By Lani Dame
Wrapped up in mummies from Egypt, ancient DNA is now helping BYU researchers learn more about ancient civilizations.
Scott Woodward, professor of microbiology, spoke to Education Week participants on Wednesday about 'Secrets of the Ancient World Revealed through DNA.'
'What we would like to be able to do is link the present with the past,' Woodward said. 'It helps us if we can go back to the past a few hundred years, a few thousand years.'
By examining DNA extracted from mummies, researchers can begin to learn more about the people who lived in that area.
'The reason we go after DNA is to go after specific questions about who these people are, how they are related to each other, how they lived, how they died, what we can find out about them,' Woodward said. 'We go into it with a particular question and then that''s what we do with the results, we answer those questions.'
Egypt offers researchers a perfect environment for studying well-preserved mummies. The desert atmosphere preserves the genetic information from the bodies.
BYU has been excavating a cemetery in Fagel Gamous, Egypt for the past 25 years. This site offers a unique opportunity because it includes shafts with multiple burials, or people stacked up from different time periods. The earliest burials are around 100 B.C. and the latest burial is closer to 350 A.D., Woodward said.
One thing that can be learned from the multiple burials is the change in customs and religious beliefs.
By looking at how the dead were buried, researchers have found out that Christianity may have entered Egypt in 300 A.D.
Early mummies were buried with their heads to the east and feet to the west. This represented early Egyptian traditions that a person''s spirit went with the sunset to the west and would return, during the resurrection, from that direction, Woodward said.
Later mummies were buried the opposite way with their heads to the west and feet to the east, in accordance with Christian beliefs about resurrection.
Another difference from earlier mummies, was the artifacts that were found near the mummies. Figurines of a Madonna and the Christ child were included with the mummies.
In addition to ancient DNA, BYU students are also researching molecular genealogy. Molecular genealogy connects people through genetic traits specific to a certain person or family.
'They''re all genealogy, they''re just one is looking at the future and one''s looking at the past. The ancient looks at the past, the molecular genealogy program looks at the future,' Woodward said.
Woodward has been researching molecular genealogy and ancient DNA for the past 15 years.
In total, 30 students are working on the two programs. Seven students are working specifically with the ancient DNA.
Ryan Swapp, from Denver, Colo., has worked for two years with the ancient DNA program extracting DNA from samples received from Egypt. He said the findings could offer the possibility of connecting the present with the past.
'What will probably happen with a lot of this ancient stuff is the database in this building with molecular genealogy and all these modern people, they''ll put the ancient samples into the database and compare them and see where these people fall into it,' Swapp said.