DNA reveals genetic link between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia
DNA which was recently analysed by researchers uncovered a genetic link between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, according to the journal Nature via The New Arab on July 3rd.
The teeth of a well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site were the object of full genome sequencing by researchers. The tomb site dated to between 4,495 and 4,880 years ago.
Four-fifths of the genome revealed genetic links to North Africa and the region surrounding modern Egypt. However, one-fifth of the genome linked directly to the region between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, known as the fertile crescent, where ancient Mesopotamian civilisation thrived. The region is in modern day Iraq.
Daniel Antoine, who is the British Museum’s curator of Egypt and Sudan, said that “the finding is highly significant” as it “is the first direct evidence of what has been hinted at in prior work.”
Evidence of trade links between ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia have been uncovered through earlier archaeological projects, alongside similarities in pottery-making techniques and pictorial writing systems. Despite similar dental structures suggesting possible ancestral ties, they could not be definitively confirmed until the new study confirmed them.
Antoine said that the Nile River was “likely to have acted as an ancient superhighway, facilitating the movement of not only cultures and ideas, but people.”
The skeleton was discovered by archaeologists at the Nuwayrat site, within an ancient Egyptian tomb complex which took the form of a chamber carved out of a rocky hillside. Co-author and bioarchaeologist, Joel Irish of Liverpool John Moores University, estimated that the man to whom the skeleton belonged was likely in his 60s due to the presence of arthritis on specific joints.
The man lived roughly at the beginning of the Old Kingdom of ancient Egypt, a period marked by the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt into one state. This gave way to a period of cultural innovation – including the construction of the Giza pyramids – and relative political stability.
Co-author Linus Girdland-Flink, a paleogeneticist at the University of Aberdeen, explained that “this is the time that centralised power allowed the formation of ancient Egypt as we know it.”
This period roughly coincided with the emergence of Sumerian city-states in Mesopotamia and the development of the cuneiform writing system.
According to researchers, further analyses on separate DNA samples are necessary to grasp a better understanding of the extent and timings of interactions between both civilisations.
The New Arab
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