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I just had my DNA completed with 23andme and was wondering if we have any information regarding the ancestry of Epyptian mummies.

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  • I've wondered about this myself. DNA starts to get broken down as soon as the containing life form dies, so how there is any left after 3000 years I do not understand. I would not be surprised if the analyses are not accurate.
    – Tyler Durden
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 17:42
  • Agreed, the process I did with 23andme (spitting into a container) has to be completely different from the process of extracting DNA from these!
    – Kamic
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 17:46
  • See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA
    – yannis
    Commented Sep 30, 2014 at 5:31

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Well, Wikipedia does have a page for it, so yes it has been done.

For example, Ramses III had the E-V38 Y Chromosome Haplogroup. Interestingly, most of the modern people who have a large preponderance of this pattern are West African. However, some of it is found all over Africa, and even in about 10% of modern Eqyptians. So I don't think a lot can really be read into it (other than that his recent lineage probably hailed from Africa somewhere).

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  • thanks, i searched but for some reason didnt see the wiki! I'm new here, when I get enough rep i'll upvote :)
    – Kamic
    Commented Sep 29, 2014 at 16:34

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