Inuk of Greenland

Inuk was the first ancient human ever to have his genome sequenced — from a four-thousand-year-old tuft of hair preserved in Greenland's permafrost. He belonged to the Saqqaq people, Arctic pioneers who crossed from Siberia independently of the ancestors of today's Inuit and later vanished. His hair revealed brown eyes, shovel-shaped teeth, and an entire lost migration.

The genome-wide data behind this entry was published in Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo.

Every Ancestrify Global25 report includes the free Notable Matches lens: your coordinates are compared to every sequenced member of every catalog entry, and the distance to the closest member is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional space the Distance lens uses. Because this is a single real individual, not a population average, distances naturally run larger than population distances — that is expected, not a poor result. And one thing is never claimed: a small distance means similar ancestry composition, not that Inuk of Greenland is your ancestor. See how it looks in the live demo or read about the full G25 analysis.

• 01

  Who was Inuk of Greenland?

  Inuk of Greenland (c. 2000 BCE, Qeqertasussuk, Greenland) is one of the Iconic discoveries entries in our Notable Matches catalog, represented by one sequenced ancient genome published in the study "Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo".

• 02

  What does "matching" Inuk of Greenland mean?

  Your Global25 coordinates are compared to the entry's sequenced members and the distance to the closest one is reported — a Euclidean distance in the same 25-dimensional reference space the Distance lens uses. A notable entry is one person or one small burial group, not a population average, so distances naturally run larger than population distances.

• 03

  Is Inuk of Greenland my ancestor?

  No — and no DNA test can show that. A small distance means your genome sits near this individual's in a shared reference space: similar ancestry composition, not descent. Ancestrify never claims a notable individual is your ancestor or relative.

• 04

  How do I see my own distance to Inuk of Greenland?

  Notable Matches is a free lens on every Ancestrify Global25 report — never sold separately. Order the G25 analysis (29.99 EUR), and your report ranks your coordinates against the full catalog, with a portrait, dossier and map for every entry. The public demo shows the lens with example data.

The catalog holds every published entry across three tiers — browse the full Notable Matches directory. Nearby entries:

• The Tarim Basin Mummiesc. 2100–1700 BCE

• The Minoansc. 2900–1200 BCE

• The Mokrin Necropolisc. 2100–1800 BCE

• The Cetina Culturec. 2200–1600 BCE

• The Kingdom of El Argarc. 2200–1550 BCE

• The Únětice Culturec. 2200–1600 BCE

• Theopetra Cavec. 2250 BCE

• The Old Babyloniansc. 1900–1600 BCE

• The Bell Beaker Peoplec. 2500–2000 BCE

• The Funadomari Jōmon Womanc. 1800–1500 BCE

• The Mycenaeans of Mygdaliac. 1600–1450 BCE

• Mota of the Ethiopian Highlandsc. 2500 BCE