This discovery supports long-suspected ties between Egypt and Mesopotamia, once inferred only from trade goods and shared pottery styles. The Nile, researchers say, likely acted as an “ancient superhighway” for both people and ideas.

A new study sequencing the first complete ancient Egyptian genome reveals the 4,500-year-old man had significant ancestry from Mesopotamia (modern Iraq).

Ancient DNA has revealed links between the cultures of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Researchers sequenced whole genomes from the teeth of a well-preserved skeleton found in a sealed funeral pot in an Egyptian tomb site dating to between 4,