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The race of ancient Egyptians is a controversial topic of debate aimed at identifying the racial identity of ancient Egyptians due to rise of Afrocentrism. Although ancient Egypt was a cosmopolitan society, consisting of people of different ancestries, there is an effort to identify a single race to which the majority of ancient Egyptians belonged.

Ancient Egypt is believed to have been populated either by dark-skinned or "black" people (people of sub-Saharan and West Africa and portions of North Africa), or light-skinned or "white" people (people of Europe, North Africa, Western Asia, some of South Asia and portions of Central Asia). Many disagree on the proportions and contributions of these groups.

Overview of theories

Some scholars, mostly Afrocentrists, believe that the character of the Egyptian society and culture most closely resembled that of African cultures. They also assert that Egypt remained essentially a "black" African civilization throughout the dynastic era. This is based on their interpretation and understanding of archaeological evidence pointing to Nubian, Badarian, and older Saharan cultures whose religious and cultural practices most closely resemble Egypt's own, to serve a political aspiration.

Others, however, have focused less on cultural aspects and more on phenotypical comparisons. In this aspect they believe that the black presence of Egypt has been substantial.

Some genetic studies show that modern Egyptians do not appear closely related to tropical Africans. Genetic relationships between ancient Egyptians and other populations may prove more difficult to find, because of evidence for degradation of ancient DNA .

The disparate outcomes of such studies have done little to quell the debate about the race of modern Egyptians, and there are those who have been reluctant to assign racial designations or make definitive claims about the skin color of its inhabitants at all.

Obstacles in ascertaining race

Race is based on mainly on phenotypes and self-identification. This makes it almost impossible to determine the race of a people who existed before photography or the modern concept of race. This has forced researchers to turn to using the remains of the ancient Egyptians to discern what the people who left these behind would have looked like when they were alive

Further hindering attempts to discover the race of the ancient Egyptians, is a large amount of misinformation spread by racists. The majority of information on the race of ancient Egypt is written by authors who are trying to "claim" the accomplishments of ancient Egypt for their race.

Likewise, black and white are not precisely defined, as skin tone can vary among racial groupings (see below). Even a term such as "African" is imprecise, because it comprises peoples considered indigenous Caucasians, as in the Maghreb Berbers; peoples classified as Semitic or Middle Eastern, such as certain Arab populations; and diverse populations who are comprised of Negroid and Capoid peoples, as well as Cushitic and Nilotic peoples. Further, of these groups, all but the Arabs are considered indigenous to the African continent.

Skin color

Skin color within a single racial category can fall within a broad spectrum of shades. For historical reasons, blackness and whiteness are particularly difficult concepts to describe definitively in Western societies. Racist remnants of earlier times, such as the one-drop theory and colonialism, still influence the racial perceptions of multiracial individuals. In the case of dynastic Egypt, this approach, of defining certain dark-skinned populations as non-black has extended to indigenous Africans, an approach which has drawn sharp criticism and ridicule in certain academic circles.

Condition and availability of remains

The remains of ancient Egyptians available for study today generally have deteriorated significantly and have been subjected to embalming. While scientific testing and forensic examination provide many clues, the debate over the racial identity of dynastic Egypt continues. DNA testing allows for broad categorizations based on haplogroup. In the 21st century, forensic reconstructions have produced widely varying images and castings of what Pharaoh Tutankhamun may have looked like, but critics charge that some of these efforts have been politically and racially motivated and have produced deliberately inaccurate representations. But even if researchers could determine conclusively the skin color of a single pharaoh, the questions about the skin color of the broader Egyptian population over the millennia would remain. Though non-royal remains have been unearthed, researchers stand little chance of unearthing a true cross-section of Egyptian society, but in any case, most high-profile bickering has centered around the icons of ancient Egypt -- its pharaohs as well as their Queens regnant and Queen consorts.

Geography and linguistics

Geographical and linguistic evidence hold some clues, but the proximity of Egypt to the Middle East and Asia resulted in a confluence of cultures and peoples, where the balance of power and influence of these disparate elements changed constantly over the millennia spanned by dynastic Egypt.

Art

The art of the ancient Egyptians is a rich cultural legacy, providing ample evidence of Egyptian daily social, political economic and religious life. Egyptian artisans were highly skilled metalsmiths, painters, carvers and sculptors. However, Egyptian aesthetics and the use of clearly symbolic, rather than realistic, colors in some instances when depicting the human form have made determinations of the racial identity of subjects problematic in some cases. Human figures have been depicted in yellow ochre, a brownish red ochre, blue, white and black. Various scholars have offered differing interpretations regarding the meaning and purpose of such depictions, and the matter of race remains unsettled.

The pale-white renderings of most royal women are thought to have nothing to do with their actual skin color, as these figures represent their femininity as a lighter skin tone. The association of "yellow khenet was symbolic of all that is eternal and imperishable in the Egyptian religion".

Likewise, the jet-black renderings of Tutankhamun are thought to have nothing to do with his actual skin color, as these figures represent his voyage through the pitch darkness of the underworld -- a significant afterlife ritual.. " chamber was guarded by two black sentry-statues that represent the royal ka (soul) and symbolize the hope of rebirth -- the qualities of Osiris, who was reborn after he died.".

Compounding the problem of utilizing art as a clue to the ethnic identity of dynastic Egypt is the elitist nature of much of the art that has endured. Murals and artifacts in temples and crypts constructed to honor deceased royalty and the politically powerful may not accurately reflect the demographics of the majority of the Egyptian populace of the time.

