It was excavated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and yielded a number of human remains that were transferred to German collections, where they eventually became the subject of ancient DNA analysis.

The Abusir el-Meleq ancient DNA studies, published in 2017, represented a significant achievement: the first ancient nuclear DNA from Egyptian individuals, recovered from mummified remains.

Three individuals from the site yielded usable data, dating to between 787 BCE and 23 CE — a range spanning from the Late Period through the Roman occupation.

These are not partial data in the sense of being inaccurate; they reflect real individuals from real historical periods.

But they are partial in the sense that they come from a period that is radically different from the formative era of Egyptian civilization.