Ancient Egyptian race controversy
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Egyptian_races.jpg/220px-Egyptian_races.jpg)
The controversy around the racial identity of dynastic Egypt has its roots in the conflicting perceptions of Egyptians since ancient times, both in academia and elsewhere. The absence of conclusive evidence, and the disparate ways in which the ancient Egyptians depicted themselves in their surviving art and artifacts, have served to fuel the debate.
Many modern Egyptologists, especially Egyptians, hold the view that ancient Egyptians were neither Black nor ethnic Arabs.[2][3][4][5] Many Afrocentric scholars and supporters hold that the ancient Egyptians were Black,[6][7] while the Dynastic Race Theory and similar viewpoints hold that the ancestors of dynastic Egypt came originally from Mesopotamia.[8] There is also support for a range of "fringe" theories, which variously claim the ancient Egyptians were descendents of Atlantis, alien civilisations or "the gods".[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]
Modern scientific studies of various specialisations have been conducted on various aspects of the debate. The issue is further clouded by disagreement over the very definitions of race and racial categorisation, with many people agreeing that the ancient Egyptians did not fit neatly into any of the modern racial classifications, and a growing consensus dismisses racial classification as a social, rather than biological, construct. [19][20][21][22]
Although there are many surviving texts, paintings and sculptures from the dynastic period which tell us a great deal about the people of the time, such as the Book of Gates, the variety of skin tones and features illustrated do not permit conclusive identification of their race.
The definition of race
Historically whenever different human populations have come in close contact for extended periods of time, they have interbred freely. Human phenotypes thus vary in clines, whereby populations that live closer to each other are likely to be more similar genetically than populations that live farther apart. A population that lives in between two populations is likely to share traits with both neighbouring populations. In addition to gene flow, environmental factors such as climate also influence the variation in human phenotype. Most notably, human skin color on average varies clinally with latitude, and populations who have lived a long time in colder areas tend to have comparatively shorter and broader bodies on average while populations that have lived in warmer areas tend to have taller and narrower bodies.[23]
Ancient Egypt was sandwiched between Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, and would have been influenced by both neighbours culturally as well as genetically.
Modern Egyptians, thousands of years after dynastic times, demonstrate clinal patterns in phenotypic traits such as skin color or hair texture, with modern Southern Egyptians on average having darker skin and more African features than modern Northern Egyptians. [24]
Origins of the debate
The classical observers
- Herodotus travelled to Egypt around 450 BC, about 2000 years after the Pyramid Age and when Egypt was part of the Persian Empire. In his writings about the Egyptians, he described them as having "black skins and woolly hair".
- The Greek playwright Aeschylus [525 BC - 455 BC], (also at the time of the Persian Empire) mentioning a boat seen from the shore, declared that its crew are Egyptians, because of their black complexions.[25]
- Josephus regarded the Egyptians in his day (1st century) as descendants of Mizraim, son of Ham on the basis of Genesis 10, which remained the basis for most scholarship in the Middle Ages.
- Strabo, (c. 64 BC – AD 24), the Roman historian and geographer, wrote in his work Geographica that “As for the people of India, those in the south are like the Aethiopians in colour, although they are like the rest in respect to countenance and hair (for on account of the humidity of the air their hair does not curl), whereas those in the north are like the Aegyptians.” (Strabo, Book XV, Chapter 1, Section 13.)[26]
- Arrian, (c. 86 AD – 146 AD), one of the main ancient historians of Alexander the Great, wrote in his work Indica that “the southern Indians resemble the Ethiopians a good deal, and are black of countenance, and their hair black also, only they are not as snub-nosed or so woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; but the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians in appearance."
- The Persian author Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, the Egyptian Ibn Abd-el-Hakem (9th century), Sibt ibn al-Jawzi in his Mir’at al-Zaman (c. 1250), and Muhammad Khwandamir all mentioned the existence of a mediaeval Arabic tradition that the great pyramids had been built by an antediluvian race.