Politics

Beyond the scientific difficulties is the matter of politics. Different factions have attempted to cast ancient Egyptians in their own image, claiming dynastic Egypt as the creation of their ancestors. Even those who agree that Egypt was a multi-ethnic society at least at some point in history disagree over when population shifts may have occurred and extent to which ethnic diversity existed, and recriminations have been leveled by one group against another, charging cultural appropriation. In 2005, when three, separate teams from three different nations were charged with reconstructing the face of Tutankhamun and assigning a racial and geographic point of origin, a furor and angry protests by American blacks erupted amid charges of Afrophobia on the part of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, racism, "whitewashing" and counter charges of "reverse racism."

Genetic evidence

Full scale, comparative forensic analysis and DNA testing of mummies may help identify the race of the ancient Egyptians, but thus far only a limited number of mummies have been tested. Furthermore, some scientists have argued for significant degradation in ancient Egyptian DNA . Such degeneration would naturally impair attempts to find genetic relationships between ancient (as opposed to modern) Egyptians and surrounding populations.

Modern Egyptians

Some genetic studies suggest that modern Egyptians don't have very close relations to tropical Africans.

There is debate over how to classify the race of modern Egyptians, In general, they are classified as predominantly North African, Caucasian, Southern European, or Western Eurasian , with evidence for gene flow from Ethiopia and Eritrea. Numerous genetic tests have been performed on the Egyptians in order to determine their origins. One maternal study linked Egyptians with people from Ethiopia and Eritrea. There was also a Y chromosome study by Lucotte et al performed on Egyptians, with haplotypes V, XI, and IV being most common. Haplotype V is common in Berbers and has a low frequency outside Africa. Haplotypes V and XI, and IV are all supra/sub-Saharan horn of African haplotypes, and they are far more dominant in Egyptians than Near Eastern or European haplotypes.

• Cavalli-Sforza et al. (1994) compared populations from throughout the world using extensive genetic data. The North African populations grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle East) populations rather than sub-Saharan Africans.
• Di Rienzo et al. (1994) studied the relationship of three samples (taken from Egyptians, Sardinians, and sub-Saharan Africans), using mitochondrial DNA and simple sequence repeats. In terms of genetic distance, the Egyptian sample was closer to the Sardinian sample than to the sub-Saharan African sample.
• Hammer et al. (1997) used seven different methods to compute population trees of world populations, using Y-chromosome data. All seven methods grouped the Egyptians with the non-African populations rather than with the sub-Saharan Africans. Egyptians' genetic profile resembles that of South Europeans more than the other regional groups in the study.
• Poloni et al. (1997). Egyptians and a few other African populations (Tunisians, Algerians, Eritreans and even Ethiopians) showed a stronger Y-chromosome similarity to non-African Mediterraneans than to the remainder of Africans mostly from south of the Sahara.
• Bosch et al. (1997), using classical genetic markers, calculated Egyptians to be genetically very close to Mediterranean Asians and Europeans.

• Cavalli-Sforza compared populations from throughout the world using extensive genetic data.In the findings of Cavalli Sforza the Khoisan had 51% Near Eastern mixture. Of course Khoisan are noted as not having any Near eastern mixture. Cavalli Sfroza also said Europeans appear as 2/3 Asian 1/3 African genetic mix. Sforza also said that Afro Asiatic was the language of Caucasoids. Most of the languages of Afro Asiatic is spoken by Black Africans only Semetic and Berber are spoken by non Black Africans. Cavalli Sfoza only studied certain Northern Africans from Algeria,Morocco,and Libya. He never studied Egyptian Mtdna or Y-Chromsome.
• Cavalli-Sforza findings were before the finding of the Pn2 clade. The Pn2 clade was found to unite africans from North, South, East and West africa. The finding of the Pn2 clade has changed the way that African genetics is viewed. Most Africans including Egyptians are overwhelmingly of the Pn2 clade E3a and E3b.
• Hammers recent study on 34 Egyptian samples found 53% Yap + haplotype. Yap + is an African specific haplotype.
• Regarding Ethiopians depending on the Ethiopians studied you are going to have different results. Most studies of Ethiopians use the Amharas as the basis of Ethiopians even though they are a minority in Ethiopia. The Oromos the Majority in Ethiopia have less then 3% admixture. More studies using the Oromos need to be taken into account.
• More studies using egyptians from Luxor to Aswan(Upper Egypt) need to be used. Since this is the area that the majority of Ancient Egyptian population lived. Most Modern Egyptians now live in Lower Egypt.

Tutankhamen

In December 2000, a team of Japanese scientists received approval to DNA test Tutankhamen. However, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities reversed their decision to allow testing. In 2004, forensic testing was again planned and halted.

Other analysis of mummified remains

Melanin Dosage Test

Afrocentrist scholar Cheikh Anta Diop's forensic tests of melanin content in Egyptian mummies and of forensic reconstruction of skulls are cited as evidence that the early dynastic Egyptians were black Africans and remained so in predominant part for millennia.

Melanin content alone is not definitive evidence of skin color, but when placed in the context of the possible Nile Valley populations of the time, many consider Diop's findings interesting. Critics argue that relatively few examples of well-preserved human remains of the era exist, and that the degradation of melanin over time and in the presence of ancient embalming fluids is a phenomenon that has not been widely studied. It was also critized that Diop didn't specify, in qualitative and quantitative terms, what portions of melanin are sufficient for a man to be classified as belonging to the black race.

