Scientists have sequenced the oldest and complete DNA of an ancient Egyptian man, dating to the era of pyramid construction. The remains were linked to a pottery worker who may have lived into his 60s. About 20% of his ancestry shows relations to individuals from West Asia, indicating that ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians intermingled. This finding supports archaeological evidence of cultural exchange between these civilizations. Improved DNA analysis technology allowed researchers to examine the full genome of a man buried in Nuwayrat village, providing insight into non-royal life during this period.
The analysis, published in Nature on Wednesday, showed the remains belonged to a potentially well-regarded pottery worker - one who may have lived into his 60s.
Twenty percent of his ancestry showed relations to people in West Asia, around modern-day Iraq, Iran and Jordan.
This finding was quite interesting because we actually know from archaeology that the Egyptian and the eastern-Persian cultures influenced each other for millennia.
But we now know that 'below the network of ideas was a complex network of people moving and intermixing with the local population,' said Jacobs.
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