Race of ancient Egyptians: Difference between revisions

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	Questions of ''']''' and the ''']ians''' have been a subject of debate and controversy dating back to the 18th century. The ancient Egyptians considered themselves part of a distinct ethnicity, separate from their neighbors.<ref name="CivAncient"></ref><ref></ref><ref name="RothBridges" /> However, according to Egyptologists Frank Yurco the Egyptians did not think of "race" as we do it the modern sense of the word.<ref>http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/pocahontas/grinsell_m/egyptians_white_black.html</ref>

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	Race is regarded by most ]s today as a ]nic, socially constructed category, with a limited scientific basis.<ref></ref> Thus, when mainstream scientists research what ancient Egyptians, or any other ancient people looked like, they tend to focus on the society's genetic and demographic history, rather than "race". However, many researchers still use the language of race to describe what peoples of the past looked like, even if it is not the paradigm of their research.
			{{R with history}}

			}}
	The ], which argues for a Mesopotamian origin of Egyptian civilization, has fallen out of favor in mainstream Egyptology, as new studies have been published, that conclude Egypt was originally settled by East Africans, not Mesopotamians.<ref>http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/brace.pdf</ref> However, there is still disagreement over the degree of outside demographic influence on these African settlers.<ref>Redford, ''Egypt, Israel,'' p. 17.</ref><ref name="KeitaNearEast">()</ref> The exact nature and extent of Egyptian that resulted from demographic effects such as migration and trade is still being researched to this day.<ref></ref><ref name="BoschEtAl">[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3659/is_199706/ai_n8769532 (Bosch et. al, 1997)</ref>

	Statistical analyses of ancient Egyptian crania have led to differing conclusions, because of differences in the statistical methods and sample sizes used. A 1993 study concluded that ancient Egyptian crania had no ties with sub-Saharan Africa, but clustered with North Africa, Asia, and Europe.<ref name="ClinesClusters" />A 2005 study, however, concluded that the same crania actually showed ties primarily to East Africa (Somalia), North Africa (Sudan), and only secondarily with Europe.<ref name="KeitaStudy">(Keita 2005)</ref> Analyses of mummies, based on either ]s or ]s have come up with a variety of results, some reporting "]" features,<ref name="NationalGeographic"></ref> others reporting "mixed racial characteristics",<ref name="Senu"></ref> and still others reporting "] affinities."<ref name="Diop">Diop 1973: "Pigmentation of the ancient Egyptians: Test by melanin analysis"</ref>

	There is still debate, for the most part outside the scientific community, over what ancient Egyptians looked like. Consensus amongst Egyptologists is that Egyptian ] most likely reflected adaptive response to selective forces consistent to their latitude.<ref name="ClinesClusters"></ref><ref name="MythicalPasts" /> In ancient Egyptian art, Egyptians come in a plethora of different colors, ranging from very light to very dark (and sometimes, even in impossible colors such as green). Skin color, after all, was not of significant social or political importance to the ancient Egyptians, compared to divisions deemed significantly more important, such as nationality and religion. This debate is of only minor importance to Egyptologists<ref name="RothBridges"></ref>, but of high importance to those of whom racial politics is of relevance.

	==Defining race==
	{{seealso\|Race (historical definitions)}}
	===Ancient Egyptian view===
	The Egyptians considered themselves part of a distinct group, separate from their neighbors.<ref name="CivAncient" /><ref></ref> Many modern Egyptologists believe the Egyptians thought of themselves as ]. They discovered wall paintings that contrast Egyptian, Nubian, Lybian, and Eurasian peoples. Egyptologist Ann Marcy Roth writes:

	<blockquote>As we know from their observant depictions of foreigners, the ancient Egyptians saw themselves as darker than Asiatics and Libyans, and lighter than the Nubians, and with different facial features and body types than any of these groups. They considered themselves, to quote Goldilocks, "just right." These indigenous categories are the only ones that can be used to talk about race in ancient Egypt without anachronism. Even these distinctions may have represented ethnicity as much as race: once an immigrant began to wear Egyptian dress, he or she was generally represented as Egyptian in color and features.<ref name="RothBridges" /></blockquote>

	Though it should be of note however, that Egyptians did not recognize "race" with in the same context or definition in which modern society recognizes it. <ref>http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/pocahontas/grinsell_m/egyptians_white_black.html</ref>

