This approach can provide useful population genetic information but is less comprehensive and less statistically powerful than full genome sequencing.

NUE001’s significance, then, lies not just in its age but in what that age represents: a window into the genetics of Egyptians from the period before the great historical transformations of the later millennia, before the Hyksos, before the Nubian pharaohs, before the Persians, before the Ptolemies, before the Romans.

A window into the genetic character of a person who was Egyptian in the most fundamental sense — someone who participated in the civilization at its height, before the later layers of influence and change that each subsequent era would add.

The contrast between what the Abusir el-Meleq data could and could not address, and what NUE001 addresses, helps explain why the response of the scientific community to the publication was so enthusiastic.