The DNA of ancient mummies is not the same as the Egyptians today

Scientists say this will be an important premise for their genetic research later.

Recently, scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from thousands of years old mummies. And the surprise was that they discovered that the ancient Egyptians had many similar genetic characteristics to the inhabitants of the Middle East (some countries like Israel, Lebanon and Syria) than the modern Egyptians .

According to TheVerge, for a long time, we still think that mummies cannot "preserve" DNA. In 2010, a research team analyzed DNA from 16 royal mummies, but the method they used was not modern enough to compare DNA between ancient mummies and human DNA.

The ancient Egyptians carried many genetic characteristics similar to the inhabitants of the Middle East.

In a study published recently in Nature Communications, scientists said they used a completely new and more accurate DNA sequencing method to analyze genome data from a The number of mummies belonging to many different periods of ancient Egyptian history.

The team analyzed a total of 151 mummies at a location about 100km south of Cairo. These mummies were excavated at the beginning of the 20th century. Scientists could not find any genetic material in the soft tissue. However, it was fortunate that they discovered some remaining material in the bones and teeth of the mummy.

Up to 90 of these mummies contain incomplete DNA and only three of them are intact. It is also mummies that scientists spend the most time researching and analyzing.

The team then compared the DNA of ancient mummies to the DNA of modern humans living in the same area. The results show that, at the genetic level, the ancient Egyptians were not much different from the modern people living in the Middle East. In fact, they have more in common with people in the Middle East than today's Egyptians.

Seal X: Where to study ancient mummies, Golden round dots: The living place of modern Egyptians.

They said the ancient mummy did not have any DNA from sub-Saharan Africa, while about 20% of Egyptians now have this genotype. The main author of the study, Mr. Johannes Krause explains that this difference may be due to the development of Islam or the intensification of trade between African countries in the current context.

The team's new findings have attracted the attention of many scientists around the world. They also hope that this will pave the way for more in-depth studies in the genetics of future ancient mummies.