He did not know that scientists would one day extract molecular information from that tooth and compare it against the genomes of thousands of modern and ancient people to learn something about where his ancestors had come from.

He had no concept of DNA, no concept of the genome, no concept of population genetics.

What he knew was his world: the Nile, the fields, the pyramid complex somewhere to the north, the pharaoh who was the living god of the Egyptian state, the religious obligations that structured the year, the community of people among whom he lived and with whom he worked.

That world is gone.