Ancient Egypt experienced significant changes between 4,500 to 4,800 years ago as the Early Dynastic period transitioned into the Old Kingdom. The construction of the Great Pyramid of Giza and advancements in hieroglyphic writing and pottery emerged during this time. Research on a potter from Nuwayrat, who lived over 4,500 years ago, produced the first whole ancient Egyptian genome, providing insights into his height, appearance, and genetic ancestry, which included links to the Fertile Crescent, indicative of a diverse population in early Egypt.
"This individual lived and died during a critical period of change in Ancient Egypt," said Linus Girdland Flink, a biomolecular archaeologist at the University of Aberdeen, in the UK, and co-senior author on the study.
"We've been able to tell part of the individual's story, finding that some of his ancestry came from the Fertile Crescent, highlighting a mixing of groups [from North Africa and the Middle East] at this time," said Girdland Flink.
While it is difficult to draw broad conclusions from a single individual, "this groundbreaking article provides a first glimpse into the genetics of early Egypt, a region that has long been a critical gap in the ancient DNA map," said Iosif Lazaridis, a geneticist at Harvard University.
Collection
[
|
...
]