It is consistent with what ancient DNA research has found in many populations that were in contact with the Fertile Crescent during the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods.

The ancient Egyptians, as a population in the northeastern corner of Africa adjacent to the Fertile Crescent corridor, would be expected to carry some Fertile Crescent-related ancestry.

The specific character of the Fertile Crescent ancestry — pointing to the eastern Fertile Crescent, particularly Mesopotamia — rather than to the Levant (the western Fertile Crescent), is more surprising and more interesting.

The Levant would be the more obvious geographic connection for Egypt, given its proximity as the land corridor connecting the Nile Valley to the north.

Mesopotamia is further east.