37
44 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
TOP: JOHANNES KRAUSE/MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY. BOTTOM: BPK/ÄGYPTISCHES MUSEUM UND PAPYRUSSAMMLUNG,SMB/SANDRA STEISS❯
DESPITE WHAT JURASSIC
PA R K TOLD YOU, DNA
doesn’t last forever. Even
though mummies can preserve
human tissues for millennia,
most useful DNA doesn’t make
it. That’s why it was a pleasant
surprise when archaeologists
announced in May they’d found
three full genomes from Egyptian
mummies. Initial analyses are
already suggesting that ancient
Egyptians had much more
Middle Eastern ancestry than
Egyptians do today, and more
insights likely await.
Working with 151 mummies
recovered from a large burial site
near Cairo, German researchers
sampled bones, teeth and softtissue to sift out any viable DNA
sequences.
In all, they recovered 90
mitochondrial sequences — the
tiny portion of our genome
contained within mitochondria
— in addition to the three
full genomes, as detailed in a
paper in Nature.
The mummies were buried
between 1400 B.C. and A.D. 400,
a span covering ancient Egypt’s
New Kingdom and Roman
Period. The entire genetic
library comprises the most
reliable dataset from the area to
date, and makes a case for the
viability of DNA sequencing in
Egyptian archaeology.
NATHANIEL SCHARPINGUnraveling Mummies’
Genetic Secrets
German researchers at the University of
Tuebingen (above) found a genetic motherlode
in ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the
sarcophagus (below) of a young girl.