18th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/62/Giza_Sphinx_and_other_monuments_Chapman_1796.jpg/150px-Giza_Sphinx_and_other_monuments_Chapman_1796.jpg)
In 1798 the Comte de Volney published his book Travels Through Syria and Egypt, in the Years 1783, 1784, and 1785, in which he documented his experiences. In the book he states that in his opinion the Great Sphinx has"negroid" facial characteristics. He also describes the modern-day Egyptians he encountered as appearing to be of mixed race.[27]
19th century
In the early 19th century slavery was still legal in the United States, and was being justified in part on the assumption that Black people were intellectually inferior. The anti-slavery movement was gaining momentum, and pro-slavery advocates were thus unreceptive to any suggestion of advanced Black civilizations that would undermine this rationale. In 1844 Samuel George Morton, a proslavery supporter and one of the pioneers of scientific racism and polygenism, published his book Crania Aegyptica with the intention of “proving” that the Ancient Egyptians were not Black.[28] In 1855 George Gliddon and Josiah C. Nott published Types of Mankind with the same intention.[29] All three authors acknowledged that Negroes were present in ancient Egypt, but claimed they were either captives or servants. However, they also concluded that the Egyptians were intermediate between the African and Asiatic races. [30]
In England, Charles Darwin and others concluded that a statue of Amunoph had strongly marked Negro-type features.[31][32] In 1886, George Rawlinson wrote that the physical type, language and tone of thought of the modern Egyptians is “Nigritic”. Though he believed the modern Egyptians were not Black, he stated that they bear an “indisputable” resemblance to Black Africans.[33]
20th century Afrocentrism
Afrocentrism is a world view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture, philosophy, and history.[34][35] Afrocentrics are inter alia reviewing the history of ancient Egypt, and have made two main claims: that the foundations of classical Greek civilisation were "stolen" by the Greeks from the Egyptians, and that the Egyptians themselves were not only African, but also Black.[36] According to Marcus Garvey:
Every student of history, of impartial mind, knows that the Negro once ruled the world, when white men were savages and barbarians living in caves; that thousands of Negro professors at that time taught in the universities in Alexandria, then the seat of learning; that ancient Egypt gave the world civilization and that Greece and Rome have robbed Egypt of her arts and letters, and taken all the credit to themselves.[37]
The idea that the ancient Egyptians were Black was popularized throughout the 20th century in the works of George James, Cheikh Anta Diop, and, to a certain extent, in Martin Bernal's Black Athena. All three have used the terms "Black", "African", and "Egyptian" interchangeably,[38] despite what classicist Snowden calls "copious ancient evidence to the contrary".[39] One of the earliest African-American historians to write about the Black presence in Egypt was Drusilla Dunjee Houston, whose Wonderful Ethiopians of the Cushite Empire was published in 1926. The Journal of African Civilizations has continually stated that Egypt should be viewed as a Black civilization.[40][41] Figures connected to the journal include Ivan van Sertima and John Henrik Clarke. Other prominent historians who've posited the fundamental Blackness of dynastic Egypt include Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Ivan van Sertima, Runoko Rashidi, Molefi Kete Asante, Yaacov Shavit and Chancellor Williams.
The Afrocentrist viewpoint is not without its detractors. Some mainstream scholars have assessed some Afrocentric ideas as pseudohistorical.[42][43] Other critics contend that some Afrocentric historical research lacks merit, and that Afrocentrism is grounded in identity politics and myth, rather than scholarship.[44]
J.D. Muhly describes Afrocentrism as "well-intentioned, but quite unconvincing and lacking in the basic techniques of critical scholarship."[45]
Ancient Egyptian material
The ancient tombs and temples contained thousands of works of writing, painting and sculpture, which reveal a lot about the people of that time. However their depictions of themselves in their surviving art and artifacts are rendered in sometimes symbolic, rather than realistic, pigments. As a result, ancient Egyptian artifacts provide sometimes conflicting and inconclusive evidence of the ethnicity of the people who lived in Egypt during dynastic times.[46][47][48][49][50]
Meaning of 'Kemet'
km biliteral | km.t (place) | km.t (people) | |||||||||
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One of the many names for Egypt in ancient Egyptian is km.t (read Kemet), meaning 'the black land' or 'the black one'. The claim that Kemite referred to the fact that the people of the land were black, as argued by Cheikh Anta Diop,[51] William Leo Hansberry,[51] or Aboubacry Moussa Lam[52] has become a cornerstone of Afrocentric historiography.[51]
This view is rejected by most Egyptologists.[53] Generally, 'Kemet' is taken to be a reference to the fertile black soil, which was washed down from Central Africa by the annual Nile inundation, and which made Egypt habitable and successful in contrast to the barren desert or 'red land' outside the narrow confines of the Nile watercourse.[51][54] The use of the word kmt when referring to people is thought to be derived from the name of the land, meaning literally "those people who live in the black, fertile country."[51] Raymond Faulkner's Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian translates it into "Egyptians", as do most sources.[55]
Ancient Egyptian texts and inscriptions
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/From_Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni-_Egyptian_race_portrayed_in_the_Book_of_Gates.jpg/240px-From_Giovanni_Battista_Belzoni-_Egyptian_race_portrayed_in_the_Book_of_Gates.jpg)
There are a number of surviving copies of a sacred text from Dynastic times called the Book of Gates. These were usually carved and/or painted inside tombs, for the guidance of the soul of the deceased. [56][57][58] (translation by E.A. Wallis Budge):
The first are RETH, the second are AAMU, the third are NEHESU, and the fourth are THEMEHU. The RETH are Egyptians, the AAMU are dwellers in the deserts to the east and north-east of Egypt, the NEHESU are the black races, and the THEMEHU are the fair-skinned Libyans.
