Egypt's oldest DNA found: a clue to the pyramid builders

A tomb sealed almost five millennia ago in Upper Egypt , excavated at the beginning of the 20th century and forgotten for decades in a British museum, has been the key to achieving a scientific milestone that had eluded geneticists for forty years: sequencing the complete genome of an ancient Egyptian for the first time.

The study, published today in the journal Nature , was conducted by researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and Liverpool John Moores University. Their analysis reveals that this individual, buried in a humble village 265 kilometers south of Cairo, lived between 2800 and 2500 BC, during the transition period between the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom, the era in which the first pyramids began to be built.

The discovery is not only scientific but also historical. The body was excavated in 1902 by the renowned British archaeologist John Garstang in Nuwayrat and donated shortly after to the World Museum in Liverpool. There, it survived the Nazi bombing that destroyed most of the anthropological collection during World War II. And now, more than a century later, that skeleton has told its story.

This has been achieved thanks to advances in DNA sequencing techniques, which have overcome the enormous challenges posed by Egypt's hot climate for the preservation of genetic material. Analysis of the tooth of this man—whose name and exact origin have been lost in time—has allowed a complete reconstruction of his genome.

80% African, 20% Mesopotamian

According to the researchers, the individual had 80% ancestry linked to North African populations and 20% from the so-called "Fertile Crescent," specifically Mesopotamia , present-day Iraq. This is the first clear genetic evidence that migration from Western Asia to Egypt occurred as early as the early dynasties.

This is the first clear genetic evidence that there were migratory movements from Western Asia to Egypt in the early dynasties.

Until now, the only clue to this connection was artifacts found in tombs or temples —ceramics, symbols, or shared writing rudiments—that suggested cultural and commercial exchanges with peoples to the east. This new study provides unprecedented genetic confirmation.

In addition to the genome, scientists analyzed bone and dental remains to deduce information about the individual's diet, environment, and lifestyle. They explain that he suffered from severe arthritis in the neck and muscle markings on his arms and legs consistent with prolonged physical labor, especially in a seated position with his limbs stretched out.

These clues suggest that he may have been a potter who worked with a wheel, a technology originating in Western Asia and arriving in Egypt precisely during this period. However, his burial in a ceramic vessel in a rock-cut tomb suggests a high social status, unusual for a craftsman. “Perhaps he was exceptionally skilled or prosperous,” the authors note, “enough to rise in society in an era not yet marked by artificial embalming.”

Scientists analyzed the bone and dental remains to deduce data about the individual's diet, environment, and lifestyle.

The complete sequencing of this genome represents a crucial advance in understanding demography and migration in pre-Pharaonic Egypt. Until now, no complete genome had been recovered from that period. Previous studies were limited to partial markers and mummified individuals, whose embalming techniques and materials often degraded the DNA.

“It’s been four decades since Svante Pääbo —Nobel Prize winner in 2022—unsuccessfully attempted to extract DNA from Egyptian mummies,” explains Pontus Skoglund of the Crick Institute. “Today, thanks to new techniques, we have overcome that barrier.” The team plans to continue this line of research in collaboration with Egyptian experts to expand the sample and build a more accurate map of genetic variability during the Old Kingdom , known as the “Age of the Pyramids.”