	The Egyptians considered The ] as being their ancestral homeland. Punt, was an ancient land south of Egypt accessible by way of the Red Sea. Its exact location has not been identified, but Historians generally agree on eastern Africa, possibly near what is now the coast of Sudan or Eritrea (as is suggested by archaeological evidence). Some argue Punt was as far away as Puntland, Somalia. . Temple reliefs at Deir el Bahari in W Thebes depict an Egyptian expedition to Punt in the reign of Hatshepsut. The Egyptians depicted Puntites to be very similar in appearance to themselves.
	<ref>The Columbia Encyclopedia, Edition 6, 2000 p31655.</ref> <ref>Shaw & Nicholson, op. cit., p.232</ref>

	===18th and 19th century views===
	{{section-stub}}

	===Modern scientific view===
	{{main\|Race}}
	In ], some people use ''race'' to mean a division within a ]. Thus, in certain fields it is used as a synonym for '']'' or, in botany, '']''. In the case of ], for instance, it stands as a synonym for ''subspecies''. In this usage, ''race'' serves to group members of a species that have, for a period of time, become ] or ] isolated from other members of that species, and as a result have diverged genetically and developed certain shared characteristics that differentiate them from the others. Although these characteristics rarely appear in all members of the group, they are more marked in or appear more frequently than in the others.

	The analyses of most social scientists conclude that the common social notions of ''race'' are ]. These defintions of race are derived from ], vary between cultures, and are described as imprecise and fluid. Often these definitions rely on phenotypic characteristics or inferred ancestry. The analysis of human genetic variation also provides insight into human population history and structure. The recent spread of humans from Africa has created a situation where the majority of human genetic variation is found within each human population. However, as a result of physical and cultural isolation of human groups, a significant subset of genetic variation is found between human groups. This variation is highly structured and therefore useful for distingushing groups and placing individual into groups. Admixture and clinal variation between groups can be confounding to this kind of analysis of human variation. The relationship between social and genetic definitions of race is complex. Phenotypic racial classifications do not necessarily correspond with genotypical groups; some more than others. To the extent that ancestry corresponds to social definitions of race, groups identified by genetics will also correspond with these notions. Whether human population structure warrants the distinction of human 'races' is a matter of debate, with majority opinions varying between disciplines. Some biologists prefer the term ] to race. Similar reasoning has lead some to describe races as (inbred) extended families.

	==Ancient writers==
	], the "father of history", wrote that Egyptians had black skin and wooly hair.]]

	Many ancient writers commented of the 'racial affinities' of ancient Egyptians. While some held them to be people with 'black skins and wooly hair' similar to ']ites', others described them as 'medium toned' or similar to that of ] ]. Greek historian ] commented on a perceived relationship between the ] and the Egyptians, he justifies this through his observation that these people had "black skins and kinky hair":

	:''Several Egyptians told me that in their opinion the Colchians were descended from soldiers of Sesostris. I had conjectured as much myself from two pointers, firstly because they have black skins and kinky hair and secondly, and more reliably for the reason that alone among mankind the Egyptians and the Ethiopians have practiced circumcision since time immemorial.<ref>''Herodotus, Book II, 104</ref>

	Some interpretations have pointed out that Herodotus could have been speaking in relative terms, since the Colchians were noted as residing near the Black Sea, close to modern day ] where there are virtually no dark skinned, wooly haired people today; however, there are others who question whether or not Herodotus ever visited the Black Sea region in the first place.

	Others contend however, that there indeed was an ancient population of dark skinned, wholly haired people residing in ], asserting that they were left there by the armies of ] after initial campaigns in the region. Indeed, there is further description from ancient writers describing the populations of ] in this fashion. A Greek poet named Pindar described the Colchians, whom Jason and the Argonauts fought, as being "dark skinned". Also around 350 to 400 AD, Church father St. Jerome and Sophronius referred to Colchis as the "second Ethiopia" because of its 'black-skinned' population.<ref>http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0022-2968(195901)18%3A1%3C49%3ACCAK%3E2.0.CO%3B2-F</ref>

	], who is noted to have probably not traveled to Egypt, stills makes his observation on the physical nature of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, be it through hearsay or actual contact. Here, Aristotle makes claim that skin color is somehow correlated to courage, and also gives his impression on why the Egyptians and Ethiopians are bowlegged and 'curly haired'.

	:''Too black a hue marks the coward as witness Egyptians and Ethiopians and so does also too white a complexion as you may see from women, the complexion of courage is between the two.''

