Were ancient egyptians genetically closer to mediterraneans??? sham of a study

The study published in 2017 by Schuenemann extracted DNA from 151 Egyptian mummies chosen from the Late New Kingdom, Ptolemaic, and Roman period in the regions of Lower Egypt and the Delta. Out of the 151 mummies chosen only 3 mummies were used for samples. They concluded ancient Egyptians were most closely related to the non-african peoples of the Near East, particularly from the Levant. In essence they cherry picked 3 Greco-Roman mummies and attempted to pass them off as representative of the general population of ancient Egypt.

“The mummies remains were recovered from Abusir el-Meleq in Middle Egypt (It is not middle but Lower Egypt)” – 2017 DNA Test

One quick search and you will learn Abusir el-Meleq In the early Roman Period, was a Roman cemetery and Foyoum was a Greek colony. “In Abusir el-Meleq there is evidence of several large tombs with up to 20 chambers for well over 50 burials, especially from the Greco-Roman period, which have been repeatedly occupied since the Late Period. The Roman-era cemetery of Abusir el-Meleq of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD are unusual burials and are found nowhere else in Egypt…In the early Roman Period, the site may have been its own district. Abusir el-Meleq’s proximity to, and close ties with the Fayum led to substantial growth in its population during the first hundred years of Ptolemaic rule, presumably as a result of Greek immigration. Later, in the Roman Period, many veterans of the Roman military were not Egyptian but people from various cultural backgrounds who settled in the Fayum area after the completion of their service, some intermarrying with local populations. Individuals with Greek, Latin and Hebrew names are known to have lived at the site and several coffins found at the cemetery used Greek portrait images and adapted Greek statue types to suit ‘Egyptian’ burial practices.” – Otto Rubensohn in Ägypten – Vergessene Grabungen

The methodology of this 2017 study is intellectually dishonest and dare I say purposely misleading. The Late New Kingdom, Ptolemaic, and Roman periods were a product of thousands of years of successive invasions and immigrations with settlements specifically in the regions where the mummies used in the study were unearthed. The Abusir el-Meleq and Fayoum regions were Greek and Roman settlements and graveyards which had little to no relations to native ancient Egyptians.

This test was in no form or fashion representative of the Old Kingdom or original peopling of the Nile Valley. In essence they took non-African mummies of foreign origin and attempted to pass them off as native Egyptians. In layman’s terms it is a sham of a test study.

In response to the controversial study Egyptologist Barry Kemp has noted that DNA studies can only provide firm conclusions about the population of ancient Egypt if the sample results are of a significant number of individuals and represent a broad geographical and chronological range. This study however excluded mummies from Upper Egypt which historically has been the seat of Pharaonic Kingship as well as mummies from the Middle and Old Kingdoms when foreign admixture was at its lowest.