From DNA the first identikit of an ancient Egyptian
Forty years after the pioneering efforts of Nobel Prize winner Svante Pääbo , the complete DNA of a man who lived in ancient Egypt at the time of the first pyramids , between 4,800 and 4,500 years ago , perhaps a potter , has been extracted and sequenced for the first time: it is the oldest DNA ever obtained in that part of the world. The extraordinary result is published in the journal Nature by the research group led by Liverpool John Moores University and the Francis Creek Institute in London. The ancient DNA was extracted from a tooth of the individual and offers new information on the genetic diversity of the ancient Egyptians . The man was between 44 and 64 years old at the time of his death, an advanced age for that time, and his genome indicates that he descended 80% from populations of North Africa and the remaining 20% from groups of Mesopotamia , which corresponds more or less to modern-day Iraq. "Powerful new genetic techniques have allowed us to rule out DNA contamination," says Pontus Skoglund of the Francis Creek Institute, who coordinated the research together with Linus Girdland-Flink of the University of Liverpool, "providing the first genetic evidence of potential human movements in Egypt during that period." The individual was found in 1902 buried in a ceramic vessel in Nuwayrat , 265 kilometres south of Cairo, which suggests a high social status , yet the marks left on his bones indicate a lifetime of work , probably as a potter or a trade that required similar movements. "Perhaps he was exceptionally skilled," hypothesizes Joel Irish of the University of Liverpool, one of the authors of the study led by Adeline Morez Jacobs, currently at the University of Padua, "or he had managed to improve his social status."
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