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Paleogenetic Study of Ancient Mummies at the Kurchatov Institute

  • NATURAL SCIENTIFIC METHODS IN STUDYING CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES
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Abstract

An interdisciplinary study of ten ancient Egyptian mummies from the collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, which date back to the 1st millennium BCE–beginning of the Common Era, was carried out at the NRC Kurchatov Institute. At the initial stage, they were subjected to computerized tomo-graphy (CT), which became the basis for further research: anthropological, medical, and forensic analysis. For paleogenetic and isotopic analysis, the best-preserved bone tissue samples of mummies based on CT data were taken. The article presents the results of experimental studies that determined the mitochondrial and Y-chromosomal haplogroups of some of the studied mummies, the sex previously established by anthropologists was confirmed, the DNA of certain pathogens were found, and isotope analysis was carried out. The data obtained by natural scientific methods supplement important historical information on the genetic diversity of the population of Ancient Egypt and migration processes in this region.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors express their gratitude to the director of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts M.D. Loshak and members of the Department of Ancient Egypt O.A. Vasil’eva and O.P. Dyuzheva for providing objects for research and cooperation, as well as to employees of the Institute for the History of Material Culture RAS (St. Petersburg) N.D. Burova and O.V. Lokhova for performing the isotope analysis.

Funding

The study was carried out with financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 17-29-04144 ofi_m).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Research Center Kurchatov Institute, Moscow, Russia

    E. B. Yatsishina, E. S. Bulygina, N. V. Slobodova, S. V. Tsygankova & F. S. Sharko

  2. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

    S. V. Vasilyev & R. M. Galeev

Authors
  1. E. B. Yatsishina
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  2. E. S. Bulygina
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  3. S. V. Vasilyev
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  4. R. M. Galeev
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  5. N. V. Slobodova
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  6. S. V. Tsygankova
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  7. F. S. Sharko
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. S. Bulygina.

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Yatsishina, E.B., Bulygina, E.S., Vasilyev, S.V. et al. Paleogenetic Study of Ancient Mummies at the Kurchatov Institute. Nanotechnol Russia 15, 524–531 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1134/S1995078020050183

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