Egyptian mummies record increasing aridity in the Nile valley from 5500 to 1500Â yr before present

- O and Sr isotope ratios were measured in apatite from ancient Egyptians.
- The studied individuals lived along the Nile from 5500 to 1500 B.P.
- Most individuals lived in the same area during their entire lifetime.
- δ18O of mummies show an increase in δ18Ow of the Nile River of about 3‰.
- Oxygen isotopes reflect marked increase in aridity in Northeast Africa.

Oxygen isotope compositions were measured in teeth (n=29) and bones (n=41) from Egyptian mummies of humans (n=48) in order to track the δ18O evolution of the Nile from 5500 to 1500 B.P. The combination of δ18O values of apatite carbonate and phosphate was used to filter the database for post mortem alteration of bioapatites, while 87Sr/86Sr ratios were used to detect potential allochthonous people buried in the various archeological sites located along the Nile. This approach led to only five apatite samples out of seventy to be discarded from the database. The remaining oxygen isotope compositions of both tooth and bone phosphates from ancient Egyptians were converted into the composition of ingested water ultimately originating from the Nile. It was found that δ18O of Nile waters increases progressively from −1.6 to +1.5 (‰ VSMOW) from the Predynastic (∼5500 B.P.) through the Late Period (∼2550 B.P.). This trend towards higher Nile δ18O values acquired in more recent times is coherent with a general drying trend in Northeast Africa, which was not limited to a drying spell at the end of the Nabtian Pluvial (ca. 12,000 B.P. -ca. 6000 B.P.), but extended far into the following millennia nearly to the beginning of the Common Era (1950 B.P.).