It turned out that the ancient Egyptians were not from Africa at all.
German scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and the University of Tuebingen have partially reconstructed the genomes of 90 Egyptian mummies ranging in age from 3,500 to 1,500 years. Analyzed it. And they came to the conclusion: the ancient Egyptians were not Africans. Some were Turks, others were from southern Europe and from places where Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Georgia and Abkhazia are now.
One of the mummies, the genome of which was analyzed by the Germans.
At the University of Tübingen, they are looking for where to extract DNA: in the hands of a researcher, the jaw of an ancient Egyptian.
The peoples who shaped the civilization of ancient Egypt.
Earlier, similar studies were carried out by biologists from the iGENEA genealogical center located in Zurich. They analyzed genetic material extracted from just one mummy. But then Pharaoh Tutankhamun himself. Its DNA was extracted from bone tissue - specifically from the left shoulder and left leg.
IGENEA specialists compared the genome of the boy-pharaoh and modern Europeans. And they discovered that many of them are relatives of Tutankhamun. On average, half of European men are "tutankhamuns". And in some countries their share reaches 60-70 percent - as, for example, in Great Britain, Spain and France.
DNA was compared according to the so-called haplogroups - characteristic sets of DNA fragments that are transmitted from generation, remaining almost unchanged. Pharaoh's relatives were "betrayed" by a common haplogroup called R1b1a2.
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Scientists emphasize: Tutankhamun R1b1a2, which is so common among European men, is very rare among modern Egyptians. The share of its carriers among them does not exceed one percent.
- Isn't it very interesting that Tutankhamun is a genetic European, - Roman Scholz, director of the iGENEA center, is surprised.
Genetic studies of the Swiss and Germans have once again confirmed: modern Egyptians, in their general mass, are not degraded descendants of the pharaohs. They just have nothing to do with him - their ancient rulers. Which in some way explains the peculiarities of Egyptian society.
The pharaohs themselves are not local.
“I believe that the common ancestor of the Egyptian kings and Europeans lived in the Caucasus about 9500 years ago,” Scholz said. - About 7 thousand years ago, his direct descendants settled in Europe. And someone got to Egypt and got out into the pharaohs.
It turns out, however, that, starting with the great-great-grandfathers, the ancestors of Tutankhamun, and he himself, were persons of Caucasian nationality.
BTW
The time will come and they will come to life. As we wanted
Johannes Krause, a paleogeneticist at the University of Tübingen, reported in the journal Nature Communications that the genomes of three of the 151 mummies of the one with which the German researchers worked had been completely recovered. Their DNA is well preserved. Has survived to this day, as the scientist put it. It survived despite the hot Egyptian climate, high humidity at the burial sites and the chemicals used for embalming.
The restoration of the genome promises - albeit in the distant future - the restoration of its owner. By cloning. That would suit the ancient Egyptians, who hoped to somehow and someday rise from the dead. For this, they became mummies. As if they had foreseen that the remains of flesh and bones would come in handy.
Tutankhamun is well preserved to return from the kingdom of the dead someday.
VLADIMIR LAGOVSKY