	:''Why are the Ethiopians and Egyptians bandy-legged? Is it because the bodies of living creatures become distorted by heat, like logs of wood when they become dry? The condition of their hair supports this theory; for it is curlier than that of other nations, and curliness is as it were crookedness of the hair.''<ref>''Physiognomics'', Vol. VI, 812a - Book XIV, p. 317</ref>

	] wrote that the Egyptians resembled the people of ].]]

	] (]/]-after ]) was a ] historian who also gave his own brief observations.


	:''the men of Egypt are mostly brown and black with a skinny and desiccated look. <ref>Ammianus Marcellinus, Book XXII, para 16 (23)</ref>


	Ancient writers have also made comparisons between ancient Egyptians and ] of the time.

	] (c. 64 BC – AD 24):

	:''As for the people of India, those in the ] 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.''<ref>http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/15A1*.html</ref>

	] (c. 86 - 146 AD) (] 6.9):

	:''The appearance of the inhabitants is also not very different in India and Ethiopia: the ] are rather more like Ethiopians as they are black to look on, and their hair is black; only they are not so snub-nosed or woolly-haired as the Ethiopians; the northern Indians are most like the Egyptians physically.''<ref>Indica 6.9</ref>



	It is important to note however, that phenotypes differ among populations and skin color varies and is highly adaptive, therefore alone, they're not good indicators of any concept of 'race'. <ref>http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0073-0688(1978)82%3C45%3ADHEGTT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8</ref> <ref>http://www.aaanet.org/stmts/racepp.htm</ref> In some cases, ancient textual sources can be extremely reliable, however, in cases like these bioanthropologist ] warns us that interpretation is highly dependent on stereotyped thinking, and in his words, "the ancient writers were not doing population biology", and that as a result, all of this should be taken with 'a grain of salt'.

	==Research==
	===Genetics and demographics===
	====Clusters and clines====
	{{Expand-section\|date=April 2007}}
	The research of the Italian population geneticist ] concludes that the population of the Horn of Africa is the result of a fusion between African and non-African elements.<ref name="ArgumentHaving">Professor ]: </ref>

	However, such theories are now deemed out dated, the general consensus is summed up in the words of Bio-anthropologist Dr. S.O.Y Keita.

	:''This East African anatomy, once seen as being the result of a mixture of different "races," is better understood as being part of the range of indigenous African variation. <ref>http://www.forumcityusa.com/viewtopic.php?t=318&mforum=africa</ref>

	A 2003 Y chromosome study was performed by Lucotte on modern Egyptians, with haplotypes V, XI, and IV being most common. <ref>http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/haplotypes_in_egypt.pdf</ref> Haplotype V is common in Berbers and has a low frequency outside Africa. <ref>[http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/keita6.pdf</ref> Haplotypes V, XI, and IV are all supra/sub-Saharan horn of Africa haplotypes, and they are far more dominant in Egyptians than in Near Eastern or European groups. Recent studies on Egyptian Y chromosomes have seemingly also found close ancestral connections between modern Egyptians and various other supra/sub-Saharan African populations.

	:''A review of the recent literature indicates that there are male lineage ties between African peoples who have been traditionally labeled as being ‘‘racially’’ different, with ‘‘racially’’ implying an ontologically deep divide. The PN2 transition, a Y chromosome marker, defines a lineage (within the YAPþ derived haplogroup E or III) that emerged in Africa probably before the last glacial maximum, but after the migration of modern humans from Africa (see Semino et al., 2004) This mutation forms a clade that has two daughter subclades (defined by the biallelic markers M35/215 (or 215/M35) and M2) that unites numerous phenotypically variant African populations from the supra-Saharan, Saharan, and sub-Saharan regions based on current data (Underhill, 2001). <ref>http://mbe.library.arizona.edu/data/1994/1105/4hamm.pdf</ref> <ref>http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/Northeast_african_analysis.pdf</ref>

	====Origins====
	Some genetic studies suggest that modern Egyptians don't have very close relations to most tropical Africans. <ref>], L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994, The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton:Princeton University Press.</ref> Populations from throughout the world were compared using extensive genetic data. The North African populations grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle East) populations rather than sub-Saharan Africans. <ref></ref> However, extensive studies have also been carried out to determine the origins of the Egyptians.