The Egyptians often used pejorative terms to describe the enemies with whom they fought numerous wars. For example, at Assuan Prince Turi carved the inscription “His majesty passed this canal in force and power in his campaign to crush Ethiopia the vile.” [59] Thutmose II carved at Assuan “The wretched Kush has begun to rebel, those who were under the dominion of the Lord of the Two Lands purpose hostility, beginning to smite him."[60] Throughout Egyptian history successive pharaohs raided Nubia to secure supplies of gold, as well as valuable produce such as ivory, ebony and incense.[61][62] The word Nubia itself is derived from the Egyptian word for gold.[63]
The ancient Egyptians viewed the Land of Punt (Pun.t) as their ancestral homeland.[64][65] Based on records of numerous ancient maritime trading missions to Punt, it has been deduced that Punt lay on the East African coast. Based on evidence excavated from predynastic graves in Upper Egypt, W.M. Flinders Petrie concluded that Punt was founded on the Horn of Africa in predynastic times by Mesopotamian colonists, who subsequently also invaded Egypt and founded the dynastic rulership. He associated these Punites with the Punic or Phoenic peoples of Canaan and (much later) of Carthage.[66] This forms part of the Dynastic Race Theory. However, it should be noted with regard to this theory that the ancient Egyptian language did not derive from the Mesopotamian-linked Semitic branch of the likely Ethiopian-originated Afro-Asiatic language family.[67] The ancient Egyptians also called Punt “Ta netjer”, meaning “God's Land”. This designation is believed to mean that Punt was located in the direction of the sunrise.[68] The term was used not only in reference to Punt, located southeast of Egypt, but also in reference to regions of Asia east and northeast of Egypt, such as Lebanon, which was the source of wood for temples and boats.[69] Lebanon was also part of the later Phoenician kingdom.
Ancient Egyptian art
In the many surviving tomb paintings, papyri and statues, the ancient Egyptians depicted themselves in a wide variety of colors, but the predominant color used for Egyptian men was reddish-brown, while the Egyptian women are usually portrayed with much lighter skin pigmentation. However, Egyptian artists also depicted both themselves and non-Egyptians in other colors, as well as sometimes using unrealistic colors such as blue and green. The use of all these colors is presumed to sometimes have symbolic meaning, but is not completely understood.[70].
Gallery of ancient Egyptian art
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“Rahotep, husband of Nofret", from the 4th Dynasty, with much darker skin than his wife.
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“Nofret, wife of Rahotep", from the 4th Dynasty, with much lighter skin than her husband.
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A rural mural, showing the women as being pale-skinned but the men ochre-red.
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“Seneb the scribe”, 4th Dynasty. Gender-based skin coloring is also reflected in the children.
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A Grave mask of pharaoh Amenemope of the 21st Dynasty of Egypt.
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From the tomb of Akmenthor the Physician – c. 2330 B.C.
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Glass statuettes from Medinet Habu, 19th Dyn. From left: a pair of Nubians, a Philistine, an Amorite, a Syrian and a Hittite.
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Nefertiti, considered by most Egyptologists to have been Tutankhamun's mother, Ägyptisches Museum Berlin.
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Queen Tiye, believed to be Akhenaten's mother, wearing a Nubian enveloping wig[73] Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin.
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Statue Head of the pharaoh Amenmesse, from the 19th dynasty, circa 1203-1200 B.C.
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Asiatics shown entering Egypt, the tomb Khnumhotep II. Egyptians,top right are depicted as darker than the Asiatic peoples.
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Photo of a bust fragment of Prince Khaemwase, one of the sons of Rameses II, taken at the Altes Museum, Berlin. New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty.
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Portrait of a pharaoh, probably Rameses VI. Painted shard of limestone, 1143–1136 BC (20th Dynasty).
