Where did the ancient Egyptians come from
The era of the pharaonic families begins for many in ancient Egypt from about 3100 BC, and includes the first and second dynasties with which the recorded history of the era of these families begins, but long before that the Neolithic peoples flourished (about 9300-4000 BC), but that These peoples have not been studied compared to their successors from the ancient Egyptians.
Today, the amazing discoveries of ancient monuments and tombs, which tell us about the ways of life of the ancients, and some of the secrets of the development that humanity has known through the ages, continue.
The Spanish website “Super Curioso” states that among these civilizations the most intriguing of scientists and the general public is the ancient Egyptian civilization, which was characterized by an organized society in amazing ways, and constructed giant, eye-catching buildings, and developed unique life systems, but that Questions are still raised about the ethnic origins of the Egyptians.
Where did the Egyptians come from?
The site says that many studies and discoveries have been made in this regard, but scientists are still not sure of the answer to this question, which is why there has been a lot of speculation, which ranged from conspiracy theory to mythological stories and genetic tests.
Scientists relied heavily on the study of hieroglyphic writings, exhumation of graves and examination of mummies; To provide a convincing answer about the origins of the Egyptians, so far humanity is still far from knowing the full truth in this matter.
As in the rest of the cultures in the world, the ancient Egyptians also explained their origins according to the legends in their beliefs, and they believed that “Ra” (the sun god) was the one who created the inhabitants of ancient Egypt.
But beyond the myths about this, academic research has been conducted that responds to historical and scientific standards. During the last century, it was believed that the origins of this civilization go back to a country called Punt, and this belief came based on ancient hieroglyphic writings, but the location of this country has not been precisely determined, and it may be located between the African coast and the Indian Ocean.
This belief indicates that these are the ancient inhabitants of Africa, who settled on the banks of the Nile, and after they developed their local communities, invaders came from the north and took control of them; This gave room for the emergence of an advanced civilization that turned into a whole dynasty of ancient Egyptian rulers.
What do scientists believe today?
Besides popular theories and myths, scholars continue to do research and make significant progress in finding the truth, or at least offering more concrete and solid explanations. It is currently believed that the origins of the Egyptians go back to before the advent of writing, a period in human history called "prehistoric", located between the Stone and Bronze Ages.
It is believed that around the year 6 thousand BC a group of people came to settle on the banks of the Nile Valley, and they were originally shepherds who came from Libya and Numidia in North Africa, and other groups of nomads came after them from Ethiopia and the Arabian Peninsula, and perhaps the union of all these races It is the factor that led to the rise of the ancient Egyptian civilization.
genetic analysis
To search for the genetic origins of the Egyptians, the site says that most of the theories and interpretations referred to above were extracted from drawings in caves, writings on papyrus and excavations in archaeological sites, but there is another important source to solve the mysteries of the ancient Egyptians, which is the "mummy", which are the bodies of the dead that were They were preserved for a long time through the mummification process.
A group of scientists from different disciplines participated in a project, supported by the University of Tübingen and the Max Planck Institute in Germany; In an attempt to analyze the remains of the mummies and extract their DNA. This was a major challenge due to the materials and techniques used to embalm the dead, and the high temperatures and humidity in which the mummies were kept, which made the sampling process difficult. However, these scientists were able to extract mitochondrial DNA from 90 mummies, and were able to determine the complete genome sequence of 3 mummies.
The main objective of this study was to find out if the Egyptians were related to other races that might seem isolated from them, such as the Caucasian race prevalent in Europe, North Africa and Asia; For this purpose, they compared the DNA found in Egyptian mummies with the DNA of the current population of Egypt, in order to determine the differences in the evolution of this race and to determine the mixtures and cross-fertilization that occurred between the races due to migration; The result was amazing.
The scientists were surprised after it was found that despite the passage of 5,000 years of evolution, a long period that separated the ancient and current Egyptians, no major changes occurred in the DNA; This means that the population of Egypt has preserved their characteristics since that period, despite the presence of a small difference in the genes that indicate the ancestors; Scientists found that ancient mummies clearly showed Middle Eastern genes, while the current Egyptians were more closely related to sub-Saharan Africa.
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