Diop stated his views on the subject in Origin of the Ancient Egyptians:

Melanin (eumelanin), the chemical body responsible for skin pigmentation, is, broadly speaking, insoluble and is preserved for millions of years in the skins of fossil animals. There is thus all the more reason for it to be readily recoverable in the skins of Egyptian mummies, despite a tenacious legend that the skin of mummies, tainted by the embalming material, is no longer susceptible of any analysis. 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....

Either way let us simply say that the evaluation of melanin level by microscopic examination is a laboratory method which enables us to classify the ancient Egyptians unquestionably among the black races.

However, Diop does not describe any tests that verify his claims that melanin is "non-existent" in mummies belong to the "white-skinned races" nor provide evidence supporting his assertion that the absence of melanin in the epidermis is due to embalming techniques.

Comparisons to neighboring peoples

Some scholars cite evidence of African culture in ancient Egyptian society. According to the 1974 Encyclopaedia Britannica:

"In Libya, which is mostly desert and oasis, there is a visible Negroid element in the sedentary populations, and at the same is true of the Fellahin of Egypt, whether Copt or Muslim. Osteological studies have shown that the Negroid element was stronger in predynastic times than at present, reflecting an early movement northward along the banks of the Nile, which were then heavily forested." Fellahin, in fact, is the name Arabs traditionally gave to the indigenous peoples of the lands they conquered. The term means tiller or peasant. (Encyclopaedia Britannica 1974 ed. Macropedia Article, Vol 14: "Populations, Human" - page 843)

Ancient Egyptians themselves traced their origin to a land they called "Punt" (pwnt), or ta nṯrw (read "Ta Netcherew"), the "Land of the Gods". Punt is thought to have been located around the Sudanese-Eritrean border and northern Ethiopia.

There are closer relations with northeast African religions. The numerous animal cults (especially bovine cults and panther gods) and details of ritual dresses (animal tails, masks, grass aprons, etc) probably are of African origin. The kinship in particular shows some African elements, such as the king as the head ritualist (i.e., medicine man), the limitations and renewal of the reign (jubilees, regicide), and the position of the king's mother (a matriarchal element). Some of them can be found among the Ethiopians in Napata and Meroe, others among the Prenilotic tribes (Shilluk)."

…the Egyptians may have brought back more than goods from Punt, for it has often been suggested that their well known pygmy god, Bes, may have also been a Punt import. It would seem probably that dwarfs and pygmies were indeed imported from Punt, for an inscription in the tomb of Harkhuf, and expedition leader under Pepy II, tells of his acquisition of a dwarf for that king.

Historian Drusilla Houston distinguishes among Nubians, Ethiopians, Eritreans and Egyptians:

Strabo mentions the Nubians as a great race west of the Nile. They came originally from Kordofan, whence they emigrated two thousand years ago. They have rejected the name Nubas as it has become synonymous with slave. They call themselves Barabra, their ancient race name. Sanskrit historians call the Old Race of the Upper Nile Barabra. These Nubians have become slightly modified but are still plainly Negroid. They look like the Wawa on the Egyptian monuments. The Retu type number one was the ancient Egyptian, the Retu type number two was in feature an intermingling of the Ethiopian, Eritrean and Egyptian types. The Wawa were Cushites and the name occurs in the mural inscriptions five thousands years ago. Both people were much intermingled six thousand years ago. The faces of the Egyptians of the Old Monarchy are Ethiopian and Eritrean but as the ages went on they altered from the constant intermingling with Asiatic types. Also the intense furnace-like heat of Upper Egypt tended to change the features and darken the skin. In the inscriptions relative to the campaigns of Pepi I, Negroes are represented as immediately adjoining the Egyptian frontier. This seems to perplex some authors. They had always been there. This was the Old Race of predynastic Egypt—the primitive Cushite type. This was the aboriginal race of Abyssinia. It was symbolized by the Great Sphinx and the marvelous face of Cheops. Take any book of Egyptian history containing authentic cuts and examine the faces of the first pharaohs, they are distinctively Eritrean and Ethiopian. The "Agu" of the monuments represented this aboriginal race. They were the ancestors of the Nubians. and were the ruling race of Egypt. Petrie in 1892 exhibited before the British Association, some skulls of the Third and Fourth Dynasties, showing distinct Negroid characteristics. They were dolichocephalic or long skulled. The findings of archaeology more and more reveal that Egypt was Cushite in her beginning and that Eritreans and Ethiopians were not a branch of the Japheth race in the sense that they are so represented in the average ethnological classifications of today.

Textual evidence

Western classical writers usually described Egyptians as a mid-tone between black Ethiopians and Eritreans (i.e. Africans) and pale Europeans. Marcus Manilius states that "the Ethiopians stain the world and depict a race of men steeped in darkness. Less sun-burnt are the natives of India. The land of Egypt, flooded by the Nile, darkens bodies more mildly owing to the inundation of its fields: it is a country nearer to us and its moderate climate imparts a medium tone." Professor of Classics, Frank M. Snowden Jr., Howard University, comments:

Here the term Ethiopians (= Greek "burnt face", denoting very dark skin) refers to Africans inhabiting latitudes south of Egypt. The term "Ethiopian," in that it was a broad category encompassing diverse ethnic groups of tropical Africa, was similar to a modern-day "racial" designation and roughly corresponded to what early anthropologists would have called "Negro." Yet classical writers, as exemplified by Manilius' quote above, clearly differentiated the Egyptians from "Ethiopians." Philostratus, for example, noted that a people living near the Nubian border were lighter than Ethiopians, and that Egyptians were lighter still.

