Geographic origin of baboon mummies as revealed by aDNA analysis

The aim of this study is to refine the map of genetic diversity of baboons in the north-eastern part of their distribution and to elucidate the geographic origin of baboons from ancient Egypt. We will compare the mitochondrial haplotypes of baboons from ancient Egypt with the current distribution of baboon mitochondrial haplotypes to pinpoint the geographic location of origin. Recent improvements of methodological approaches now allow the extraction and analysis of aDNA from mummified specimen (Schuenemann et al., 2017; Wasef et al. 2019) and hence a detailed investigation of the geographic origin of Egyptian baboons. This can give new insight into trading route(s) of ancient Egyptians. In addition, we obtained samples from museum specimen from Chad, Ethiopia, Somalia, South-Sudan, and Sudan to close sampling gaps and further specify the phylogeography of baboons with a focus on their north-eastern distribution. We hypothesize that mummy haplotypes will fall in the same phylogenetic clade as present-day baboons from Ethiopia and Eritrea. The exact phylogenetic location of mummy samples will provide evidence for their precise geographic location of origin.

本研究旨在完善狒狒分布区东北部的遗传多样性图谱，并阐明古埃及狒狒的地理起源。我们将比对古埃及狒狒的线粒体单倍型与当前狒狒线粒体单倍型的分布格局，以精准定位其起源地理区域。近年来方法学的进步使得从木乃伊标本中提取并分析古代DNA（ancient DNA, aDNA）成为可能（Schuenemann等，2017；Wasef等，2019），借此可深入探究埃及狒狒的地理起源，这将为古埃及贸易路线的相关研究提供新视角。此外，我们还获取了来自乍得、埃塞俄比亚、索马里、南苏丹及苏丹的博物馆标本样本，以填补采样空白，进一步明确狒狒的系统地理学特征，重点聚焦其东北部分布范围。我们提出假说：木乃伊样本的单倍型将与现今埃塞俄比亚和厄立特里亚的狒狒同属一个系统发育支系。木乃伊样本的确切系统发育定位，将为其精准的起源地理区域提供实证依据。