The surprising ancestry of ancient Egyptians: First ever genome study of mummies reveals they were more Turkish and European than African

Researchers performed a detailed analysis of the DNA of ancient mummies

They found that ancient Egyptians were closely related to European populations

Traditional communities in the Levant and Neolithic Europe were close relatives

Study found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did

A map showing the main areas of immigrant populations that contributed to Egyptian heritage between 1400 BCE and 400 CE

A new DNA analysis of Ancient Egyptians shows they were more Turkish and European than African.

Scientists analysed ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from 1400 BC to 400 AD and discovered they shared genes with people from the Mediterranean.

They found that ancient Egyptians were closely related to ancient populations in the Levant - now modern day Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon.

They were also genetically similar to Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe.


The study, published in Nature Communications, found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did.

The data shows that modern Egyptians share approximately eight per cent more ancestry on the nuclear level with Sub-Saharan African populations than with ancient Egyptians.
Egypt is a promising location for the study of ancient populations because it was a world-wide trading hub.

This is most likely the reason that ancient Egyptians had such a diverse genetic heritage, the authors, from the University of Tuebingen and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, said.

'The population history of Egypt is complex because it is found at the ispus of Africa, the gateway to a continent, and has seen much historical turnover,' Max Planck Director for the Science of Human History and study lead author Professor Johannes Krause told MailOnline.
'Ancient Egypt in the 1millenium BC has been dominated by many foreign powers.
The team's research involved unravelling the genetic history of Egyptians by comparing DNA samples taken from both modern and ancient natives.

WHAT THE STUDY FOUND 

Ancient Egyptians shared genes with several European populations.

They were closely related to ancient populations in the Levant - now modern day Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon.

They were also genetically similar to Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe.

The study also found that modern Egyptians share more ancestry with Sub-Saharan Africans than ancient Egyptians did.

Ancient Egyptians likely had a more diverse genetic heritage because it was once one of the world's biggest trading hubs.


They were aiming to establish an exhaustive genetic database to study the ancient past of Egypt for the first time.

'It has been much debated whether foreign dominations such as Assyrians, Nunbians, Greeks or Romans changed the gene pool of ancient Europe, making them more or less African,' Professor Krause told MailOnline.

'We wanted to test that and found that there is genetic continuity between the old kingdom and Roman period.

A new DNA analysis of Ancient Egyptians shows they were more Turkish and European than African. This image shows the sarcophagus of Tadja, Abusir el-Meleq, one of the mummies whose DNA was analysed in the new study

Map of Egypt, showing the archaeological site of Abusir-el Meleq (orange X), from which the ancient mummies were taken, and the location of the modern Egyptian samples used in the study (orange circles)

'However in the last 1,500 years Egypt became more genetically African, whereas the ancient Egyptians showed almost no sub-Saharan African ancestry and high affinity to ancient Near Eastern and European populations.'

Recent advances in the study of ancient DNA present an intriguing opportunity to test existing understandings of Egyptian history using ancient genetic data.

Professor Krause said: 'The potential preservation of DNA has to be regarded with scepticism.
'The hot Egyptian climate, the high humidity levels in many tombs and some of the chemicals used in mummification techniques, contribute to DNA degradation and are thought to make the long-term survival of DNA in Egyptian mummies unlikely.'

The extraction of reliable nuclear DNA from Egyptian mummies is hence a breakthrough in genetics that opens the door to more detailed studies of mummified remains.
The team sampled 151 mummified individuals from the archaeological site of Abusir el-Meleq, along the Nile River in Middle Egypt.

In total, the authors recovered mitochondrial genomes from 90 individuals, and genome-wide datasets from three individuals.

They were able to use the data gathered to test previous hypotheses drawn from archaeological and historical data, and from studies of modern DNA.

Scientists analysed ancient DNA from Egyptian mummies dating from 1400 BC to 400 AD and discovered they shared genes with people from the Mediterranean (stock)

The team found that ancient Egyptians were closely related to ancient populations in the Levant and Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe. Image shows researcher Verena Schuenemann at the Palaeogenetics Laboratory, University of Tuebingen

Professor Alexander Peltzer, from the University of Tuebingen, said: 'In particular, we were interested in looking at changes and continuities in the genetic makeup of the ancient inhabitants of Abusir el-Meleq.

'We wanted to test if the conquest of Alexander the Great and other foreign powers has left a genetic imprint on the ancient Egyptian population.'

The team wanted to determine if the investigated ancient populations were affected at the genetic level by foreign conquest and domination during the time period under study, and compared these populations to modern Egyptian comparative populations.

The study found that ancient Egyptians were most closely related to ancient populations in the Levant (modern day Syria, Jordan, Israel and Lebanon), and were also closely related to Neolithic populations from the Anatolian Peninsula and Europe.

Coauthor Wolfgang Haack, group leader at the Max Planck Institute, added: 'The genetics of the Abusir el-Meleq community did not undergo any major shifts during the 1,300 year timespan we studied, suggesting that the population remained genetically relatively unaffected by foreign conquest and rule.'