Abstract
Relatively little is known about Nubia’s genetic landscape prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. Here, we increase the number of ancient individuals with genome-level data from the Nile Valley from three to 69, reporting data for 66 individuals from two cemeteries at the Christian Period (~650–1000 CE) site of Kulubnarti, where multiple lines of evidence suggest social stratification. The Kulubnarti Nubians had ~43% Nilotic-related ancestry (individual variation between ~36–54%) with the remaining ancestry consistent with being introduced through Egypt and ultimately deriving from an ancestry pool like that found in the Bronze and Iron Age Levant. The Kulubnarti gene pool – shaped over a millennium – harbors disproportionately female-associated West Eurasian-related ancestry. Genetic similarity among individuals from the two cemeteries supports a hypothesis of social division without genetic distinction. Seven pairs of inter-cemetery relatives suggest fluidity between cemetery groups. Present-day Nubians are not directly descended from the Kulubnarti Nubians, attesting to additional genetic input since the Christian Period.
Highlights
Little is known about Nubia’s genetic landscape prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE
Given the moderate spread of Kulubnarti Nubians along the Nilotic–West Eurasian cline when projected in principal component analysis (PCA), we investigated whether any individuals were outliers with a significant excess of Nilotic- or West Eurasian-related ancestry relative to other individuals
Driven by questions inspired by archeology and bioarcheology, our analysis provides new insight into the ancestry of Christian Period people from Kulubnarti and into the genetic relationships among individuals buried in two cemeteries with significant differences in morbidity and mortality suggestive of social stratification
Summary
Little is known about Nubia’s genetic landscape prior to the influence of the Islamic migrations that began in the late 1st millennium CE. We present genome-wide data from 66 individuals who lived at Kulubnarti, located between the Second and Third Cataracts of the Nile approximately 120 km south of the Sudanese city of Wadi Halfa, during the earlier part of the Christian Period (~650–1000 CE). Kulubnarti represents an ideal context in which to investigate the genetic ancestry of Nubians in the mid- to late-1st millennium CE and the study of its Christian Period inhabitants provides a unique opportunity to shed light on fine-scale questions raised by archeological and bioarcheological research. Studies of cranial and dental traits suggest that the Kulubnarti Nubians were similar to ancient people from Wadi Halfa, located to the north near the Nile’s Second Cataract[8,9]; morphological data have limited resolution for determining biological relationships relative to genome-wide data. Ancient DNA analysis of the Kulubnarti Nubians provides an opportunity to resolve fine-scale questions about the ab c OxCal v4.4.3 Bronk Ramsey (2021); r:5 Atmospheric data from Reimer et al (2020)
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