Researchers from the Francis Crick Institute and Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have extracted and sequenced the oldest Egyptian DNA to date from an individual who lived around 4,500 to 4,800 years ago, the age of the first pyramids, in research published today in Nature.

The previously unknown hymn of praise comes from the period around 1000 BCE. LMU Professor Enrique Jiménez used AI to find 30 other related manuscripts.

New research reveals that ochre, long thought to be used mainly for symbolic purposes, also played a practical role in stone toolmaking during the Middle Stone Age. The discovery began when researcher Elizabeth Velliky observed unusual wear patterns on a piece of ochre in the SapienCE lab in Cape Town. This initial find led to the identification of multiple ochre pieces showing signs of deliberate shaping and use in precision techniques like pressure flaking and percussion—methods associated with crafting Still Bay points.

The standardized forms of these ochre tools suggest they were personal instruments used by skilled toolmakers, potentially reflecting individual identity or social status. This study underscores ochre’s integral role in early human technological systems and hints at its contribution to the development of personal or group identity."We now have evidence that ochre was not only a medium for symbolic expression but also a key material in specialized tool production, reflecting a level of technological sophistication previously associated with much later periods”, says Christopher Henshilwood, archaeologist and director of Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE).