Genome Data From Egyptian Mummies

[Mrs.B]

 
Posted: 30 May 2017 08:51 AM PDT

An international team has successfully recovered ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from approximately 1400 BCE to 400 CE, including the first genome-wide nuclear data, establishing ancient Egyptian mummies as a reliable of ancient DNA. The study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did.

[Caligvla XXI]

What does Zahi Hawass have to say about this?

[Minimalist]

The thing with 1400 BC is that it doesn't cover the Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom and First and Second Intermediate Periods.  The New Kingdom, beginning c 1500 BC, represented the Egyptian Empire at its greatest expansion and it did cover from the Euphrates to Nubia.  Egypt prior to the New Kingdom seems to have been fairly insular.  While they did have trade relationships with the other major political entities there was not a great deal of political expansion outside the immediate borders of Egypt.  Obviously the Nile would have been the major highway in Eastern Africa and it flows from Ethiopia to Egypt so that is not much of a surprise.

What was surprising was this notation:

Our analyses reveal that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners than present-day Egyptians, who received additional sub-Saharan admixture in more recent times.

Again, the existence of an extensive empire in the Near East would explain the genetic mixing with that area.  But it would be interesting for them to apply the techniques to Old Kingdom mummies and contrast them.  The general consensus is that Egypt was founded by refugees from the Sahara who headed for the only reliable water source when the Sahara began drying up about 5,500 BC.  If true, that should suggest a certain genetic mixture distinct from the New Kingdom period.

[vorlon13]

would inbreeding in the ruling class (since they were more likely to be mumminated) perhaps over represent possible genetic admixtures though?

For example, if I have 2 cats, and clone one of them 10 times, an examination of all the cat DNA buried in the backyard are going to reveal a skewed DNA percentage that doesn't reflect I had a 50/50 mix of calico and Maine coon ?

[Minimalist]

That's a good question, V.  We see some evidence of social mobility among the in the Amarna Library.  For example, there are several letters to the pharaoh from the "king" (probably a mistranslation) of the region which eventually became Jerusalem.  His name was Abdi-Heba(t).  The name is a theophoric meaning "servant of Hebat."  What's interesting about that is that "Hebat" was a Syrian goddess from the region known as Hurria.  Both regions, as well as everything in between, were controlled by the New Kingdom Empire so it looks as if Abdi-Hebat, far from being an actual "king" from the wilds of Judah - or whatever the fuck they called it then - was an imported royal officer who was expected to govern the area.  One can speculate that the Egyptians did this deliberately to prevent local loyalties from bubbling over into rebellions.  In any case, one would expect that such officers would be of sufficient rank to merit intermarriage with other petit-nobility which is precisely what you are hinting at.  The ruling class was not just the pharaoh but would have included greater and lesser nobles and those civil servants for want of a better word who enjoyed the pharaoh's confidence.

One would not expect the commons to share in that sort of cross-breeding.