Population history of Egypt
Egypt has experienced several mass migrations and invasions during its history, including by the Canaanites, the Libyans, the Nubians, the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans. The last of these occurred in 639 AD, when the region was invaded by Muslim Arabs. The number and variety of these influxes has made the relationship between Modern Egyptians and Ancient Egyptians unclear, and this has become an important part of the controversy. For example, Afrocentrists such as Ivan van Sertima argue that the Egyptians were primarily Africoid before the many conquests of Egypt diluted the Africanity of the Egyptians.[74]. Others believe that Modern Egyptians are the direct descendants of the Ancient Egyptians, with the various foreign migrations having had little impact on the Egyptian population. University of Chicago Egyptologist Frank Yurco states about the controversy:
Certainly there was some foreign admixture [in Egypt], but basically a homogeneous African population had lived in the Nile Valley from ancient to modern times... In summary we may say that Egypt was a distinct North African culture rooted in the Nile Valley and on the Sahara.[75]
The Predynastic Period
Most excavated archaeological sites in Egypt are in Upper Egypt, because the silt of the Nile River was more heavily deposited at the delta region, and most delta sites from the predynastic period have since been buried totally.[76]
Predynastic human remains from the South, Upper Egypt, have been described by some scholars as having strong Negroid characteristics[77] whereas Lower Egypt in the North was seemingly less Negroid. Most Egyptologists today believe the Southern population invaded the North, at the beginning of what is today called the dynastic period.[77]
From about 5000 to 4200 BC the Merimde Culture flourished in Lower Egypt. The culture has strong connections to the Faiyum A Culture, but also has links to Palestine.[78] The Buto Maadi Culture, best known from the site at Maadi near Cairo but also present around the Delta and at Faiyum, is the contemporary with the Naqada I and II phases in Upper Egypt. Their pottery shows in some forms strong connections to South Palestine.[79]
In 1905 David Randall-MacIver analysed 1560 skulls from Thebes (in Upper Egypt) to determine the race of the deceased, although cranial measurements have since been largely discredited as a reliable indicator of race. Based on the elaborateness of the graves and his archaic determination of the race of the occupants, he concluded that during predynastic periods Negroid people were the social equal of others, and were equally represented among the lower and higher classes. According to McIver's study, the Negroid element in Upper Egypt was very pronounced in predynastic periods, but had significantly diminished by Roman times.[80]
Keita (1992) describes the northern and southern patterns of the early predynastic period as "northern-Egyptian-Maghreb" and "tropical African variant" (overlapping with Nubia/Kush) respectively. [81] He shows that a progressive change in Upper Egypt toward the northern Egyptian pattern takes place through the predynastic period. The southern pattern continues to predominate in Abydos, Upper Egypt by the First Dynasty, but "lower Egyptian, Maghrebian, and European patterns are observed also, thus making for great diversity."
A 2006 bioarchaeological study on the dental morphology of ancient Egyptians by Prof. Joel Irish shows dental traits characteristic of indigenous North Africans and to a lesser extent Southwest Asian and southern European populations. Among the samples included in the study is skeletal material from the Hawara tombs of Fayum, which clustered very closely with the Badarian series of the predynastic period. All the samples, particularly those of the Dynastic period, were significantly divergent from a neolithic West Saharan sample from Lower Nubia. Biological continuity was also found intact from the dynastic to the post-pharaonic periods. According to Irish:
[The Egyptian] samples [996 mummies] exhibit morphologically simple, mass-reduced dentitions that are similar to those in populations from greater North Africa (Irish, 1993, 1998a–c, 2000) and, to a lesser extent, western Asia and Europe (Turner, 1985a; Turner and Markowitz, 1990; Roler, 1992; Lipschultz, 1996; Irish, 1998a).[82]
Various studies have been done on the limb ratios of ancient remains, as limb ratios are thought to be highly dependent on biogeographic origin. According to Zakrzewski the Ancient Egyptians in general had "tropical" body plans, and Keita notes that this is significant because Egypt is not in the tropics, suggesting that the Egyptian Nile Valley was settled by migrants from a tropical environment such as East Africa (and not by cold-adapted peoples such as Europeans.)[83][84] However the anthropologist C. Loring Brace cautions that such limb elongation is related to the local temperature rather than the latitude, being "clearly related to the dissipation of metabolically generated heat" in areas of higher ambient temperature, and it therefore cannot be taken as evidence of racial similarity with other peoples whose bodies may have adapted independently to their own hot environment.[85]
The Dynastic Period
The dynastic period begins in 3150BC and ends in 30BC with the Roman Conquest. Over these millennia, there were several large-scale migrations into Egypt that had significant impacts on the Egyptian population, especially those of the Hyksos from Western Asia, as well as a continual stream of foreigners in smaller numbers. Libyan, Asiatic, Nubian and Sea People enemies were regularly taken captive, and often were integrated into Egyptian society and allowed to marry Egyptian wives.[86] Toward the end of the dynastic period Libyans, Asiatics, Nubians, Assyrians, Persians and Greeks at various times conquered Egypt, and large numbers of their people settled in Egypt and intermingled with the resident population. This latter period is sometimes called the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. For much of the dynastic period Nubia was under Egyptian rule, but in the 8th Century BC Nubian kings conquered much of Egypt, and ruled it as the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt for almost a hundred years (752-656BC). [87][88]
The Post-dynastic Period
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Fayum-22.jpg/100px-Fayum-22.jpg)
When the Romans annexed Egypt in 30BC, the social structure created by the Greeks was largely retained, though the Roman emperors lived abroad. With the split of the Roman Empire, Egypt fell under Byzantine control and influence.[89]
In AD639, the Arab general 'Amr ibn al-'As marched into Egypt, defeating the Byzantines in the Battle of Heliopolis.[90] In time, however, the power of the Arabs waned throughout the Islamic Empire so that in the 10th century, the Turkish Ikhshids were able to take control of Egypt. Egypt was ruled from AD 1258-1517 by the Mamluks, [91] who were mainly ethnic Circassians and Turks who had been captured as slaves then recruited into the army fighting on behalf of the Islamic empire. During much of the 16th to the 18th centuries Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire.