	A 2004 study of the mtDNA of 58 native inhabitants from upper Egypt performed to indicate origins found a genetic ancestral heritage to East Africa.

	:''The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) diversity of 58 individuals from Upper Egypt, more than half (34 individuals) from Gurna, whose population has an ancient cultural history, were studied by sequencing the control-region and screening diagnostic RFLP markers. This sedentary population presented similarities to the Ethiopian population by the L1 and L2 macrohaplogroup frequency (20.6%), by the West Eurasian component (defined by haplogroups H to K and T to X) and particularly by a high frequency (17.6%) of haplogroup M1. We statistically and phylogenetically analysed and compared the Gurna population with other Egyptian, Near East and sub-Saharan Africa populations; AMOVA and Minimum Spanning Network analysis showed that the Gurna population was not isolated from neighbouring populations. Our results suggest that the Gurna population has conserved the trace of an ancestral genetic structure from an ancestral East African population, characterized by a high M1 haplogroup frequency. The current structure of the Egyptian population may be the result of further influence of neighbouring populations on this ancestral population.<ref>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=14748828</ref></blockquote>

	A 2007 study suggests overall population continuity over the predynastic and early dynastic periods with high levels of heterogeneity but concludes that Egyptian civilization was predominantly indigenous in development, with some, but limited migration from elsewhere. If true, this would further discredit the ]:

	:''Genetic diversity was analyzed by studying craniometric variation within a series of six time-successive Egyptian populations in order to investigate the evidence for migration over the period of the development of social hierarchy and the Egyptian state. Craniometric variation, based upon 16 measurements, was assessed through principal components analysis, discriminant function analysis, and Mahalanobis D2 matrix computation. Spatial and temporal relationships were assessed by Mantel and Partial Mantel tests. The results indicate overall population continuity over the Predynastic and early Dynastic, and high levels of genetic heterogeneity, thereby suggesting that state formation occurred as a mainly indigenous process. Nevertheless, significant differences were found in morphology between both geographically-pooled and cemetery-specific temporal groups, indicating that some migration occurred along the Egyptian Nile Valley over the periods studied.<ref>''American Journal of Physical Anthropology'', 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. </ref>



	====Demographic influences====
	There are several theories regarding the effects and types of demographic influence on ancient Egypt. All of these theories aim to explain why ancient Egyptians cluster the way they do in regards to genetics, cranial affinities, and languages/culture. One theory is that the ancient Egyptians belong to a primarily African group, with relatively little significant outside influences from the Near East. (Keita, 1995)


	Another theory is that the ancient Egyptians had a significant influence from the Near East, and relatively little demographic inluence from sub-Saharan Africa. (Bosch et. al, 1997)

	(Newman 1995) concluded that there were also minor Mediterranean demographic influences on the region. Phoenicians (814 B.c.) and Romans (from 146 B.c.) occupied part of coastal northern Africa and had minor demographic effects on the population. The Vandals (A.D. 429) and the Byzantines (A.D. 533) had an even less significant effect on the ancient Egyptian gene pool.

	However, demographic analysis and work done by various anthropologists conclude that there was overall population continuity stretching from the predynastic, well into dynastic times with small amounts of possible miscegenation outside of the Nile Valley, placing Egyptian society with in a localized African Nile Valley context. The general consensus is summed up here:

	:''In summary, various kinds of data and the evolutionary approach indicate that the Nile Valley populations had greater ties with other African populations in the early ancient period. Early Nile Valley populations were primarily coextensive with indigenous African populations. Linguistic and archaeological data provide key supporting evidence for a primarily African origin. <ref> http://www.forumcityusa.com/viewtopic.php?t=318&mforum=africa</ref> <ref> http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/egyptian_body_proportions.pdf</ref> <ref> http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/who_were_egyptian.pdf</ref>

	===Crania===

	A 2005 study of Predynastic Upper Egyptian crania in comparison to various European and tropical African crania found that the predynastic Badarian series clusters much closer with the Tropical African series.