Eritrea is a country located above Ethiopia which is commonly classed as Ethiopian and is generally forgotten. "Eritrea" is a Greek name meaning "Red Sea." Egypt borders with Sudan in the south. Eritrea borders with Sudan in the north. Ethiopia borders with Eritrea in the north. Theses countries are all relatively close (geographically speaking) but "Punt" (also known as "Land of the God's" is considered to be in Somalia. This is the place where the Ancient Egyptians themselves thought they derived from. In geographical order (from north to south) it is: Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea then Ethiopia and so the ties between Eritreans and Egyptians are more probable then the ties between Egypt and Ethiopia

Hair

While Herodotus referred to the dark skin and woolly hair of the Egyptians, detailed microscopic investigations of hair samples taken from several ancient Egyptian mummies suggest that "Only a minority showed evidence of structural characteristics traditionally called "Negroid"; even in these the "Negroid" elements were weakly manifested" (Titlbachova and Titlbach, 1977)

Joann Fletcher, a consultant to the Bioanthropology Foundation in the UK, in what she calls an "absolute, thorough study of all ancient Egyptian hair samples" — relied on various techniques, such as electron microscopy and chromatography to analyze hair samples (Parks, 2000). She discovered that most of the natural hair types and those used for hairpieces were made of what she calls "Caucasian-type" hair, including even instances of blonde and red hair. Fletcher surmises that some of the lighter hair types may have been influenced by the presence of ancient Libyans and Greeks in ancient Egypt. However, this type of hair was also found to be present in much earlier times. (Parks, Lisa. 2000. Ancient Egyptians Wore Wigs. Egypt Revealed Magazine (www.egyptrevealed.com), May 29)

Linguistic evidence

The ancient Egyptian language is a member of the Afro-Asiatic family (otherwise called "Hamito-Semitic") - a language group that covers most of North Africa, the Horn of Africa, Chad and Nigeria as well as the Middle East. As a result, speakers of Afro-Asiatic languages are multi-ethnic and possess a wide range of skin colors.

Some Afrocentrist scholars point out an additional affinity of Egyptian with languages of the Niger-Congo family, virtually all the speakers of which are blacks. For example, the Senegalese historian Cheikh Anta Diop claims that the ancient Egyptian language has vocabulary in common with Wolof, language spoken in Senegal, the Gambia, and Mauritania. Théophile Obenga, who was born in Congo, links it with Mbochi, spoken by people of the northern region of the Republic of the Congo. These efforts are not supported by mainstream linguistics, which discredits conclusions based merely on similar-sounding or possibly related terms in different languages and accepts only rigorous investigation based on the methodology of historical linguistics, in particular the comparative method. Furthermore, apart from the merits of the linguistic argument, the practice of positing racial or genetic identity based on linguistic evidence has been discredited.

Kemet — "black land"

km in Egyptian hieroglyphs

km biliteral	km.t (place)	km.t (people)

One of the many names for Egypt in Ancient Egyptian is km.t (read "Kemet"), meaning "black land". More literally, the word means "black thing": km means "black" and the t-suffix indicates an abstract noun formed from an adjective. The chief component of the word is usually a sign (biliteral km) depicting what is either a terraced bank of the Nile (the fertile black soil of the most hospitable part of Egypt), or the tail of a crocodile.

The use of km.t "black land" in terms of a place was generally in contrast to the "deshert" or "red land": the desert beyond the Nile valley. When used to mean people, km.t "people of Kemet", "people of the black land" is usually translated "Egyptians". The Ancient Egyptians occasionally called themselves kmm.w (read "Kememew"), "the black people", omitting the t-suffix.

While prominent in modern English, the word "black" had no racial connotations in Ancient Egyptian. Clearly African nations such as Nubians were never referred to as "black"; nor were the undoubdetly light-skinned Semitic neighbors to the North referred to as "white", "yellow", or any other term based on skin color. Different nations were referred to by their actual names, i.e. Nubians, Libyans, etc. Experts on the Ancient Egyptian language such as Raymond Faulkner and James P. Allen universally state that "black land" referred to the color of the soil around the Nile, in line with the "black land" of Russia and Ukraine.

Geographic evidence

Opponents of Afrocentrism often argue that Egyptians belong among the ethnically Semitic peoples of the Middle East, pointing to the fact that Egypt is at the extreme north eastern edge of the African continent, close to both Israel and the Arabian Peninsula. However, rather than being comprised of a singular people, Egypt also extends south into areas occupied by undeniably black-skinned people, like Sudan.

Previous studies suggested that the population of Egypt was, at least in later dynasties, a mixture of tropical African, Mediterranean, Semitic and European peoples. However, these very categories are disputable and indeterminate.

Skin color among various populations of indigenous Africans differs naturally. Today, a brown-skinned Fula might be considered no less a black African than a very dark-skinned Nubian. Afrocentrists argue that the same can be said of Nubians and Egyptians.

Significantly, however, all aspects of the standard Africoid phenotype of coarse, curly hair; broad, flat noses and full lips do not apply to all black peoples, many of whom have relatively straight hair and narrower facial features. Afrocentrist argue, that, while these peoples possess a range of skin tones and some diverge from the classically Africoid phenotype, they are considered no less "Negro" or "black" than other autochthonous peoples of the African continent— many of the Nilotic, linguistically Semitic and Cushitic speaking peoples of both North East Africa and East Africa being examples. Among humankind, no other racial group has greater phenotypical biodiversity than do Africoid peoples. Afrocentrists further believe that the indigenous peoples of the Nile Valley all comprised in predominant part the ethnically diverse peoples of ancient dynastic Egypt and emphasized that the conflict between Egypt and Nubia was not "racial", that even those Egyptians who had a stereotypical "negro appearance" weren't called "Nehesy" (the ancient Egyptian word for Nubian) unlike the ethnic Nubians and that the pharaoh who forbade the northern migration of Nubians into Egypt was known to have Nubian origins.