The Modern Period
The modern population of Egypt was traditionally classified as belonging to the Caucasian race[92]. Modern Egyptian history is generally believed to begin with the French expedition in Egypt led by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798, which defeated a Mamluk-Ottoman army at the Battle of the Pyramids, and was able to seize control of the country.
As of 2006, 99% of all Egyptian citizens were ethnic Egyptians.[93] Ethnic minorities in Egypt include Nubians, Berbers, Bedouins, Beja and Dom.
DNA studies
Although DNA studies have been done on some ancient mummies, no data has been made public about the racial characteristics of those mummies. However a number of DNA studies have been performed on modern Egyptians, and these have been used to study the influences of historical migrations on the population history of Egypt.
In general, these studies have found that the gene frequencies of North African populations are intermediate between those of Sub-Saharan Africa and Eurasia,[94] although they seemingly show a greater genetic affinity with the populations of Eurasia than they do with Sub-Saharan Africans.[95][96][97][98]
A study by Krings et al. from 1999 on mitochondrial DNA clines along the Nile Valley found that a Eurasian cline runs from Northern Egypt to Southern Sudan, and a Sub-Saharan cline extends from Southern Sudan to Northern Egypt. [87] Another study based on maternal lineages links modern Egyptians with people from modern Eritrea/Ethiopia such as the Afro-Asiatic-speaking Tigre.[99][100][101] Similarly, an mtDNA study of modern Egyptians from the Gurna region near Thebes in Southern Egypt revealed that Eurasian haplogroups represented 61% of the population, with the remainder 39% being of Sub-Saharan origin.[102]
A study using the Y-chromosome of modern Egyptian males found similar results, namely that African haplogroups are predominant in the South but the predominant haplogroups in the North are characteristic of other North African populations.[103].
Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994) compared populations from around the world using extensive autosomal genetic data, and found that the North African populations, including Egyptians, grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle Eastern) populations rather than Sub-Saharan Africans.[95] Cavalli-Sforza also state:[104]
" The present population of the Sahara is Caucasoid in the extreme north, with a fairly gradual increase of Negroid component as one goes south"
A study of Coptic ethnic group in Sudan found relatively high frequencies of Sub-Saharan Haplogroup B (Y-DNA). The Copts are descendants of Egyptians who have recently migrated from Egypt. The authors of the study state:[105]
The significant frequency of B-M60 in this group might be a relic of a history of colonization of southern Egypt probably by Nilotics in the early state formation, something that conforms both to recorded history and to Egyptian mythology
The results of these genetic studies is consistent with the historical record, which records significant bidirectional contact between Egypt and Nubia within the last few thousand years.[87][103]
The language element
The ancient Egyptian language has been classified as a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Afro-Asiatic languages comprise the following sub-families.
The Afro-Asiatic language family is believed by linguists to have originated somewhere in either the Levant or the Horn of Africa/eastern Sudan [106] (though the Afrocentrist historian Martin Bernal argues that the phylum may instead have emerged in the Great Rift Valley.)[107][108]
Of the six subfamilies of Afro-Asiatic, the Semitic languages form the only Afro-Asiatic subfamily that exists in both Africa and Asia.[109] The other five of the six Afro-Asiatic subfamilies are restricted to the African continent. The majority of the diversity in the Afro-Asiatic language family is found in Ethiopia, where diverse languages exist in close geographic proximity.
Specific modern controversies
There have been numerous controversies regarding the race of specific notable individuals from the history of Egypt, particularly the Great Sphinx, Tutankhamun, Ramses the Great and Cleopatra VII. [110]
The Great Sphinx of Giza
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Sphinx_Metropolitan.jpg/220px-Sphinx_Metropolitan.jpg)
A number of writers have described the face of the Sphinx as having features that are Ethiopian, Nubian, African or Negro, as opposed to Grecian, Coptic or Arab (Semitic). These writers include the French philosopher Constantin-François Chassebœuf, [111] Gustave Flaubert,[112] and W.E.B. Du Bois.[113]The exact identity of the model for the Sphinx is unknown as there are no known written records that proclaim its identity. Almost all Egyptologists and scholars currently believe that the face of the Sphinx represents the likeness of the Pharaoh Khafra, whose statues have been located near the Sphinx and who is held to be the creator of the statue. A few Egyptologists and interested amateurs have made several conflicting hypotheses regarding the identity of the Sphinx, but at present, no definitive proof exists.[114] In 1992, the New York Times published a letter to the editor submitted by Sheldon Peck, a Harvard professor of orthodontics[115], who noted of the Sphinx that is shows “an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those of Asian or Indo-European stock."[116]
Tutankhamun
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ef/Tutankhamun_emerging_from_lotus_flower.jpg/100px-Tutankhamun_emerging_from_lotus_flower.jpg)
Supporters of Afrocentrism have claimed that Tutankhamun was black, and have protested that attempted reconstructions of Tutankhamun's facial features have represented the king as too white.[117]
When pressed on the issue Zahi Hawass, the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, stated that "Tutankhamun was not black, and the portrayal of ancient Egyptian civilisation as black has no element of truth to it …. Egyptians are not Arabs and are not Africans despite the fact that Egypt is in Africa."[118][119][120][121]
Although modern technology can reconstruct Tutankhamun's facial structure with a high degree of accuracy based on CT data from his mummy,[122][123] determining his skin tone and eye color is impossible. However, contemporaneous renderings of the king most often showed him with brown or red-brown skin and dark eyes.