	:''The Mahalanobis distances between all of the series were unlikely to be due to chance at the 5% level, with nearly all having even lower probability values (usually p < .001). An examination of the distance hierarchies reveals the Badarian series to be more similar to the Teita in both analyses and always more similar to all of the African series than to the Norse and Berg groups (see Tables 3A & 3B and Figure 2). Essentially equal similarity is found with the Zalavar and Dogon series in the 11-variable analysis and with these and the Bushman in the one using 15 variables. The Badarian series clusters with the tropical African groups no matter which algorithm is employed (see Figures 3 and 4). The clustering with the Bushman can be understood as an artifact of grouping algorithms; it is well known that a series may group into a cluster that does not contain the series to which it is most similar (has the lowest distance value). An additional 20 dendrograms were generated using the minimum evolution algorithm provided by MEGA (not shown). In none of them did the Badarian sample affiliate with the European series. In additional analyses, the Bushman series was left out; the results were the same (not shown).<ref name="Badari" />


	A 2006 study<ref>http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/brace_2006.pdf</ref> of ancient Egyptian craniofacial characteristics published by ] ] found that samples from Bronze age Egypt clustered primarily with modern Somalis, ], Arabic-speaking Fellaheen farmers of Israel, and more remotely with various Niger-Congo speakers.

	:''The Niger-Congo speakers, Congo, Dahomey and Haya, cluster closely with each other and a bit less closely with the Nubian sample - both the recent and the Bronze Age Nubians - and more remotely with the Naqada Bronze Age sample of Egypt, the modern Somalis, and the Arabic-speaking Fellaheen (farmers) of Israel. When those samples are separated and run in a single analysis as in Fig. 1, there clearly is a tie between them that is diluted the farther one gets from sub-Saharan Africa.

	===Body Plans===
	A 2003 paper appeared in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology by Dr Sonia Zakrzewski entitled 'Variation in Ancient Egyptian Stature and Body Proportions', where she found that the Ancient Egyptians had tropically adapted body plans.

	:''The raw values in Table 6 suggest that Egyptians had the ‘super-Negroid’ body plan described by Robins (1983). The values for the brachial and crural indices show that the distal segments of each limb are longer relative to the proximal segments than in many ‘African’ populations. <ref>http://www.homestead.com/wysinger/egyptian_body_proportions.pdf</ref>

	===Mummies===
	{{Expand-section\|date=March 2007}}

	====King Tutankhamun====
	]'' in 2005.]]
	King ] is the most famous of the pharoahs, and his mummy is estimated to be about 3000 years old. In 2005, three teams of scientists (Egyptian, French and American), in partnership with the ], developed a new facial likeness of Tutankhamun. The Egyptian team worked from 1,700 ] ]s of the pharaoh's skull. The French and American teams worked plastic molds created from these – but the Americans were never told ''whom'' they were reconstructing.<ref name="KingTut">
	{{cite news
	\|first=Brian
	\|last=Handwerk
	\|url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/05/0511_050511_kingtutface.html
	\|title=King Tut's New Face: Behind the Forensic Reconstruction
	\|publisher=National Geographic News
	\|date=], ]
	\|accessdate=2006-08-05
	}}
	</ref> All three teams created ] busts of their interpretation of what the young monarch looked like. In the end, they identified the skull as:

	<blockquote>that of a male, 18 to 20 years old, with ] features.<ref name="KingTut" /></blockquote>

	Terry Garcia, ''National Geographic'''s executive vice president for mission programs, said, in response to criticism of the King Tut reconstructions:

	:The big variable is skin tone. North Africans, we know today, had a range of skin tones, from light to dark. In this case, we selected a medium skin tone, and we say, quite up front, 'This is midrange.' We'll never know for sure what his exact skin tone was or the color of his eyes with 100 percent certainty. ... Maybe in the future, people will come to a different conclusion.<ref>
	{{cite news
	\|first=Evan
	\|last=Henerson
	\|url=http://u.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,211~23523~2921859,00.html
	\|title=King Tut's skin color a topic of controversy
	\|publisher=U-Daily News - L.A. Life
	\|date=], ]
	\|accessdate=2006-08-05
	}}
	</ref>

	The French team's reconstruction specifically, however has sparked considerable criticism. Afrocentrists criticize the French team's claim that they selected the skin tone by taking a color from the middle of the range of skin tones found in the population of Egypt today. They claim that these features do not reflect the prevalent eye or skin color of either ancient dynastic Egypt or present-day Egyptians . They further argue that many representations of Tut portray him with red-brown to dark brown skin and dark eyes, and that the teams should have used these as references in assigning eye and skin color.

