August 04, 2011
King Tut and half of European men share DNA
From PhysOrg:
According to a group of geneticists in Switzerland from iGENEA, the DNA genealogy center, as many as half of all European men and 70 percent of British men share the same DNA as the Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun, or King Tut. For a film created for the Discovery Channel, scientists worked to reconstruct the DNA of the young male King, his father Akhenaten and his grandfather Amenhotep III. They discovered that King Tut had a DNA profile that belongs to a group called haplogroup R1b1a2. This group can be found in over 50 percent of European men and shows the researchers that there is a common ancestor. This genetic profile group is also found in 70 percent of Spanish males and 60 percent of French males however, it is only present in less than one percent of men in modern-day Egyptian men.
The R1b1a2 DNA haplogroup is believed to have originated in the Black Sea region some 9500 years ago and spread to Europe with the spread of agriculture in 7000BC. Researchers are unsure as to how and when the group first came to Egypt. They believe the reasoning the R1b1a2 haplogroup is rarely found in modern-day Egypt is due partially to European immigration throughout the last 2000 years.
More here.
Posted by Azra Raza at 05:39 AM | Permalink






















Comments
This article is meaningless. All humans "share the same DNA". And all humans "have a common ancestor". And not just humans, but all organisms. I have a common ancestor with sea slugs.
Maybe there's a story here (even though this "science" was done by a film crew for the Discovery Channel), but this article does not tell it. The only informative bit is this sentence: "This genetic profile group is also found in 70 percent of Spanish males and 60 percent of French males however, it is only present in less than one percent of men in modern-day Egyptian men."
Okay, so the implication is that this dynasty was more closely related to modern Spaniards than modern Egyptians. Maybe. Or maybe this "genetic profile group" is something that indicates very little about overall relatedness.
Posted by: Picador | Aug 4, 2011 10:35:25 AM
Hrm. I wonder if this study more accurately reflects the haplotypes of Swiss male laboratory technicians.
Posted by: Sarah | Aug 4, 2011 10:51:42 AM
So much for black Athena.
Posted by: urubu | Aug 4, 2011 4:07:37 PM
Interesting. If Tut's haplotype is correct, his paternal roots lie in the Indo-European tribes (and not in the Semitic tribes). For what it's worth, there could also be a Vedic Indian connection to Tut. The R y-chromosome haplotype is genetically associated with the Indo-European tribes, including the Vedic Indo-Aryans.
The Egyptian Pharaohs of the 18th dynasty (including Tut) co-existed with the Mittani empire in West Asia (today's Syria/Anatolia). The earliest Vedic (Sanskrit) references ever appear in the names and writings of the Mittani elites, and the Mittani aristocracy appear to be Indo-Aryan.
Tadukhipa, daughter of the Mittani King Tusharatha, married Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), the father of Tut, and some historians have identified her with the famed Queen Nefertiti. Alternatively, she may be Queen Kiya, another wife of Akhenaten, believed to be Tut's mother.
Posted by: Sam | Aug 4, 2011 5:14:58 PM
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