Nubians and Libyans served in Egypt’s army and upon retirement received farms as bonuses, and they likewise married Egyptian women and produced mixed children.

At least in part, such reception and free intermingling of foreign and Egyptian populations must have added to the heterogeneous nature of the Egyptian populace. Nubians as mercenaries in Egyptian armies are documented pictorially and in inscriptions from the First Intermediate period (c. 2230–2020 B.C.E.), from the Middle Kingdom (2020–1786 B.C.E.) and from the New Kingdom...When members of the royal family were descended from such foreign populations or from border areas, pharaonic sculpture and reliefs clearly display their ethnic features. For example, the XIIth Dynasty (1991–1786 B.C.E.) originated from the Aswan region. As expected, strong Nubian features and dark coloring are seen in their sculpture and relief work.

Artistic evidence

Artistic renderings of the human form in dynastic Egyptian art were produced using a variety of pigments, ranging from yellow through auburn to black — or even blue. In some instances, the selection of skin tones was symbolic and meant to convey vitality, strength, feminity, permanence, and even death.

In typical portrayals of Egyptians in their own art, from the Old Kingdom onwards they appear anywhere from auburn to deeply brown-skinned, using a red ochre and black pigment; women are typically depicted as having lighter, yellow skin color. Some walking stick handles and several tomb decorations depicted conquered adversaries, representing defeated Asiatic and Africoid enemies. Donnelly considered the murals to show that the Egyptians had a reddish hue:

"The ancient Egyptians were red men. They recognized four races of men--the red, yellow, black, and white men. They themselves belonged to the "Rot," or red men; the yellow men they called "Namu"--it included the Asiatic races; the black men were called "Nahsu," and the white men "Tamhu." (Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis, the Antediluvian World, 1882, p. 195)

Egyptian art contains numerous images of people with prognathous profiles and dolichocephalic heads. Both characteristics are features of the classic Negroid phenotype. In some cases, the heads are extremely elongated. Some scholars have characterized the dolichocephalism of certain Egyptian royalty in the Tutmosid line as "family traits," rather than racial characteristics. Ray Johnson, director of the University of Chicago's research center at Luxor, describes the oddly shaped, quartzite head of an egyptian princess, thought to be that of Meritaten,, the daughter of Akhenaten, as "most likely a family trait exaggerated by the artistic style of the period" and that it "It simply falls within the normal range of human variation." However, when the remains of Tutankhamun (believed to be the son of Akhenaten) were examined in a recent CT scan, he was found to have a strange cranial conformation also.

Babacar M'Bow, Exhibit Service Coordinator of the Broward County Libraries Division, takes another view:

Another argument is the "overbite" or protruding teeth of King Tut and other members of the 18th dynasty. Here too, we see the falsification presented as science: overbite or maxillary prognathism-that is the protruding of the dental lining is a closely associated feature to "Negroid",particularly in East Africa. It is widely present in the Sudanese, Kenyan, and particularly the Somali.

There has been debate, however, over whether the exaggeratedly dolichocephalic heads of Amarna artists are a stylistic affectation meant to accentuate a normal cranial feature, or accurate representations of actual deformity, either natural or induced. Some scientists suggest that external "molding" devices were used to intentionally alter the heads into a more "desirable" cranial shape. According to Timothy R. Littlefield, Director of Research and Development for Cranial Technologies, "the methods used typically consisted of devices applied to the rapidly growing head of infants during the first several months of life. In Egypt, young nobles would have their head bound to produce a tall, turricephalic head shape that distinguished them as nobility." This is seconded by the Department of Neurosurgery of the University of Maryland:

"Evidence of artificial cranial remodeling is evident as early as 2000 BC in Egyptian sculptures showing elongated skulls of royal family designating their noble birth. African tribes, tribes North and South American Indians as well as Greek aristocracy have practiced head shape deformation for centuries to symbolize high society ranking. ("Remolding Used For Positional Deformity", University of Maryland School of Medicine)

Scholars like Arnold and Aldred attribute the egg-shaped heads to "traditional Egyptian theology and the new Aten religion, in which the egg symbolizes the divine creation of the universe and the divine origin of life."

In the case of the dolichocephalism of King Tutankhamen, however, the suggestion of genetic deformity in the Tutmosid line, as well as the head binding theory have been discredited by recent scholarship. As a result of CT scans conducted of King Tutankhamun's skull in 2005, it was found that, although "Tutankhamun had a very elongated (dolichocephalic) skull," "The cranial sutures are not prematurely fused...." In fact, with the king's age estimated between 18 and 20 years, "All of the cranial sutures still at least partly open." Head binding affects the way in which cranial sutures fuse and would have been detected by the CT scan. The conclusion by medical experts was that Tut's dolichocephalism was "most likely due to normal anthropological variation rather than any pathology."