	In comparison to the 2005 reconstruction, the earlier 2002 ] reconstruction showed a darker skin tone, among other differences.<ref> (2002)</ref>


	====Difficulties of forensic reconstruction====
	Although their methodologies are objective, forensic anthropologists agree that attempts to apply criteria from craniofacial anthropometry sometimes can yield seemingly counterintuitive results, depending upon the weight given to each feature. For example, their application can result in finding some East and South Indians to have "]" cranial/facial features and others to have "]" cranial/facial features, for example, while Ethiopians, Somalis, and some Zulus have "]" skulls, and the Khoisan of southwestern Africa have skulls distinct from many other sub-Saharan Africans that resembles "]" skulls.

	These seeming contradictions, however, are related to the vagaries of racial classification, particularly of ethnically diverse or miscegenated populations, as exist in Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Cranial analysis is still used by some forensic scientists to determine the identity and geographic ethnic origin of human remains, even though the accuracy of ethnicity-related conclusions drawn from cranial analysis is not absolute -- particularly when treating populations possessing varying degrees of "racial", or ethnic, admixture. Though modern technology can reconstruct Tutankhamun's facial structure with a high degree of accuracy based on CT data from his mummy, but due to lack of facial tissue and embalming issues, correctly determining his skin tone, nose width, and eye color is nearly impossible. The problem is not a lack of skill on the part of Ancient Egyptians. Egyptian artisans distinguished accurately among different ethnicities, but sometimes depicted their subjects in totally unreal colors, the purposes for which aren't completely understood. Thus no absolute consensus on the skin tone and various other features of reconstructed mummies such as ] and ] is possible.



	====Diop's melanin tests====
	{{Expand-section\|date=April 2007}}
	] performed a series of the tests on Egyptian mummies to determine melanin levels and concluded that Egyptians were dark-skinned and part of the "Negro race".<ref name="Diop" /> Diop notes criticisms of these results that argue that the skin of most Egyptian mummies, tainted by the embalming material, are no longer susceptible of any analysis. Diop contends the position that although the epidermis is the main site of the melanin, the melanocytes penetrating the derm at the boundary between it and the epidermis, even where the latter has mostly been destroyed by the embalming materials, show a melanin level which is non-existent in the "white-skinned races".<ref>http://www.africawithin.com/diop/origin_egyptians.htm</ref> However, Diop does not describe any tests that verify his claims that melanin is "non-existent" among the "white-skinned races", nor provide evidence supporting his assertion that the absence of melanin in the epidermis is due to embalming techniques. Diop innovated the development of the melanin dosage test which is still used by forensic investigators to determine the "race" of badly burnt victims.<ref>http://www.webzinemaker.com/admi/m7/page.php3?num_web=27310&rubr=3&id=290477</ref>

	===Hair===
	{{section-stub}}

	===Language===
	]

	====Kmt====
	One of the many names for Egypt in ancient Egyptian is km.t (read "Kemet"), meaning "black land". More literally, the word means "something black". The use of km.t "black land" in terms of a place is thought generally to be in contrast to the "deshert" or "red land": the desert west of the Nile valley...

	===Art and architecture===
	Egyptian art is not considered a reliable source for what ancient Egyptians looked like for several reasons:

	* Egyptian art is often very faded and/or eroded.
	* Egyptians are often portrayed in impossible shapes and colors. For example, in some paintings they are green.
	* The skin color of a single individual varies widely from one portrayal to the next. For example, ] is jet black in one rendering, and medium brown in another.
	* Skin color was not such a significant political or social factor in that time as it is now.
	* It is sometimes difficult to know if the artist is aiming for realism, or is actually painting an original or mythical conception.
	* There is sometimes debate over whether it is an Egyptian, a slave, or a foreigner that is being portrayed.
	* Even if an individual portrayal ''was'' known to be accurate (there is no such case), even that would do nothing to indicate the appearance of the ancient Egyptian populace as a whole.
	*According to archaeologist Kathryn Bard, it was conventional in Egyptian art to paint men in a dark-red ochre and women in a light-yellow ochre to distinguish them.
	<gallery>
	Image:Sphinx side view.jpg\|From the 1700's to today, many scholars have commented on the ]'s "negro" or "black" appearance.<ref name="SphynxList" />
	Image:Khafra - Quefrén.jpg\|The most widely held hypothesis is that the Sphinx portrays ], pictured above.
	Image:Nefertiti 30-01-2006.jpg\|] was a queen of the 18th Dynasty.

