More than 4,000 years ago, Egypt and Mesopotamia stood as two of the most complex societies on the planet. But the new DNA sequencing reveals how these two populations also intermingled.

Scientists have for the first time sequenced the most complete and oldest ancient Egyptian genome ever found—unlocking new secrets from the Old Kingdom.

The first complete DNA study of an Ancient Egyptian has revealed he was probably a celebrated potter who was given an oddly luxurious burial. The skeleton of a middle-aged man, who lived between 4,500 and 4,800 years ago, was found crammed into a ceramic pot in a tomb cut into the hillside at Nuwayrat, around 165 miles south of Cairo.