For the first time, the genetic code of an ancient unusual skeleton found in a pot has been fully analyzed

A skeleton found in a pot is the first ancient Egyptian remains to undergo a full genome analysis. The unusual burial of a person, believed to be a potter, in a sealed vessel may have helped the DNA survive the last four millennia.

A man whose bones were deformed by hard labour more than 4,500 years ago has become the first ancient Egyptian to have his genetic code fully read and analysed by scientists, The Guardian reports.

The skeleton of a man who lived at the dawn of the Pyramid Age was removed in 1902 from a sealed clay jar in a rock-cut tomb at Nuwayrat, 165 miles south of Cairo, and has been kept in a museum ever since.

His DNA was remarkably well preserved, given the age of the remains and the hot climate that quickly destroys biological material. Scientists suspect that it was the unusual nature of the burial that may have helped the ancient Egyptian's DNA survive the last four millennia.

“It’s amazing that we can get genomes from this place and time,” says Pontus Skoglund, head of the ancient genomics lab at the Francis Crick Institute in London. “It’s just one specimen, but it gives valuable insight into the origins of an ancient Egyptian from the Old Kingdom.”

The skeleton was donated to the Liverpool Institute of Archaeology and later transferred to the city's World Museum, where it survived the bombings of World War II that destroyed almost all other human remains in the collection.

According to radiocarbon dating, this man lived several centuries after the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt, during the critical transition period between the Early Dynastic Period and the Old Kingdom, which spanned the Third to Sixth Dynasties. The Old Kingdom, also known as the Pyramid Age, saw significant advances, including the construction of the first step pyramid at Saqqara.

DNA taken from one of the man's teeth showed he had dark skin, brown eyes and hair, and Neolithic North African ancestry, with 20% genetic material from the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East mixed in. The find supports archaeological evidence of ancient trade between the two regions.

The man's bones shed further light on his story. The man, middle-aged, perhaps in his 60s, was old for his time and suffered from arthritis. Marks on the skeleton suggest that he sat for long periods on hard ground, with his legs and arms outstretched and his head down. His right leg showed unusual signs of wear.

After studying the tomb paintings of ancient Egyptian workers, researchers suspected he may have been a potter or similar craftsman. The potter's wheel was introduced to Egypt from the Fertile Crescent around 2500 BCE and was often set up with one foot. But the high-class burial that took place before Egypt adopted artificial mummification would have been unusual for such a worker.

Joel Irish, professor of anthropology and archaeology at Liverpool John Moores University, said that of all the occupations the team studied, the marks on the bones most strongly suggested the man was a potter, but he could also have been a basket weaver or done other work on the land.

Irish points out: “It’s interesting that this man was found in a pot. That in itself is strange. He was buried in a relatively high-class tomb, and no old man turns up in a rock-cut tomb. Maybe he was a super-good potter and ended up in someone’s good graces.”

Skoglund says the work published in Nature sheds light on which tombs might contain remains that are well enough preserved to yield large amounts of DNA.

The team now plans to study more skeletons in British collections to build up a more complete picture of the genetic history of the Egyptians. “There will be more people from whom we can get DNA, and we can use that to create an ancient public genetic record of ancient Egypt,” he said.