Rameses the Great
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/RAMmummy.jpg/100px-RAMmummy.jpg)
Several commentators have noted that the mummy of Rameses the Great (of the 19th Dynasty) has red or blond hair.[124][125] Frank Yurco describes the mummy of Rameses as having “fine, wavy hair, a prominent hooked nose and moderately thin lips.” Yurco also describes Rameses as being “a typical northern Egyptian”. Although Rameses ruled from Thebes in Upper Egypt, he was originally from the extreme north-east of the country. [126]
In 1975 the mummy of Rameses the Great was taken to Paris for conservation and the treatment of fungal infestations. A detailed examination of the mummy showed that his hair had been grey at the time of his death, and had been dyed red using plant extracts, but scientific analysis showed that the original natural color of the hair before going grey was also red. [127]
Other mummies and paintings
Various commentators have noted instances of mummies or tomb paintings showing notables having blond or red hair:
- The wife of king Dedefre of the 4th Dynasty was his half-sister Hetepheres (Hetop-Heres II), who is shown in the colored bas reliefs of her tomb to have been a distinct blonde. It is assumed therefore that she was Libyan.[128]
- The tomb of the wife of Zoser, the builder of the first pyramid in Egypt, has a painting showing her with reddish-blond hair.[129]
- Paintings from the Third Dynasty show native Egyptians with red hair and blue eyes.[130]
- Tomb paintings of Amenhotep III (father of Akhenhaten) shows him as having light red hair.[131]
- The mummy of the wife of King Tutankhamen has auburn hair.[132]
- Red-haired mummies were found in the crocodile-caverns of Aboufaida.[133]
Various commentators have noted instances of mummies or tomb paintings showing notables having Nubian features:
- Yurco described the remains of Seqenenre Tao II as having woolly hair and Nubian facial features.[126].
- The mummy believed to be Thutmose I is described as having all the craniofacial characteristics common to Nubian people.[134]
- The mummy of Thutmose II had a bimaxillary protusion, which is a Nubian trait.[134].
- The mummy of Maiherpri was found with a woolly wig attached to his head.
Cleopatra VII
Supporters of Afrocentrism have claimed that Cleopatra, the last of the pharaohs, was black. In her book Not Out of Africa,[135] Mary Lefkowitz points out that Cleopatra’s ancestors, the Ptolemy dynasty, were Macedonian Greeks descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals. Lefkowitz states that:
- it was their practice to marry close relatives – brother with sister or uncle with niece, etc.
- the only possibility that Cleopatra VII might not have been a full-blooded Macedonian Greek arises from the fact that we do not know the precise identity of her grandmother on her father's side, as this lady was the mistress (not the wife) of her grandfather, Ptolemy IX.
- because of the incestuous custom of the Ptolemy family it is generally assumed that this grandmother was also a relative, but it is possible that she might have been of another race - no evidence has ever arisen either way.
- in her surviving portraits on coins and in sculpture, Cleopatra VII appears to be “Mediterranean” in appearance, with relatively straight hair and a hooked nose.
Notes
- ^ Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia
- ^ http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=9519
- ^ http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=31&art_id=nw20070925175335472C333850
- ^ Deighton, H. S. "The Arab Middle East and the Modern World", International Affairs, vol. xxii, no. 4 (October 1946), p. 519.