The Great Sphinx of Giza

The Great Sphinx of Giza, thought by most Egyptologists to be a likeness of the Pharoah Khafre, and by some to represent the Pharaoh Khufu, is in considerable disrepair after over four thousand years of erosion and vandalism. In 1378, the nose was pried off by Sa'im al-dahr, as reported by Muhammad al-Husayni Taqi al-Din al-Maqrizi (died AD 1442)

Over the centuries, numerous writers and scholars have recorded their impressions and reactions upon seeing the Giza sphinx, and some have claimed to see Africoid features and a pronounced facial prognathism in what remains. French scholar Constantin-François de Chassebœuf, Comte de Volney visited Egypt between 1783 and 1785 and expressed astonishment upon seeing what he recognized to be a "Negro" face of the Great Sphinx:

"... all have a bloated face, puffed up eyes, flat nose, thick lips; in a word, the true face of the negro. I was tempted to attribute it to the climate, but when I visited the Sphinx, its appearance gave me the key to the riddle. On seeing that head, typically negro in all its features, I remembered the remarkable passage where Herodotus says: 'As for me, I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because, like them, they are black with woolly hair. ...'" In other words, the ancient Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native-born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Romans and Greeks, must have lost the intensity of its original color, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold. We can even state as a general principle that the face is a kind of monument able, in many cases, to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of peoples.

Upon visiting Egypt in 1849, French author Gustave Flaubert echoed de Volney's observations. In his travelog chronicling his trip, he wrote:

We stop before a Sphinx; it fixes us with a terrifying stare. Its eyes still seem full of life; the left side is stained white by bird-droppings (the tip of the Pyramid of Khephren has the same long white stains); it exactly faces the rising sun, its head is grey, ears very large and protruding like a negro’s, its neck is eroded; from the front it is seen in its entirety thanks to great hollow dug in the sand; the fact that the nose is missing increases the flat, negroid effect. Besides, it was certainly Ethiopian; the lips are thick….

In his work The Negro, W.E.B. Du Bois distinguished between ancient Egyptians, later Egypt of mixed population, and "full-blooded Negroes". He seconds Gustave Flaubert's description of the black features of the Sphinx, but explains them with "black men" from the south invading Egypt:

Egyptian civilization seems to have been African in its beginnings and in its main line of development, despite strong influences from all parts of Asia. Of what race, then, were the Egyptians? They certainly were not white in any sense of the modern use of that word--neither in color nor physical measurement, in hair nor countenance, in language nor social customs. They stood in relationship nearest the Negro race in earliest times, and then gradually through the infiltration of Mediterranean and Semitic elements became what would be described in America as a light mulatto stock of Octoroons or Quadroons. This stock was varied continually: now by new infiltration of Negro blood from the south, now by Negroid and Semitic blood from the east, now by Berber types from the north and west....It is quite possible that an incursion of conquering black men from the south poured over the land in these years and dotted Egypt in the next centuries with monuments on which the full-blooded Negro type is strongly and triumphantly impressed. The great Sphinx at Gizeh, so familiar to all the world, the Sphinxes of Tanis, the statue from the Fayum, the statue of the Esquiline at Rome, and the Colossi of Bubastis all represent black, full-blooded Negroes and are described by Petrie as "having high cheek bones, flat checks, both in one plane, a massive nose, firm projecting lips, and thick hair, with an austere and almost savage expression of power."

According to controversial Boston University professor of geology Robert Schoch, the core portions of the Giza sphinx predate Khafre by millenia and further possesses a ""a distinctive 'African,' 'Nubian,' or 'Negroid' aspect...." lacking in the face of Khafre. Shoch also believes the earth was populated by extraterrestrials thousands of years ago.

The New York Times subsequently published a letter from orthodontist Sheldon Peck expressing his concurrence with Domingo's findings:

From the right lateral tracing of the statue's worn profile a pattern of bimaxilliary prognathism is clearly detectable. This is an anatomical condition of forward development in both jaws, more frequently found in people of African ancestry than in those from Asian or Indo-European stock.

Ethnographic murals

In the adjacent artistic rendering based on a mural from the tomb of Seti I, ancient Egyptians are portrayed themselves differently from both the Nubians and the ethnically Semitic Middle-Easterners/North African Bedouins. The groups depicted in the painting are the Libyans, Nubians, Semites, and Egyptians, respectively from left to right.

There are numerous images in which Egyptians are contrasted with non-Egyptian peoples. Like other peoples throughout history, the Egyptians seem to have identified themselves as an ideal or norm of sorts among other populations. Further, there is evidence the ancient Egyptians thought in terms of national identity and ethnicity; the modern Western concept of "race" was alien to them. During the New Kingdom, Egyptian suzerainty extended to the north as far as the Hittite empire and into Nubia to the south. At this time, Egyptian sacred literature and imagery commented systematically on differences based on these two criteria. This is evident in Akhenaton's "Great Hymn to the Aten", in which it is said that the peoples of the world are differented by Aten: "Their tongues are separate in speech/And their natures as well;/ Their skins are distinguished./The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt,/ You set every man in his place."

This differentiation of peoples is later refined in the Book of Gates, a sacred text that describes the passage of the soul though the underworld. This contains a description of the distinct peoples known to the Egyptians: Egyptians themselves, plus Asiatics, Nubians and Libyans. These peoples are illustrated in several tomb decorations, in which they are differentiated by skin-color and clothing. These depict Egyptians ("Ret," or "men," often used as "ret na romé," meaning "we men above mankind"); Asiatics/Semites ("AAMW" or "Namu,": "travelers" or "wanderers," often used as "namu sho," or "people who travel the sands," meaning the nomads or Bedu/Bedouin); Nubians ("Nahasu," or "strangers"); and, finally, Libyans, ("TMHHW", or Tamhu," a term for which several etymologies have been proposed). In all but one case, the Egyptians and Nubians are depicted differently.

