Egyptian mummy identified as belonging to Y-haplogroup I2

[Maciamo]

A new article in Nature revealed that Carsten Pusch from the University of Tübingen managed to sequence the DNA of an ancient Egyptian mummy. Sadly the article doesn't give more information about the identity or age of the mummy, but there is a fleeting mention that the man belonged to haplogroup I2, an extremely rare lineage in modern Egypt. The combined studies on contemporary Egyptian Y-DNA give barely 0.5% of haplogroup I, and most of it is believed to be I* rather than I2.

From the article:

Now that Pusch and his colleagues have demonstrated next-generation sequencing in Egyptian mummies, however, moving on to entire genomes “isn’t rocket science”, Gilbert says. “What limits you is the size of a sample. For Denisova Man they had just a finger bone. Here they have the whole mummy.”

Indeed, Pusch and his colleagues say that they are now working on a more comprehensive analysis, and that “entire-genome sequencing of ancient Egyptian individuals is likely to become standard in the not-too-distant future”.

[Nobody1]

Sadly the article doesn't give more information about the identity or age of the mummy,

I agree, 930 years is a bit of a stretch.

"five Egyptian mummified heads...between 806 bc and 124 ad."

"haplogroup, called I2, believed to have originated in Western Asia"

would really help to know from what century that mummified head is from
[pos. Ptolemaic Kingdom - Roman Province times]

very interesting.

[Maciamo]

Little update. I have found the original study in the Journal of Applied Genetics. There are actually 5 mummies dating from 806 BCE to 24 CE. This time frame ranges from the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt to the Greek and Roman periods. That explains how at least one of them turned out to be I2 - probably a person of Greek ancestry.

[adamo]

That would make more sense, if the I2 individual was of greek descent which is a possibility historically speaking since certain Greeks did visit Egypt, and that haplogroup I2 is much more frequent in greek males ( 10-15%) even 20% in certain regions. If this man was a legitimate ancient Egyptian I would find his haplogroup assignment well beyond just "rare" as haplogroup I is found between 0 and 0.5% of modern Egyptian males, less than barely present. I like the dates you've assigned with your update, later days of the empire when contact with both the greek and roman spheres was already being established; considering we have a "young" mummy on our hands, the haplogroup I2 becomes MUCH more of a possibility. As in my opinion, most if not all ancient mummies where probably E3b.....maybe some T but the J1 from Arabia arrived much after the days of the pyramids and mummies I believe.

[james stock]

The article does not mention the Y-haplogroup.

I'm assuming the mummy belongs to mtDNA haplogroup I2.

[Maciamo]

The article does not mention the Y-haplogroup.

I'm assuming the mummy belongs to mtDNA haplogroup I2.

It is true that they do not explicitly say it is Y-DNA, but who has heard of mtDNA I2 ? It is extremely rare and mostly confined to northern Europe (British Isles, Finland, Russia) so that would make it all the more surprising.

[sparkey]

Looks to be mtDNA. Other sites are quoting:

The coverage of HVR2 helps to detect a number of diagnostic mutations, which are considered to be authentic, since all of these single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) are absent in the mitochondrial DNA sequences of our laboratory members. Diagnostic base deviations with a good segment coverage point to the mitochondrial haplogroup I2, but further analysis is required in order to consolidate this tentative result.

Even on the small-scale level of NGS sequencing for an initial characterisation of our samples and displaying only a mitochondrial read count of 1 %, we showed that one Egyptian mummy yielded a well-covered HVR2 region of the mitochondrium and gave an indication for haplogroup I2 (Fig. 9). Moreover, it is believed that haplogroup I2 has its phylogenetic origin in the Near East/West Asia (Derenko et al. 2007; Saunier et al. 2009; van Oven and Kayser 2009; Palanichamy et al. 2010; Terreros et al. 2011; Fernandes et al. 2012; Behar et al. 2012).

Apparently mtDNA I2 has been found in Turkey before (Fernandes 2012), but I don't know about Egypt.

[ebAmerican]

I wonder if it would be less strange if the Egyptian Antiquity Authority would release that King Tut was yDNA R1b, like many speculate?