- ^ Dawisha, pp. 264-65, 267
- ^ http://www.asante.net/articles/Liverpool-Address.html
- ^ Nathan Glazer, We Are All Multiculturalists Now, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997 ISBN 067494836X
- ^ http://www.redmoonrising.com/Giza/EgyptsOrigins4.htm
- ^ http://www.edgarcayce.org/ancient_mysteries/atlantis_mysteries.html
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Troy/6396/lightfall057.htm
- ^ http://ancientmysteries1.blogspot.com/2008/09/book-reviews-atlantis-blueprint-by-rand.html
- ^ http://www.matthnelson.com/ancient_evidence.html
- ^ http://www.gizapower.com/
- ^ http://www.forbiddenarcheology.com/
- ^ http://antroposofi.org/TomMellett/geosophical.html
- ^ http://www.enterprisemission.com/europe01.html
- ^ http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/80604/Hoagland-s-Mars-Vol-1-The-NASA-Cydonia-Briefings/overview
- ^ http://www.wovoca.com/controversies-information-great-pyramid-and-sphinx.htm
- ^ Bard, in turn citing B.G. Trigger, "Nubian, Negro, Black, Nilotic?", in African in Antiquity, The Arts of Nubian and the Sudan, vol 1, 1978.
- ^ Snowden, p. 122 of Black Athena Revisited
- ^ Bard, p. 111 of Black Athena Revisited.
- ^ C. L. Brace, et al. 1993. “Clines and Clusters Versus “Race:” A Test in ancient Egypt and the Case of a Death on the Nile,” Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 36: 1-31.
- ^ http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/110512906/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
- ^ Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White
- ^ Anthon, Charles (1851). "Complexion and Physical Structure of the Egyptians". A classical dictionary.
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- ^ Trafton, Scott (2004). Egypt Land: Race and Nineteenth-century American Egyptomania. ISBN 0822333627.
- ^ General Remarks on "Types of Mankind"
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- ^ Asante, Molefi Kete. Afrocentricity, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1988.
- ^ Lefkowitz p. 8
- ^ Marcus Garvey: "Who and what is a Negro", 1923. Quoted by Lefkowitz.
- ^ Snowden p.116 of Black Athena Revisited.
- ^ Snowden p. 116
- ^ Snowden p. 117
- ^ Homepage of the Journal of African Civilizations
- ^ Sherwin, Elisabeth. "Clarence Walker encourages black Americans to discard Afrocentrism". Davis Community Network. Retrieved 2007-11-13.
- ^ Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo & Gabriel Haslip Viera & Warren Barbour (1997). "They were NOT here before Columbus: Afrocentric hyper-diffusionism in the 1990s". Ethnohistory. 44: 199–234. doi:10.2307/483368.
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(help) - ^ Muhly: "Black Athena versus Traditional Scholarship", Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3, no 1: 83-110
- ^ http://www.egyptologyonline.com/book_of_gates.htm
- ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/gate/gate20.htm
- ^ http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/bookgates5.html
- ^ Charlotte Booth,The Ancient Egyptians for Dummies (2007) p. 217
- ^ Biological and Ethnic Identity in New Kingdom Nubia
- ^ a b c d e Shavit 2001: 148
- ^ Aboubacry Moussa Lam, "L'Égypte ancienne et l'Afrique", in Maria R. Turano et Paul Vandepitte, Pour une histoire de l'Afrique, 2003, pp. 50 &51
- ^ Bard, Kathryn A. "Ancient Egyptians and the Issue of Race". in Lefkowitz and MacLean rogers, p. 114
- ^ Kemp, Barry J. Ancient Egypt: Anatomy Of A Civilization. Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 978-0415063463.
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- ^ http://www.egyptologyonline.com/book_of_gates.htm
- ^ http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/gate/gate20.htm
- ^ http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/bookgates5.html
- ^ W.M.Flinders Petrie : A History of Egypt, Part Two, p.67
- ^ James Henry Breasted : Ancient Records of Egypt Part Two, § 121
- ^ Silverman, David (2003). "Egypt and the World Beyond". Ancient Egypt. ISBN 9780195219524.
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- ^ Allen, James (2000). "Ancient Egyptian Geography". Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521774837.
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- ^ Ethiopia.
- ^ A short history of the Egyptian people.
- ^ Petrie, W.M. Flinders. The Making of Egypt, London. New York, Sheldon Press; Macmillan, 1939: Page 77
- ^ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=89997
- ^ Breasted & 1906-07, p. 658, vol. II.
- ^ Breasted & 1906-07, p. 451,773,820,888, vol. II.
- ^ Manley Bill, The Penguin Hisorical Atlas to Ancient Egypt (1996), p.83
- ^ Shaw. "The racial and ethnic identity of the Egyptians". The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. ISBN 0192802933.
- ^ http://allaboutegypt.org/tag/zahi-hawass/
- ^ "Ancient Egypt: Hairstyles," Oxford University Press Online[www.oup.com/us/pdf/ancient.egypt/hairstyles.pdf]
- ^ Egypt, Child of Africa. 1994. ISBN 1560007923.
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- ^ Redford, Donald B. Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. (Princeton: University Press, 1992), p. 10.
- ^ a b Zakrzewski (2006). "Population Continuity or Population Change:Formation of the Ancient Egyptian State" (PDF). doi:10.1002/ajpa.20569.
