Foreword

Molecular analysis such as serological tests were conducted by Boyd and Boyd (1934) when they tested the blood groups of 300 Indian and Egyptian mummies, and by Candela (1936) who used a modified version of this procedure to test eleven mummies. Initially, it was hoped that such tests would show not only evidence of migration on a large scale but also family relationships and diseases.

Serological tests were, however, soon discarded as a valid test. One of the main problems was degeneration, because the A and B antigens targeted in such blood tests are made up of simple sugars that can degrade over time (Harrison and Connolly 1969). Contamination is also a major problem when working with ancient samples, especially mummies that have been subjected to various herbs and spices during embalming (Flaherty and Haigh 1984, 1986). Such degradation and contamination hindered Harrison and Connolly's (1969) study when they attempted to show kinship between Smenkhkare and Tutankhamun.

Today, population and sibship studies follow the mitochondrial DNA line, which is inherited maternally, as studying the ancient DNA molecule can yield far more information than serology tests as it codes for all proteins in the body. To date, ancient DNA has been successfully extracted from teeth (Drancourt et al. 1998; Merriwether et al. 1994), bone (Cipollaro et al. 1998), soft tissues (Rutherford 2002), hair (Wilson et al. 1995), faeces (Loreille et al. 2001; Pioner et al. 2003), plant material (Brown et al. 1994; Harper 2003; Bzdega 2006), insects (Cano et al. 1993), and fossils (Goldenberg et al. 1990) that are seventeen to twenty million years old, although it has still not been proven how long a DNA molecule can survive.