Cranial analysis and forensic reconstruction

Difficulties of cranial analysis

See forensic anthropology

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 "Negroid" skulls and others to have "Caucasoid" skulls, for example, while Ethiopians, Somalis, and some Zulus have "Caucasoid" skulls, and the Khoisan of southwestern Africa have skulls distinct from other black Africans.

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.

Dynastic cranial specimens and analysis

A significant feature of recent reconstructions of the head of King Tutankamen (see below), based on cranial analysis, is their somewhat bucktoothed appearance. This form of facial projection, called an alveolar prognathism, with large incisors, is a trademark physical characteristic of many Sudanese, Somalis and other indigenous peoples of the region.

Scientific examination and analysis of skulls of royal Egyptian mummies across several dynasties confirm a predominance over time of dolichocephalic cranial structures and/or significant alveolar prognathisms and receding chins. Further, these characteristics, common to "mesolithic Nubians" as well as modern-day Nubians, were prominent features in royal mummies of the late 17th and 18th Dynasties: Queen consort Ahmose-Nefertari, Amenhotep I, Queen Meryetamon, Thutmose I, Thutmose II, Tjuyu (mother of Queen consort Tiye), and Queen Tiye. According to facio-cranial analysis, King Tutankhamun shared precisely the same distinctive racial characteristics specific to the Nilotic and Cushitic blacks of the region as his fellow royals of the 17th and 18th Dynasties noted above., According to cranial analysis by Harris and Wente, New Kingdom royal mummies were strongly Nubian (like the 17th and 18th) or at least Nubian-Levantine hybrids, as the 19th and 20th dynasties, with evidence of another potent Nubian infusion during the 21st dynasty.

Edward F. Wente, Professor, The Oriental Institute and the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations The University of Chicago notes that superimposed cephalometric tracing illustrated dissimilarity between Amenhotep III and Tutankhamun and between Amenhotep III and Thutmose IV. He further states:

Several mummies ... found to be quite anomalous in terms of their position within the genealogical sequence: Ahmose, Amenhotep II, Amenhotep III, and Seti II. Seti II is an interesting case, because he should belong to the Nineteenth Dynasty line, being the grandson of Ramesses II and son of Merenptah. Elliot Smith in his catalogue of the royal mummies had already noted in 1912 that Seti II does not at all resemble the orthognathous heavyjawed pharaohs of the Nineteenth Dynasty, but bears a striking resemblance to the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty.

As the 1993 study by the anthropologist C. Loring Brace suggested, the population of Predynastic Upper Egypt (based on 24 cranial measurements) fell roughly in between Northeastern Africa (Somalia, Nubia) and neolithic Europe, whereas the population of Late Dynastic Lower Egypt was firmly in the Northern African/Neolithic European range (Brace, C. L. 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). Both were significantly different from the cranial measurements typically found in Sub-Saharan African populations and were more related to each other.

Brace's study has faced some criticism, however. It had a greater number of samples from Europe and each sample represented a specific ethnic group, whereas his samples from the "sub-Saharan" region were very small and were not specific, since each sample represented a country . Doing this exaggerated Europe's cranio-facial diversity to be greater than that of sub-Sahara, even though African populations possess far greater biodiversity and sub-Saharan African is much more vast, with thousands of ethnic groups. Even India, which has hundreds of ethnic groups was represented by just one plot on his map. Further, the samples that Brace chose to represent Sub-Sahara consisted of those peoples who represent the stereotypical "true-negroid" look with broad features even though there are populations in Sub-Sahara that do not have such features. The result was that Egyptians as well as Nubians and even Somalians clustered closer to Europe because of certain similarities, while Melanesians and Australian aborigines clustered closely to the sub-Saharan sample because of certain similarities shared between them.

Dynastic Egypt appears to have been comprised in predominant part of at least two groups in early times, at least judging by the skeletal remains, its northern region being comprised primarily of a group with affinities with so-called "Caucasoid" peoples, a group which includes many indigenous blacks of the region -- most notably, the blacks of the Lower Nile Valley and the African Horn -- its southern portion comprised of peoples who group with other northeastern African ethnicities, such as Somalis, Nubians and also Khoikhoi, before they were pushed to the south. The degree to which Caucasian and Eurasian peoples, however, were present in Dynastic Egypt before the coming of the Greeks and Romans, however, has not been established and remains a subject of intense debate in some quarters.

Reconstruction of King Tutankhamun likeness

1500 years after the founding of the first dynasty, Akhenaten and others of the 18th dynasty show facio-cranial characteristics which are in conformity with an Africoid phenotype. Documentaries in 2002 and 2003 aired on the Discovery Channel in the United States provided images of computer simulations from both Tutankhamun and Nefertiti based on Tut's famous golden mask.

In the most recent attempt to put a face on the long-dead monarch, three separate teams of Egyptian, French and American investigators each produced a reconstruction of what they determined to be an accurate likeness of King Tutankhamun. The Egyptian and French teams knew the identity of the subject whose face they were reconstructing, the Egyptians working from CT scans of the skull itself, the French and American teams working from identical plastic reproductions. The American team, however, did not know the identity of the specimen.

According to a widely publicized press release dated May 10, 2005, Zahi Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA), announced that "Based on this skull, the American and French teams both concluded that the subject was Caucasoid (the type of human typically found, for example, in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East)."

In a telephone interview with the Washington Post, Susan Antón, a member of the American team, described the specimen as "somewhat equivocal" regarding gender and, contrary to Hawass' pronouncement, did not use the term "Caucasoid", or any other racial term, to describe the skull of Pharaoh Tutankhamun. An image of the American reconstruction is available here .