[albanopolis]

That would make more sense, if the I2 individual was of greek descent which is a possibility historically speaking since certain Greeks did visit Egypt, and that haplogroup I2 is much more frequent in greek males ( 10-15%) even 20% in certain regions. If this man was a legitimate ancient Egyptian I would find his haplogroup assignment well beyond just "rare" as haplogroup I is found between 0 and 0.5% of modern Egyptian males, less than barely present. I like the dates you've assigned with your update, later days of the empire when contact with both the greek and roman spheres was already being established; considering we have a "young" mummy on our hands, the haplogroup I2 becomes MUCH more of a possibility. As in my opinion, most if not all ancient mummies where probably E3b.....maybe some T but the J1 from Arabia arrived much after the days of the pyramids and mummies I believe.

Why Greek? Sardinas too are known to be haplogroup I.

[adamo]

Now that you mention it yeah lol maybe Sardinian , if it isn't mtdna of course.

[Maciamo]

Why Greek? Sardinas too are known to be haplogroup I.

I don't think there were many Sardinians among the rich Roman administrators of Egypt. Sardinia was as foreign to the 1st century Romans as Spaniards, Gauls or Dalmatians, if not more.

[Maciamo]

Looks to be mtDNA. Other sites are quoting:

Apparently mtDNA I2 has been found in Turkey before (Fernandes 2012), but I don't know about Egypt.

Then what is all the fuss about ? Ancient mtDNA has been sequenced for over 10 years. Why are the authors talking of "next-generation sequencing in Egyptian mummies" ?

[adamo]

Not much is known about mtdna I, I would like to know more about it though as it spread from the Middle East to Europe a long time ago, but there may have been and still are remnants of Mtdna I in the Middle East. If anybody knows more on this mtdna haplogroup it would be interesting to share it with us, for example if it still has certain frequencies in the Middle East.

[Fire Haired]

Y DNA I2a1b dominates central and south eastern europe it ranges from 50-30% it is ouslley 30% in maciedonia and is about 15-20% in Greece orignalley before proto Balto Slaivic invasion of easterne urope 6,000-5,000ybp and mid eastern inter marraige in greco roman age 3,500-1,500ybp the vast majority of eastern europeans had Y DNA I2a1b who ever this egyptien is he had a direct paternal ancestry that went back to a eastern European probably Greek and 3,000ybp Greeks would have had less mid easterns and north african J1,J2, and E1b1b V13 which take up about 45-50% of their Y DNA they would have probably 30% I2a1b so i am not surprised this mummy ha sto be within the time Egyptians had contact with Greeks or Minoens

[inver2b1]

Y DNA I2a1b dominates central and south eastern europe it ranges from 50-30% it is ouslley 30% in maciedonia and is about 15-20% in Greece orignalley before proto Balto Slaivic invasion of easterne urope 6,000-5,000ybp and mid eastern inter marraige in greco roman age 3,500-1,500ybp the vast majority of eastern europeans had Y DNA I2a1b who ever this egyptien is he had a direct paternal ancestry that went back to a eastern European probably Greek and 3,000ybp Greeks would have had less mid easterns and north african J1,J2, and E1b1b V13 which take up about 45-50% of their Y DNA they would have probably 30% I2a1b so i am not surprised this mummy ha sto be within the time Egyptians had contact with Greeks or Minoens

Taht's all well and good bit irrelevant to the mtDNA I2.

[srbo]

Isn't it possible that neolithic traders from old europe brought I to the nil valley?

[Noman]

There's a big surprise. Though I always found it odd we know of about a dozen mummies tested with no result posted, some unexpected results must be coming in.

[Elaishousse]

Maybe that they on Branch I2-M26 or I-Y18950
https://i2a1tree.wordpress.com/2013/...tribution-map/
Because it is the only branch in North Africa that I think

[Elaishousse]

Hi srbo
The I2 strain and especially the I2-M26 branch have entered North Africa since 5000 BC By the culture of Cardail
I think is the only branch located in North Africa and I-Y19850

[Neander]

Is it just I2, or is it I2a2, or I2b2?

[Megalophias]

If you read the thread you'll find that it was not Y hg I at all, but mtDNA I. This mummy was probably included in the 2017 Abusir-el-Meleq mummy study, since it was from the University of T�bingen.