Geneticists have recreated the faces of three Egyptian mummies

The mummies JK2911, JK2134 and JK2888 were buried between 1380 BC. and 425 AD. e., reports LiveScience. Archaeologists discovered them at Abusir el-Melek, a royal necropolis in the vicinity of ancient Memphis. In 2017, scientists from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Tübingen sequenced their DNA in the first successful genome reconstruction of an ancient Egyptian mummy.

Researchers at Parabon NanoLabs, a DNA technology company in Virginia, used this data to create 3D models of the mummies' faces. In the process, they used forensic DNA phenotyping - a technology that allows you to recreate facial features and other features of a person's physical appearance based on his genome. It turned out that the men had dark skin, brown eyes and dark hair. In general, in terms of genetic composition, they were closer to the modern inhabitants of the Mediterranean and the Middle East than to the modern Egyptians.

According to scientists, the technology that was used to recreate the appearance of the ancient Egyptians can also be used to reconstruct faces when modern remains are found. For example, of the 175 unsolved cases that Parabon researchers helped solve using genetic genealogy, nine cases used the methods of this study.