RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Mitogenomic Diversity in Sacred Ibis Mummies sheds light on early Egyptian practices
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 610584
DO 10.1101/610584
A1 Sally Wasef
A1 Sankar Subramanian
A1 Richard O’Rorke
A1 Leon Huynen
A1 Samia El-Marghani
A1 Caitlin Curtis
A1 Alex Popinga
A1 Barbara Holland
A1 Salima Ikram
A1 Craig Millar
A1 Eske Willerslev
A1 David Lambert
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/04/16/610584.abstract
AB The ancient catacombs of Egypt harbor millions of well-preserved mummified Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) dating from ∼600BC. Although it is known that a very large number of these ‘votive’ mummies were sacrificed to the Egyptian God Thoth, how the ancient Egyptians obtained millions of these birds for mummification remains unresolved. Ancient Egyptian textual evidences suggest they may have been raised in dedicated large-scale farms. To investigate the most likely method used by the priests to secure birds for mummification, we report the first study of complete mitochondrial genomes of 14 Sacred Ibis mummies interred ∼2500 years ago. We analysed and compared the mitogenomic diversity among Sacred Ibis mummies to that found in modern Sacred Ibis populations from throughout Africa. The ancient birds show a high level of genetic variation comparable to that identified in modern African populations, contrary to the suggestion in ancient hieroglyphics (or ancient writings) of centralized industrial scale farming of sacrificial birds. This suggests a sustained short-term taming of the wild Sacred Ibis for the ritual yearly demand.