	</gallery>

	Sources: <ref name="SphynxList">, , , William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, ''The Negro'' (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915)</ref>
	<ref name="CriticsList">
	* Peter A. Young, "Was Nefertiti Black?" Archaeology (Sept/Oct. 1992) p.2
	* ]'s ''Black Athena revisited''
	* Specter, M. 1990. “Was Nefertiti Black? Bitter Debate Erupts" in ''The Washington Post''
	* ''The Secret Lore of Egypt: Its Impact on the West '' by ]</ref>

	==Discarded hypotheses==
	{{Expand-section\|date=March 2007}}
	===Hamitic hypothesis===
	Complications have also cropped up in the use of linguistics as a basis for racial categorization. The demise of the famous "Hamitic Hypothesis", which purported to show that certain African languages around the Nile area could be associated with "Caucasoid" peoples is a typical case. Such schemes fell apart when it was demonstrated that so-called 'Negroid' tribes far distant also spoke similar languages, tongues that were supposedly a reserved marker of 'Caucasoid' presence or influence.<ref>Greenberg, Joseph H. (1963) The Languages of Africa. International journal of American linguistics, 29, 1, part 2</ref> For work on African languages, see Wiki article ] and ].
	Older linguistic classifications are also linked to the notion of a "Hamitic race", a vague grouping thought to exclude 'Negroes', but accommodating a large variety of dark skinned North and East Africans into a broad-based 'Caucasoid' grouping. This "Hamitic race" is sometimes credited with the introduction of more advanced culture, such as certain plant cultivation and particularly the domestication of cattle. This has also been discredited by the work of post WWII archaeologists such as A. Arkell, who demonstrated that predynastic and Sudanic 'Negroid' elements already possessed cattle and plant domestication, thousands of years before the supposed influx of 'Caucasoid' or 'Hamitic' settlers into the Nile Valley, Nubia and adjoining areas.<ref>Encyclopedia Britannica, Macropedia, 1984 ed, Vol 13, "Nilotic Sudan, History Of", p. 108</ref>
	Modern scholarship has moved away from earlier notions of a "Hamitic" race speaking Hamito-Semitic languages, and places the Egyptian language in a more localized context, centered around its general Saharan and Nilotic roots.''(F. Yurco "An Egyptological Review", 1996)''<ref>Yurco, op. cit. </ref> Linguistic analysis (Diakanoff 1998) places the origin of the Afro-Asiatic languages in northeast Africa, with older strands south of Egypt, and newer elements straddling the Nile Delta and Sinai.<ref>M.Diakonoff, Journal of Semitic Studies, 43,209 (1998)</ref>

	===Dynastic race theory===
	{{section-stub}}



	==Myths==
	===Cleopatra===
	The myth that ], the last Pharaoh of Egypt, was "black" or of African origin has been espoused by several Afrocentric academics, and has enjoyed a notable degree of acceptance within the African-American community.<ref>
	*, from '']'' magazine, February 1st, 2002.
	*, from the '']'', February 14th, 1994.
	*, from '']'', June 11th, 1996.</ref> Cleopatra, however, was of ] origin. ] argues that ] scholars are to blame for the proliferation of this myth. However, according to Professor of African American Studies at ], Dr. ], this is but one of many trivial issues and he states:

	:''I think I can say without a doubt that Afrocentrists do not spend time arguing that either Socrates or Cleopatra were black. I have never seen these ideas written by an Afrocentrist nor have I heard them discussed in any Afrocentric intellectual forums. Professor Lefkowitz provides us with a hearsay incident which she probably reports accurately. It is not an Afrocentric argument.

	However, Lefkowitz actually does cite examples of Afrocentric scholars who have made such claims. One such example she supplies is a chapter entitled "Black Warrior Queens" published in 1984 in '']'', part of the ''Journal of African Civilization'' series. It draws heavily on the pseudoscience of J.A. Rogers:

	<blockquote>More nonsense has been written about Cleopatra than about any other African queen, mainly because it has been the desire of many writers to paint her white. Until the emergence of the doctrine of white superiority, Cleopatra was generally pictured as a distinctly African woman, dark in complexion. (Clarke, 1984)</blockquote>

	Yet and still, Afrocentrists strongly contend that this matter is of inane interest and is not an argument often pursued, most concede to the fact that ] was not of native ]ian descent.





