NEW YORK, NY.- Over a century ago, in 1915, scientists working in the tomb of Deit el-Bersha made a startling discovery – the severed head of an ancient Egyptian. It was found with no information and no indication of who it had belonged to; and with no one to quiz as to its origins, it was unidentifiable.

The scientists were baffled but took the head back to a museum where it would sit, unidentified, for the next 100 years. What they did know was that the tomb belonged to a governor of the time named Djehutynakhy and his spouse, but whom the head actually belonged to remained unanswered.

This recently changed thanks to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an organisation that deals with any federal crime that takes place in the United States. Forensic scientists at the FBI began by using a modern, state-of-the-art sequencing technology.

The scientist in question, Odile Loreille, a biologist working for the FBI, made the discovery after drilling into one of the teeth of the skull that had been extracted, collecting the powder from the tooth, and then mixing into a chemical solution.

The solution with the mixed powder was then run through a DNA copy machine, and then followed by a specialised sequencing instrument.

They checked the ratio of the sex chromosomes, and though doing so, was able to deduce that the skull belonged to a man. This was enough to undoubtedly prove that the head was that of the governor himself.

In a statement to CNN, Loreille said, “I didn’t think it was going to work, I thought it would be too degraded, or that there would not be enough material. I was very happily surprised. We got lucky.”

The Miracle of DNA Extraction
It was considered a miracle that the procedure worked at all. It relied on the DNA of the severed head being intact enough for the machines to get a reading, and with the age of the mummy – at around 4000 years – it was more than likely that the DNA would have completely degraded and made the procedure useless.

DNA tends to break down over time, and due to the warmer conditions of where the tomb is located, it made it more likely that the DNA would have been lost forever.

On top of that, the head had been damaged by looters of the tomb and are said to be the same ones that destroyed the body that the head belonged to.

It suffered further damage by the archaeologists who first found it, as they didn’t have the same extraction procedures as those in place today.

It was a gamble, and like all gambling, such as online pokies, there was the risk that they would never be able to find the answers scientists have been asking about the head for over a century.

The case was taken over by the FBI as a chance for them to test out their advanced DNA extraction. The FBI’s DNA support unit chief, Anthony Onorato, had this to say, “It’s not like the FBI has a unit that just does historical cases. It’s that we’re actually trying to develop criminal procedures using historical items.”