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News & Blogs » Protein News » Using Next Generation Sequencing, Scientist have Discovered an Answer to a 4,000 Year Old Mummy Mystery

Using Next Generation Sequencing, Scientist have Discovered an Answer to a 4,000 Year Old Mummy Mystery

Feb 11, 2018

4,000 Year Old Mummy Sequencing Picture In the Manchester Museum, there is a famous exhibited entitled “Two Brothers,” which showcases two mummies. Since their discovery in 1907, there have been numerous debates questioning whether these “brothers” were even related. Using NGS, we now have an answer!

The ‘Two Brothers’ mummies in the Manchester Museum are named Khum-nakht and Nakht-ankh are the oldest mummies in the museum’s collection. The mummies date back to around 1800 BC but since their discovery in 1907, they have been the topic of debate among Egyptologists as to whether the two mummies are indeed related. The mystery began when the mummies were discovered in a joint burial at Deir Rifeh, a village south of Cairo. When the ‘Two Brothers’ were discovered, the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the sarcophagi indicated that the men were the sons of a local governor and had mothers with the name Khnum-aa, sparking the name ‘Two Brothers.’ Interesting, when the mummies were unwrapped and the contents of the tomb analyzed in 1908, it was concluded that the skeletal morphologies were actually quite different. Thus sparking the rumor that perhaps one of the two brothers was adapted.

In order to solve this debate, scientists in 2015 extracted DNA from the teeth of the two mummies. Using hybridization to capture the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome fractions, scientists then used next generation sequencing to sequence the DNA materials. The analysis showed that both mummies belonged to the same mitochondrial haplotype, suggesting that they have a maternal relationship. The Y chromosome analysis was less conclusive, showing variation, indicating that the mummies might have different fathers. Thus, the “Two Brothers” are indeed half brothers.