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- ^ Jürgen Seeher. Ma'adi and Wadi Digla. in: Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt. Compiled and edited by Kathryn A. Bard. London/New York 1999, 455-458
- ^ MacIver. "chapter 9". The Ancient Races of the Thebaid.
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- ^ Irish pp. 10-11
- ^ S.O.Y. Keita & A. J. Boyce. Egypt in Africa, (1996), pp. 25-27
- ^ Zakrzewski (2003). "Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions" (PDF). doi:10.1002/ajpa.10223.
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(help) - ^ Brace CL, Tracer DP, Yaroch LA, Robb J, Brandt K, Nelson AR (1993). Clines and clusters versus "race:" a test in ancient Egypt and the case of a death on the Nile. Yrbk Phys Anthropol 36:1–31'.
- ^ http://homelink.cps-k12.org/teachers/filiopa/files/AC383EB269C648AAAA659593B9FC358C.pdf
- ^ a b c Krings. "mtDNA Analysis of Nile River Valley Populations: Genetic Corridor or a Barrier to Migration?" (PDF). PMID PMC1377841.
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- ^ Watterson, p. 232
- ^ Kamil, p. 40
- ^ Jankowski, p. 35
- ^ Kemp, Barry (2006). "The Peopling of Egypt". Ancient Egypt: anatomy of a civilization. Published by Routledge. ISBN 0415235502.
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- ^ Cavalli-Sforza, History and Geography of Human Genes, The intermediacy of North Africa and to lesser extent East Africa between Africa and Europe is apparent
- ^ a b Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ^ Bosch, E. et al. 1997. Population history of north Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers. Human Biology. 69(3):295-311.
- ^ Arredi B, Poloni E, Paracchini S, Zerjal T, Fathallah D, Makrelouf M, Pascali V, Novelletto A, Tyler-Smith C (2004). "A predominantly neolithic origin for Y-chromosomal DNA variation in North Africa". Am J Hum Genet. 75 (2): 338–45. doi:10.1086/423147. PMID 15202071.
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(help) - ^ David O'Connor, Ancient Egypt in Africa, (Cavendish Publishing: 2003), p.96
- ^ Black Athena, pp 88
- ^ Richard Peet, Elaine Hartwick, Theories of Development, Second Edition: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives, (Guilford Press: 2009), p.133
- ^ Christopher Ehret, Egypt in Africa, (1996), pp. 23-24
- ^ Snowden pp.120-121 of Black Athena Revisited.
- ^ Constantin-François Chassebœuf saw the Sphinx as "typically negro in all its features"; Volney, Constantin-François de Chasseboeuf, Voyage en Egypte et en Syrie, Paris, 1825, page 65
- ^ "...its head is grey, ears very large and protruding like a negro’s...the fact that the nose is missing increases the flat, negroid effect. Besides, it was certainly Ethiopian; the lips are thick.." Flaubert, Gustave. Flaubert in Egypt, ed. Francis Steegmuller. (London: Penguin Classics, 1996). ISBN 9780140435825.
- ^ Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt (1915). The Negro. (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915).
- ^ Hassan, Selim (1949). The Sphinx: Its history in the light of recent excavations. Cairo: Government Press, 1949.
- ^ Abstract Sheldon Peck, Department of Orthodontics at Harvard
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- ^ http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=9519
- ^ http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view_article.php?article_id=90699
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- ^ Smith, G. Elliot and Dawson, Warren R. - Egyptian Mummies, London, George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1924 p.99
- ^ a b Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White
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References
- Mary R. Lefkowitz: "Ancient History, Modern Myths", originally printed in The New Republic, 1992. Reprinted with revisions as part of the essay collection Black Athena Revisited, 1996.
- Kathryn A. Bard: "Ancient Egyptians and the issue of Race", Bostonia Magazine, 1992: later part of Black Athena Revisited, 1996.
- Frank M. Snowden, Jr.: "Bernal's "Blacks" and the Afrocentrists", Black Athena Revisited, 1996.
- Joyce Tyldesley: "Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt", Profile Books Ltd, 2008.
- Alain Froment, 1994. "Race et Histoire: La recomposition ideologique de l'image des Egyptiens anciens." Journal des Africanistes 64:37-64. available online: Race et Histoire Template:Fr icon
- Yaacov Shavit, 2001: History in Black. African-Americans in Search of an Ancient Past, Frank Cass Publishers
- Shomarka Keita: "The Geographical Origins and Population Relationships of Early Ancient Egyptians", S.O.Y. Keita & A. J. Boyce. Egypt in Africa, pp. 25-27 (1996)
- Aaron Kamugisha: "Finally in Africa? Egypt, from Diop to Celenko", Race & Class, Vol. 45, No. 1, 31-60 (2003) available online: Finally in Africa
- Richard Poe: “Black, White or Biologically African?” Black Spark, White Fire: Did African Explorers Civilize Ancient Europe? pp. 466-471 (1998)
See also