	===White Egypt===
	{{Expand-section\|date=April 2007}}
	The hypothesis that the ancient Egyptians were a predominantly "white" civilization was viable in the heyday of European colonialism, but is today regarded as (racist) pseudoscience. However, several neo-Nazi and racist groups such as ] still hold this myth to be true, holding that ancient Egypt was a "Nordic desert empire."<ref name="Racists"></ref> This view enjoys no support whatsoever among researchers of ancient Egypt for the simple reason that there is no evidence for it, and enormous evidence against it.

	==References==
	<references/>

	==Bibliography==
	{{Expand-section\|date=April 2007}}
	* James P. Allen. "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs". Cambridge University Press (November 4, 1999). ISBN 0521774837

	* Borgognini-Tarli, S. M., and G. Paoli, 1982. Survey on Paleoserological studies. Homo 33(2), 69-85

	* Bosch, E. et al. 1997. Population history of north Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers. Human Biology. 69(3):295-311.

	* Brace, C. L., D. P. Tracer, L. A. Yaroch, J. Robb, K. Brandt, and A. R. Nelson. 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. Also appears in Lefkowitz and Rogers, 129-164.

	* Brothwell, D. R. and B. A. Chiarelli, B. A., eds. 1973. Population Biology of the Ancient Egyptians. New York.

	* Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

	* Raymond Faulkner. "Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian". Griffith Institute; Rep edition (January 1, 1970) ISBN 0900416327

	* Froment, A. 1992. Origines du Peuplement de l'Egypte Ancienne: l'Apport de l'anthropobiologie. Archéo-Nil 2:79-98.

	* Froment, A. 1994. Race et Histoire: La recomposition ideologique de l'image des Egyptiens anciens. Journal des Africanistes 64:37-64.

	* Howells, W. W. 1989. Skull Shapes and the Map.Craniometric Analyses in the Dispersion of Modern Homo. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

	* Howells, W. W. 1995. Who's Who in Skulls. Ethnic Identification of Crania from Measurements. Cambridge: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

	* Howe, Stephen 1998. Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes. London: Verso.

	* Hrdy, D. B. 1978. Analysis of hair samples of mummies from Semma South (Sudanese Nubia). American Journal of Physical Anthropology 49(2):277-82.

	*Irish, J. D. 1997. Characteristic high- and low-frequency dental traits in sub-Saharan African populations. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 102(4):455-67.

	*Irish, J. D. 1998a. Ancestral Dental Traits in Recent Sub-Saharan Africans and the Origin of Modern Humans, Journal of Human Evolution 34:81-98.

	*Irish J. D. 1998b. Diachronic and synchronic dental trait affinities of late and post-pleistocene peoples from North Africa. Homo. 49(2) 138-155.

	*Krings M, et al. 1999. mtDNA Analysis of Nile River Valley Populations: A Genetic Corridor or a Barrier to Migration? American Journal of Human Genetics 64(4):1166-1176

	*Lefkowitz, Mary, and G. M. Rogers, eds. 1996. Black Athena Revisited. Chapel Hill, NC.

	*Lam, Aboubacry Moussa, ''Les chemins du Nil. Les relations entre l’Egypte ancienne et l’Afrique Noire'', Paris : Présence Africaine / Khepera, 1997

	*Noguera, Anthony (1976). ''How African Was Egypt?: A Comparative Study of Ancient Egyptian and Black African Cultures''. Illustrations by Joelle Noguera. New York: Vantage Press.

	*Parks, Lisa. 2000. Ancient Egyptians Wore Wigs. Egypt Revealed Magazine (www.egyptrevealed.com), May 29.

	*Snowden, Jr., F. Bernal's "Blacks," Herodotus and Other Classical Evidence. Arethusa, Special Issue: The Challenge of Black Athena. Fall, 1989: 97-109.

	*Titlbachova, S., and Z. Titlbach. 1977. Hair of Egyptian mummies. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 104:79-85

	*Vercoutter, Jean. 1976. The Iconography of the Black in Ancient Egypt. In J. Vercoutter, J. Leclant, F. Snowden and J. Desanges (eds.) The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. 1. Cambridge, MA.

	*Yurco, F. J. 1996. Two Tomb-Wall painted reliefs of Ramesses III and Seti I and Ancient Nile Valley Population diversity. In Theodore Celenko (ed.) Egypt in Africa , Indiana University Press.

	==External links==

	*
	*
	*Ann Roth:
	*Professor ]:

	==See also==
	*]
	*]
	*]
	*]
	]
	]

	]

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