First complete ancient Egyptian DNA genome reveals his occupation
In 1985, geneticists achieved a major archeological breakthrough after they successfully extracted partial DNA from ancient Egyptian skeletal remains. Almost exactly four decades later, researchers have sequenced the first whole genome from an individual who lived amid the civilization’s earliest eras. The findings are detailed in a study published July 2 in the journal Nature. Egyptologists have spent centuries analyzing mountains of archeological materials spanning thousands of years’ worth of history. But while experts now know a fair amount about ancient Egyptian life, they still understand very little about the population’s genetic makeup. Researchers have genomically analyzed three specimens to date, but in each case, poor DNA preservation resulted in only partial sequences. A tooth stored in museum archives for over a century has changed that, however. Archeologists initially excavated it (and its owner) around 1902 at Nuwayrat, a village roughly 165 miles south of Cairo. Experts couldn’t immediately glean much from...