0
Pretty much this, thank you.It was clear from modern samples already that ancient Egypt would show close relationship to South Levant I have been arguing for this for years for several reason.
1. from all North Africans Egyptians look the most Near Eastern. In fact they look like the only thing they share closer to other North African in contrast to Near Easterners is their higher SSA admixture and their high level of E1b1b, which however have been identified as the main lineage of Natufians too (South Levantine) therefore we can conclude that all North Africans have their origin from the region of SOuth_Levant to Northeast Africa.
2. The higher share with Near Easterners in comparison to other North Africans (Berbers) is also indicated by the Egyptian language. The ancient Egyptian languages closest cousin is not Berber or Cushitic as some would expect but within the Afro_Asiatic family the closest cousin is Semitic. Which points for a late seperation of Proto Egypto-Semitic languages in comparison to the other branches of Afro-Asiatic.
3. Ancient Egyptian material culture has been very early identified as influenced or derived from the Levant.
4. After Bronze Age we see in all of the modern Levant and Arabia an increase of SSA admixture in comparison to Irano_Mesopotamian or Anatolian admixture. Which indicated the same could have happened in Egypt.
5. As written above. Egyptians are for most like Levantine people with an additional SSA admixture. That admixture being the main factor why they further away on a pca from modern South_Levantines and Arabians, since it is a non West Eurasian component and therefore the most diverging. We know modern South_Levantines have like 5-8% SSA. while modern Egyptians have like 14%.
I don't expect that all of ancient Egypt was a 100% homgenous bunch. But expect that there was and more mummies might show, just like everywhere a little fluent variation of SSA vs West Eurasian admixture. From North/Middle Egypt to South Egypt SSA admixture ranging from 0-15%. While today SSA admixture in modern Egyptians range from ~8-19%.
I know there was a Nubian dominance over Egypt and Nubian pharaos but as the name indicates. NUBIAN pharaos are Nubians and not Egyptians, even if they ruled over Egypt for a period of time. Just like Hyksos would not be Egyptians.
And for those coming with "possibilities" or assumptions that we are dealing here with Hyksos, no chance. We are dealing here with mummies from a timespan of over 1500 years. if mummies from such a huge timespan show the same ancestral background it is VERY VERY unlikely that you are dealing with invaders or strangers. Especially since they are mummified in local fashion.
Bookmarks