Scientists Sequence First Genome From Ancient Egypt, Revealing 4,800-Year-Old Secrets

The first full ancient Egyptian genome reveals ancestry from both North Africa and Mesopotamia. The individual likely worked in pottery and lived during a time of cultural change.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have successfully extracted and sequenced the oldest known DNA from ancient Egypt. The genetic material came from an individual who lived between 4,500 and 4,800 years ago, during the era when the first pyramids were built. Their findings were published in Nature.

This achievement comes four decades after Nobel laureate Svante Pääbo first attempted to retrieve DNA from ancient Egyptian remains. Thanks to advancements in genetic technology, scientists have now managed to sequence the first complete genome (the full set of an individual’s DNA) from ancient Egypt.

At that time in Egyptian history, archaeological evidence has pointed to ongoing trade and cultural interactions with the Fertile Crescent, a region in West Asia that includes parts of modern-day Iraq, Iran, and Jordan.

While scholars had long believed that writing systems, pottery, and other cultural elements were exchanged between these regions, the hot climate in Egypt has made DNA preservation difficult, limiting previous genetic research.

DNA from a 4,500-year-old tooth

For this study, scientists extracted DNA from a tooth belonging to an individual buried in the village of Nuwayrat, located about 265 kilometers south of Cairo. The genetic material was used to sequence the individual’s entire genome.

The remains were originally donated by the Egyptian Antiquities Service during British rule to an excavation team led by John Garstang. Initially stored at the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology (later part of the University of Liverpool), the remains were eventually moved to World Museum Liverpool.

The individual lived during a transitional period in ancient Egypt that spanned the end of the Early Dynastic era and the beginning of the Old Kingdom. He was buried in a ceramic vessel placed in a hillside tomb. Because this burial occurred before artificial mummification became common, the natural conditions may have contributed to the preservation of his DNA.

Genetic ancestry linked to North Africa and Mesopotamia

By analyzing his genetic code, the researchers showed that most of his ancestry mapped to ancient individuals who lived in North Africa. The remaining 20% of his ancestry could be traced to ancient individuals who lived in the Fertile Crescent, particularly an area called Mesopotamia (roughly modern-day Iraq).

This finding is genetic evidence that people moved into Egypt and mixed with local populations at this time, which was previously only visible in archaeological artefacts. However, the researchers caution that many more individual genome sequences would be needed to fully understand variation in ancestry in Egypt at the time.

By investigating chemical signals in his teeth relating to diet and environment, the researchers showed that the individual had likely grown up in Egypt.

They then used evidence from his skeleton to estimate sex, age, height, and information on ancestry and lifestyle. These signs suggested he could have worked as a potter or in a trade requiring comparable movements, as his bones had muscle markings from sitting for long periods with outstretched limbs.

Multidisciplinary team reconstructs a personal history

Adeline Morez Jacobs, Visiting Research Fellow and former PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University, former postdoctoral researcher at the Crick and first author, said: “Piecing together all the clues from this individual’s DNA, bones, and teeth has allowed us to build a comprehensive picture. We hope that future DNA samples from ancient Egypt can expand on when precisely this movement from West Asia started.”

Linus Girdland Flink, Lecturer in Ancient Biomolecules at the University of Aberdeen, Visiting Researcher at LJMU and co-senior author, said: “This individual has been on an extraordinary journey. He lived and died during a critical period of change in ancient Egypt, and his skeleton was excavated in 1902 and donated to World Museum Liverpool, where it then survived bombings during the Blitz that destroyed most of the human remains in their collection. We’ve now been able to tell part of the individual’s story, finding that some of his ancestry came from the Fertile Crescent, highlighting mixture between groups at this time.”

Pontus Skoglund, Group Leader of the Ancient Genomics Laboratory at the Crick and co-senior author, said: “Forty years have passed since the early pioneering attempts to retrieve DNA from mummies without successful sequencing of an ancient Egyptian genome. Ancient Egypt is a place of extraordinary written history and archaeology, but challenging DNA preservation has meant that no genomic record of ancestry in early Egypt has been available for comparison. Building on this past research, new and powerful genetic techniques have allowed us to cross these technical boundaries and rule out contaminating DNA, providing the first genetic evidence for potential movements of people in Egypt at this time.”

Joel Irish, Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology at Liverpool John Moores University and second author, said: “The markings on the skeleton are clues to the individual’s life and lifestyle – his seat bones are expanded in size, his arms showed evidence of extensive movement back and forth, and there’s substantial arthritis in just the right foot. Though circumstantial, these clues point towards pottery, includingthe use of a pottery wheel, which arrived in Egypt around the same time. That said, his higher-class burial is not expected for a potter, who would not normally receive such treatment. Perhaps he was exceptionally skilled or successful to advance his social status.”

In future work, the research team hopes to build a bigger picture of migration and ancestry in collaboration with Egyptian researchers.

Reference: “Whole-genome ancestry of an Old Kingdom Egyptian” by Adeline Morez Jacobs, Joel D. Irish, Ashley Cooke, Kyriaki Anastasiadou, Christopher Barrington, Alexandre Gilardet, Monica Kelly, Marina Silva, Leo Speidel, Frankie Tait, Mia Williams, Nicolas Brucato, Francois-Xavier Ricaut, Caroline Wilkinson, Richard Madgwick, Emily Holt, Alexandra J. Nederbragt, Edward Inglis, Mateja Hajdinjak, Pontus Skoglund and Linus Girdland-Flink, 2 July 2025, Nature.
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-025-09195-5

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