Cranial variation in Egyptian Pharaohs Ancestry or microevolution? Suggestions of family interrelations

The origins of ancient Egyptian pharaohs are still unclear. Here we use non-invasive methods of craniometry to evaluate similarities of kings, royal females (queens, princesses and high priestesses), and members of the royal elite. Multivariate distances indicate morphological similarities of the royals to populations from the Mediterranean and Europe in addition to similarities t the Old Egyptian population. General Egyptian population during the Predynastic to the New Kingdom period underwent microevolutionary trend of brachycephalisation. Since royals are even more brachycephalic than the general population, their morphological similarities can be, besides the inbreeding, also the result of faster microevolution in situ, due to their much better living conditions.