The 4,500-Year-Old Egyptian Man Found In A Tomb — And The DNA Test That Revealed His Unexpected Ancestry

The primary authentication methods used were:

Chemical damage analysis: Authentic ancient DNA shows specific patterns of chemical damage at the ends of fragments, caused by the deamination of cytosine bases over thousands of years.

The NUE001 data shows these damage patterns in the expected quantities and distributions, consistent with genuine ancient DNA of this age.

Contamination estimation: Using the Y-chromosome reads (which should all come from NUE001’s male DNA if there is no male contamination), the proportion of reads that do not match the identified Y-chromosome haplogroup can be estimated as a measure of male contamination.

The NUE001 data shows low male contamination consistent with the published ancient DNA field’s standards.