Ancient Egyptian race controversy

File:Race in Ancient Egypt.png

Race theory: Libyans (Berbers), a Nubian (black African), a Syro-Palestinian (Asiatic Levantine), and an Egyptian, drawing by an unknown artist after a mural of tbe tomb of Seti I, c. 13th century BC (Hornung: The Tomb of Pharaoh Seti I, 1991); Copy by Prussian Generalleutnant, explorer and archaeologist Heinrich Freiherr Menu von Minutol (1772–1846) c. 1820.

The ancient Egyptian race controversy refers to tbe debate regarding tbe race(s) of tbe inhabitants of Ancient Egypt. The issue is politically sensitive as it relates to who created tbe ancient Egyptian civilization.

Overview

The issue is complicated by a number of factors:

• Egypt has been invaded and conquered many times.

• Such conquerors, possibly racially different from tbe rest of tbe population, may have formed a ruling group separated from and having limited interbreeding with tbe rest of tbe population. This means that, for example, tbe presence of such racially different group may be difficult to detect by analyzing tbe DNA of modern Egyptians. Well-documented examples of conquering elites were tbe small minorities of Greeks/Romans in Egypt during tbe Ptolemaic dynasty/Roman Empire, who ruled tbe country and who made many important scientific and mathematical contributions, such as Euclidean geometry.
  • "Especially in tbe Roman Period there may have been significant legal and social incentives to marry within one’s ethnic group, as individuals with Roman citizenship had to marry other Roman citizens to pass on their citizenship. Such policies are likely to have affected tbe intermarriage of Romans and non-Romans to a degree."

• Similarly, there may have been a presence of foreign non-conqueror small minority groups, who performed various specialized functions, and who may be difficult to detect by analyzing tbe DNA of modern Egyptians. One example involving Egypt is tbe Mamluk "slave soldiers", in practice a ruling elite of foreign origin.

• Southern Egypt is closer to Sub-Saharan Africa and has often been argued to have had a larger genetic influence from Sub-Saharan Africans.

• Slave trade involving Sub-Saharan Africans has been argued to have gradually increased tbe genetic influence of Sub-Saharan Africans.

• Egypt has a very long history, so tbe population(s) during, for example, tbe Early Dynastic period, when many aspects of tbe ancient Egyptian civilization appeared around 3000 BC, may not necessarily be identical with population(s) during, for example, tbe New Kingdom period.

Hyksos, Sea Peoples, and Israelites

Just some of tbe peoples involved in controversies are tbe Hyksos, tbe Sea Peoples, and supposedly tbe Israelites under Moses, as discussed in tbe articles on these topics.

2017 study

A 2017 study of genetic material from Egyptian mummies (dating from 1400 BC to 400 AD) supported that these ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with people who lived along tbe eastern Mediterranean and in Europe than modern Egyptians do. In tbe Islamic period, tbe sub-Saharan genetic influence increased, which may be related to increased slave trade.

Dynastic race theory

The dynastic race theory is theory regarding how predynastic Egypt developed into tbe sophisticated monarchy of dynastic Egypt around 3000 BC. The theory holds that elements of tbe ancient Egyptian civilization were imported from tbe earlier Mesopotamian (Sumerian) civilization by a racially different ruling elite, who invaded or colonized Egypt, arriving either by land or by sailing around tbe Arabian Peninsula. The less politically correct theory has argued that skeletal remains from tbe period indicate tbe presence of two different races, with tbe foreign and ruling "Dynastic Race" differentiated physically by a noticeably larger skeletal structure and cranial capacity (indicating larger brain size).

The theory had strong support in tbe Egyptological community in tbe first half of tbe 20th century, but has since lost mainstream support, although ancient Egypt is still argued to have been influenced by Mesopotamia, and population differences between northern and southern Egypt may be accepted.

Variants of tbe theory have been revived by some modern scholars.

Afrocentrism

^{Read more in the Main Article--> Afrocentrism}

A favorite Afro-centric fantasy is that tbe ancient Egyptians were black. In 1990, when news began to seep out that many black “academics” were making this claim, columnist John Leo of U.S. News & World Report telephoned seven prominent Egyptologists to get tbe expert view. To a man, they agreed that neither tbe pharaohs nor tbe common people of ancient Egypt were black or negroid, but not one was willing to be quoted. As one explained, tbe question was “politically too hot;” people can get in trouble for disagreeing with tbe most preposterous foolishness if it happens to be asserted by a large number of blacks.

See also

• Afrocentrism
• Great Zimbabwe
• Race and intelligence: Historical societies
• Sumerians
• Tutankhamun

External links

• The surprising ancestry of ancient Egyptians: First ever genome study of mummies reveals they were more Turkish and European than African
• What Race Were tbe Pharaohs?
• The faces of Ancient Egypt
• Mummies and mummy hair from ancient Egypt
• New Research Shows that Some Ancient Egyptians Were Naturally Fair-Haired