For the first time, a group of researchers have successfully extracted ancient DNA from a 2,900-year-old clay brick. Currently housed at the National Museum of Denmark, the clay brick originates from the palace of Neo-Assyrian king Ashurnasirpal II, in the ancient city of Kalhu. Known today as the North-West palace in Nimrud (modern-day northern Iraq), its construction began around 879 BCE.
The brick has a cuneiform inscription stating that it is"The property of the palace of Ashurnasirpal, king of Assyria." This makes it possible to date the brick precisely to within a decade .
With the interdisciplinary team comprising assyriologists, archaeologists, biologists, and geneticists, they were able to compare their findings with modern-day botanical records from Iraq as well as ancient Assyrian plant descriptions. The brick would have been made primarily of mud collected near the local Tigris river, mixed with material such as chaff or straw, or animal dung. It would have been shaped in a mold before being inscribed with cuneiform script, then left in the sun to dry. The fact that the brick was never burned, but left to dry naturally, would have helped to preserve the genetic material trapped within theDr.
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