmeg, vanilla, and importantly cinnamon. I have yet to see a recipe without cinnamon and coriander in it, but the majority don't have kola nut because the stuff is hard to come by and isn't a necessary flavor at all. It was mostly important for providing the caffeine content of early colas, as well as color. Nowadays, however, soft drink makers can just inject caffeine from other sources directly into the syrup, as well as food dye, so only a few colas remain that use the things (mostly specialty drinks made by Pepsi).

That said, its possible that Coca-Cola contains it. No one knows what the hell is in Coke.

madd0ct0r wrote:I've been trying to read up on west African history recently and even now it seems really really hard to easily find stories that arent full of holes or centuries of qwuestion marks.

Like the idea of empires and major kingdoms and trade fleets only started to be explored in the 1980s or something, and what has been found hasnt trickled down to pop sci yet. Even the idea there may have been a tetse fly epidemic with European explorers finding a post apocalyptic wilderness that followed is recent and bloody hard to evidence.

Broomstick wrote:No. I mean my father's family were slaughtered like cattle, the women's hair used to make felt, the gold fillings dug out of their teeth to fund the slaughter, and their bodies burned and their ashes dumped like garbage. But that's nothing compared to slavery I suppose. Except for the whole "work them as hard as you can on a starvation diet before sending them off to the "showers"" thing.

Broomstick wrote:Yeah, I think that's a lot of it.

From my viewpoint - just because your grandfather (add as many greats as you want in front of that) was a slave doesn't in any way diminish you. Your life is about what you do. And yeah, I get that there's a knock-on effect from the slavery, poverty, and oppression but demanding a handout is not a way to correct that.

Zixinus wrote:That creates a strong impetus for the problem I outlined above. But to be fair, Victorian history was blatantly racist up to the point that when an explorer found a tremendous ruined city, he flat-out refused to believe that it was created and conceived by the descendants of the locals. Without a good understanding of history, it makes you wonder what other archivements were attributed and forgotten due to racism. Egyptsearch is an example where this approach was taken with disregard to both deeper understanding of history and how race actually works.