And a specific tooth root from a specific individual had been preserved well enough, in the specific conditions of its burial, to retain the molecular information needed for sequencing.

The convergence of these factors produced a result that the field will be building on for years.

The NUE001 genome is not a destination; it is a starting point.

It has established the feasibility of ancient Egyptian genomics in the most direct possible way: by succeeding where every previous attempt had failed.

The researchers who conducted this work did not just answer a scientific question.

They opened a door that had been closed for four thousand years.