"The decidedly masculine jaw was the giveaway, she said, although the rounded forehead, the sharp brow and the prominent eyes suggested a woman. Age was easy, she said. The third molars were in the process of coming in, something that happens between the ages of 18 and 20. Race was "the hardest call." The shape of the cranial cavity indicated an African, while the nose opening suggested narrow nostrils — a European characteristic. The skull was a North African."

The French team's reconstruction 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 popular culture

With the excavation of the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt in 1922, a wave of what has been called "Egyptomania" swept the Western world, triggering renderings of ancient Egyptians in consumer goods, decorative arts and in film. While some of these images were more Negroid or Semitic in appearance, the vast majority portrayed Egyptians as Caucasoid and fair-skinned. In the American cinema, white actors predominated in roles portraying ancient Egyptians and their pharaohs, and when black actors were cast, they usually appeared as servants or Nubian slaves.

That ancient dynastic Egypt was a black civilization has long been a strongly held belief among many African-American scholars. This has been reflected in African American popular culture, as well. Michael Jackson's 1991 album Dangerous featured the hit single "Remember the Time," the music video for which featured Jackson as a pharaoh and model Iman as his queen. The dancers in the video were also black, dressed in Egyptian garb, sporting cornrows and braided wigs.

References

1. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Compared populations from throughout the world using extensive genetic data. The North African populations studied grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle East) populations rather than sub-Saharan Africans.
2. Hammer, M. et al. 1997. The geographic distribution of human Y chromosome variation. Genetics 145(3):787-805. Used seven different methods to compute population trees of world populations, using Y-chromosome data. All seven methods grouped the Egyptians with the non-African populations rather than with the sub-Saharan Africans. Egyptians' genetic profile resembles that of South Europeans more than the other regional groups in the study.
3. Bosch, E. et al. 1997. Population history of North Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers. Human Biology. 69(3):295-311. Using classical genetic markers, calculated Egyptians to be genetically very close to Mediterranean Asians and Europeans.
4. Kivisild T; Reidla M; Metspalu E; Rosa A; Brehm A; et al. Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: Tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears. 2004. American Journal of Human Genetics 75 (5): 752-770 determined that there is a close genetic relationship between Ethiopians, Eritreans and Yemenis, as well as pointing out their genetic affinities with Egypt.
5. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Compared populations from throughout the world using extensive genetic data. The North African populations grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle East) populations rather than sub-Saharan Africans.
6. Hammer, M. et al. 1997. The geographic distribution of human Y chromosome variation. Genetics 145(3):787-805. Used seven different methods to compute population trees of world populations, using Y-chromosome data. All seven methods grouped the Egyptians with the non-African populations rather than with the sub-Saharan Africans. Egyptians' genetic profile resembles that of South Europeans more than the other regional groups in the study.
7. Bosch, E. et al. 1997. Population history of north Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers. Human Biology. 69(3):295-311. Using classical genetic markers, calculated Egyptians to be genetically very close to Mediterranean Asians and Europeans.
8. Kivisild T; Reidla M; Metspalu E; Rosa A; Brehm A; et al. Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: Tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears. 2004 American Journal of Human Genetics 75 (5): 752-770. Determined there is a close genetic relationship between Ethiopians and Eritreans (a Sub-Saharan African country) and Yemen, as well as pointing out genetic affinities with Egypt.
9. Cavalli-Sforza, L.L., P. Menozzi, and A. Piazza. 1994. The History and Geography of Human Genes. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Compared populations from throughout the world using extensive genetic data. The North African populations grouped with West Eurasian (European, Middle East) populations rather than sub-Saharan Africans.
10. Hammer, M. et al. 1997. The geographic distribution of human Y chromosome variation. Genetics 145(3):787-805. Used seven different methods to compute population trees of world populations, using Y-chromosome data. All seven methods grouped the Egyptians with the non-African populations rather than with the sub-Saharan Africans. Egyptians' genetic profile resembles that of South Europeans more than the other regional groups in the study.
11. Bosch, E. et al. 1997. Population history of north Africa: evidence from classical genetic markers. Human Biology. 69(3):295-311. Using classical genetic markers, calculated Egyptians to be genetically very close to Mediterranean Asians and Europeans.
12. Kivisild T; Reidla M; Metspalu E; Rosa A; Brehm A; et al. Ethiopian mitochondrial DNA heritage: Tracking gene flow across and around the gate of tears. 2004 American Journal of Human Genetics 75 (5): 752-770. Determined there is a close genetic relationship between Ethiopians, Eritreans and Yemenis, as well as pointing out genetic affinities with Egypt.
13. United Nations; International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa; 1974
14. Drusilla Dunjee Houston Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Kushite Empire (Oklahoma City: The Universal Publishing Company, 1926)
15. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, The Negro (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915)

Bibliography

• 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.
• Raymond Faulkner. "Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian". Griffith Institute; Rep edition (January 1, 1970) ISBN 0900416327
• James P. Allen. "Middle Egyptian : An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs". Cambridge University Press (November 4, 1999). ISBN 0521774837

External links

• "Coming to America: The Return of Tutankhamun and the Falsification of History" by Babacar M’Bow
• "The evolution of human skin coloration",Department of Anthropology, California Academy of Sciences
• "Modern Medical Technology Reveals More about King Tut"
• Pictures of head binding practice

See also

• List of DNA tested mummies
• Demographics of modern Egypt
• Caucasoid, Negroid, Mongoloid
• Who Built Great Zimbabwe?
• American Anthropological Association Statement on "Race"

• Controversies
• Egyptology
• Pan-Africanism